Where have you been?

Hello again!

How are you?

I'm sorry that I disappeared for a while but I have been rather busy! I thought I would launch myself back in to blogging by explaining what I have been up to the last 6 months!

Where have you been?

After having Polly I began thinking about returning to work. I knew I wanted to go back to my job because I do really enjoy it, however due the the commute I knew I wanted to reduce my hours. Less hours equals less money, so I decided to look  into ways I could earn a bit extra each month.

Before I had Polly I had attended a webinar with Digital Mums about their Social Media Management course but had decided that it wasn't the right time (as I was pregnant!) to start studying. So I decided to use my remaining maternity leave to train, with Digital Mums to be a Social Media Manger.

I signed up and joined the April Cohort with a bunch of other lovely Mums that formed my peer group the 'Mother Pukkas'! Throughout the 6 month course I learnt all about social media - I specifically focused on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I learnt how to set up pages, the best things to post, how to schedule, how to optimise, how to analyse. I ran my own campaign which I started from scratch called This Mumma Moves.

The aim of This Mumma Moves was to encourage Mums to be healthy, happy and active and encourage their families to join then. It was a huge learning curve, not only was I having to run my feeds but I was also having to exercise in order to create content! And do you know what? I absolutely loved it! I never thought I liked to exercise that much but I did loads including a 5 hour fitness class marathon (on the hottest day of the year.. I nearly died!), boot camp (the girls came with me and loved it) and found a new hobby - aerial hoop.

The course itself is FULL ON! You are gently eased in to it, however in the 6 weeks that you run your campaign at full pelt, hitting optimum posting levels, engaging, taking part in tweet chats it is busy busy busy! Those 6 weeks for me coincided with returning to work so it was tough but I still loved it and felt I gained so much.

I found the lessons helpful and the fact I can go back to them and refresh my memory as I embark on my freelance career is fantastic. The support you get from your peer group is amazing, they are going through it with you - I think I have made lifelong friends in mine (and I've even had the opportunity to meet some of them face to face!).

I've also met another local Digital Mum who finished a month before me. Holly and I have become such good friends - we both have 2 daughters, they are the same age and Holly and I are basically the same person. We meet up every few weeks with the girls and I'm even ditching my husband on my anniversary to spend the night at Happy Mum, Happy Baby live with Holly!

Not only has my course opened up a new career path for me, it has also given me a great opportunity to improve my fitness and show my girls that being healthy is good, allowed me to find a new hobby which I plan to continue as long as my body allows (I'll update you on this another day....) and has given me the chance to meet some amazing, inspiring Mums who I now call my friends!

If you would like to check out my This Mumma Moves campaign to see what I have been up to, check out the following pages:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

If you need any help with your social media drop me an e-mail: socialottie@gmail.com

So, what's next?

I am planning to bring some of the aspects of This Mumma Moves into this blog, so expect a few more posts about exercise, healthy eating and ways to get the family moving! I'm going to post more regularly again (I really missed posting here while I was studying!) and I would love to know what you would like to see here, so please feel free to drop me a comment or email lottiehayman@gmail.com.

I will be much more active on my social media accounts, I'm on Instagram a lot, but you can find me on Twitter and Facebook too. I am also considering YouTube! I have a few videos up on my channel of family days out but I would love to do more! Let me know what you think!

Lottie x