Digital….Ahem and My Rock Star Return To Work
December 2016
“Do you know what you need to do?
That Digital Mums thing everyone’s talking about…… It’s for people like you, haven’t worked in a while, used to have it — no offence — but, em, don’t anymore because, well, em, you know, you missed the ‘digital’ boat.
Seriously I read something about it and it works really well around kids even if you’re a single parent. You should totally do it.”
Blissfully unaware of my own prejudices I replied to my helpful friend with a veritable negative gusto.
“Nope — not my thing, I don’t like the name — you know that way they add the ‘mum’ word to everything — don’t trust it, mum this, mum that, sounds namby-pamby. Too ‘nappies ’n’ school run’ for me. Devalues their brand, in my opinion, immediately pigeon holes it in the ‘mum’ category. Makes you not take it seriously.”
“But honestly I think it’s not all mumsy types” she replied, “it’s a serious business, they’ve had investment from private equity backers and the 2 women who run it are meant to be amazing at what they do, originally from Saatchi apparently.”
“Mmmm, Saatchi you say? Ok, I’ll have a look, but just saying I really don’t like the name. I’m not telling anyone I’m doing it if they ask.”
(Yip, I know what you‘re thinking at this point — don’t I sound like a charmer?!)
February 2017
“HELLO! Welcome to Digital Mums! I’m Kathryn and I’m Nikki!”
“Meet your COHORT via the Google what? — HANGOUT! — WTF is that? — like Skype — Shit, I didn’t use Skype either, can’t they just do a group email or better still, a conference call?”
“Have you got a gmail account? Well just follow the steps from there — it couldn’t be easier.” After numerous false starts I eventually got the drift.
“Hi I’m Saskia! Hi I’m Inge! Hi I’m Sophie. Hi I’m Keeley” — OMG this is really happening — I can see them all and I’m talking to them in their homes….LIVE!……AS WE SPEAK!….WOW!… IMPRESSIVE!
From that moment on it was, ‘Step aside Elon Musk — I’ve got this.’
and monotone Mondays transformed into Eurovision Song Contest Style Hangouts for our weekly ‘Social-Lites’ meet-ups.
April 2017
“My work campaign is called ‘As Popular As A 40 Year Old Woman At A Job Interview’
“What?”
‘As Popular As a 40 Year Old Woman At A Job Interview.’ It’s a line from the US TV show VEEP — referring to how unpopular the VEEP was following a poll. Her advisor says, “Right now she’s about as popular as a 40 year old woman at a job interview — It’s that bad.”
The line beautifully reflected how I felt about my situation and womens issues and opportunities once they hit a certain age. So it was slightly autobiographical. But I felt it also succinctly captured the spirit of my campaign too, which was about women’s work and wellbeing, focussing on flexible working, women returners, equality and the gender pay gap.
What? You don’t like the name? It’s a bit too long is it? “Oh. OK then, I’ll abbreviate it to ‘As Popular As.”
(At that stage it seemed a bit tit-for-tat to remark upon my own lack of enthusiasm for the DM name so I kept schtuum!).
August 2017
Just completed my penultimate weekly report — Facebook fans are up 40%, Linkedin connections increased by 25% and post views at almost 1100, retweets through the roof at 200% of my KPIs.
Google Hangout interview with Mums in Tech scheduled for Tuesday, Medium blog has just been picked up by politicsmeanspolitics.com and ‘She’s Back’ has just given me exclusive access to their women returner visuals for my web site. Just need to check my campaign analytics on Twitter and engagement insights on Facebook.
Can’t believe it’s been 6 months already.
Last Day
Today is the last day of my Digital, er, .…course.
I’ve really enjoyed learning so many new digital skills, skills I never thought I’d have. The course has been a bit of a roller-coaster in terms of getting my head around online learning and not having someone standing over you while you learn.
It is pretty much up to you as to how much you get out of it. Kathryn Tyler alluded to the dangers of ‘falling down rabbit holes’ on the internet when you are trialling and erroring — something I did way too much but sometimes learned more as a result.
The Cohort you are allocated is an excellent support network and brilliant for sounding off and checking you’re on the right track.
All in all, I think the course is really clearly laid out, in easy to understand formats, I think the Google + captain style customer service is excellent and certainly from my point of view, it worked well and swiftly if there were any really big questions.
Obviously there are sometimes glitches and issues with elements of the course. They are still developing parts of it and adapting to demand. But, as far as I am concerned, apart from the name…..Ahem, (and yes, I am in the minority with that opinion) it’s a resounding YES from me.
PS. Gifs… don’t you just love ‘em?!
