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Friday, April 24, 2015

How the Bananas in Pyjamas have traumatised my child

Now don't get me wrong, we're huge fans of the Bananas in Pyjamas here. In fact it was one of the shows I was looking forward to watching the most when I had bub because it reminds me of my childhood {even though they've somehow managed to morph from "real people" into cartoon characters at some point during the last 25 years}. At 10am and 4pm each day we're at home we can usually be found in front of the tv waiting for our daily doses of B1 and B2. While I normally welcome these two into my home on a daily basis with open arms, right now I have a big bone to pick with them. It appears they've unintentionally traumatised my child.

Bananas in Pyjamas B1 & B2
No guys, its not Bananatastic!
Friday, April 17, 2015

Why brands should work with bloggers to promote their business

Why brands should work with bloggers to promote their business


Are you considering working with bloggers but don't know where to start? Maybe you're just not sure why working with bloggers would be valuable for your business... Allow me to show you how working with bloggers can help to grow your business and increase your customer base.

Firslty let me say that most bloggers, like myself, don't open up their blog to working with brands without properly considering all the pros and cons beforehand. Those who offer brand collaborations have weighed up the value it can bring to their readers and the value they can bring to the brand. Most bloggers will be interested in creating ongoing mutually beneficial brand collaborations, rather than just earning a quick buck, which means long-term benefits for the brand.

WHY YOU SHOULD WORK WITH BLOGGERS


Bloggers offer a unique way to market your business directly to your target market as they already have an engaged and captive audience {both on their blog and social media channels}. Bloggers offer the virtual equivalent of word of mouth marketing, being able to promote your products in a conversational tone with an engaged audience. In a lot of cases bloggers can offer a more measurable and cost-effective return on investment than traditional advertising channels, especially for small businesses.


HOW TO CHOOSE A BLOG THAT FITS WITH YOUR BRAND


It's important to find a blog that's going to align well with your brand. Its worthwhile considering the following points to ensure you partner with a blogger who will meet your needs and be the right fit for your brand.

Stick to your niche
Campaigns will work best with bloggers who target the same niche as your business because you'll get your brand message across to potential customers who are already receptive to it and likely to take action. Instead of spreading the word across a broad spectrum, the majority of the time its best to use more targeted campaigns to reach the right customers for your business. For example if you sell kids clothing it would be best to align with a parenting blogger or a fashion blogger who specialises in kids fashion as they're already communicating with your niche market.

Choose a blog with the same target audience
In addition to choosing a blog within your target niche, you can go even further and refine your promotion by choosing a blog with the same target audience. Again coming back to the kids clothing example, your niche would be parents and your target market would be parents with young children so a parenting blog that is read by 25-45yr old women with children is going to be the best fit. This way you know your campaign is going to reach the exact people who you want to see it. You can usually find audience demographics in a bloggers media kit, or request specific statistics via email.

Quality over Quantity
It's easy to get caught up in the numbers and want to go with the blog that has the biggest following, that's natural, but take a moment to consider those numbers further. Its just as important to look at the level of engagement a blog {and its relevant social media channels} gets rather than just taking the follower numbers at face value. A smaller blog with an active, engaged and targeted audience will deliver a better result than one with large numbers, but no engagement.

A few ways to gauge a blog's engagement level is to look at the number of comments left on recent blog posts. Likewise, the number of likes and comments left on social media platforms {some readers feel more comfortable interacting via social media than on an actual blog post}. Check whether the blogger actively responds to comments left by readers to encourage conversations. If you want specific stats regarding engagement you could request Facebook insights or blog post statistics which most bloggers will be happy to provide upon request.

Consider your campaign objectives
If your objective is simply to create brand awareness, without a specific call to action, then a blog with a large following could be the best way to go as it has the potential to get your brand "seen" by a lot of people. However, if your objective is more specific like selling a certain product then its best to choose a blog with a more targeted audience who are likely to be potential customers and take action.

Read testimonials
Bloggers often have testimonials available either on their work with me pages or via their media kit. These give you an idea of other businesses they have previously worked with and how happy they were to collaborate with them. They also give you an insight into what the blogger is like to work with, which can all help you decide if they would be a good fit with your brand.
"I have been very happy to work with Toni. She has done a couple of reviews of our personalised products in a very honest and professional way. She was very good to keep in contact all the way via e-mails as to update on how things were going. I can highly recommend working with Toni – and hope to do some more work with her in the future" - Tea, Name My Stuff
"FMY has been a great fit for our brand Tiptoe & Co. Toni really understands the delicate balance between what people like to read and see, and what a brand likes people to know about their products. Her reviews are well written, she uses great photos and she takes the time to tell a story - that is why other parents can relate so well to her blog and one of the reasons for the success of FMY. We are looking forward to working with Toni again very soon!" - Chelsea, TipToe & Co

Contact the blogger
If you've found a blogger you think will be a good fit with your brand then contact them. Most bloggers prefer to be contacted via email, which should be easily found on their blog {usually on a work with me or contact me page}. Bloggers are a friendly bunch and we're happy to answer any questions you may have.

Most bloggers have a relationship with their readers based on trust and in order to maintain that trust will not promote products they don't truly believe in so don't be discouraged if some bloggers are not interested in partnering with your brand. Its better in the long run to partner with bloggers who truly believe in the brand and can convey this to their readership without damaging their valuable relationship with their readers. Honesty and transparency between a blogger and their readers plays a huge part in building a loyal readership, so working with a blogger who will honour that relationship built on trust will deliver a better result.

>> To find out if your brand would be a good fit with Finding Myself Young, please visit my Work With Me page.
Friday, April 10, 2015

The toughest day of my life as a parent.

Before I had kids I thought the hardest day of my life would be the day I gave birth. Granted my birth experience wasn't great and for a long time I have very much thought it was one of the hardest days of my life {apart from the fact that I got bub at the end of it}, but I was wrong. Yesterday was most definitely the toughest day of my life, and everything else pales in comparison.

Yesterday I had to watch my baby be put to sleep. Then I had to watch her endure through hours of pain when she woke up. Her surgery finally happened. We got through it, but its something I hope we never have to do again.

Last week my anxiety was going back and forth between having major internal freakouts and being ok with the operation and accepting that it was going to happen. Its not like I really had a choice, it had to be done, but that didn't stop me freaking out about it.

I was mainly worried about putting her to sleep. I'd heard from other parents how horrible it is watching them go to sleep and I wasn't looking forward to it. Deep down I knew it had to be me to go in as she always wants me when she's upset. I spent the week beforehand trying to convince myself T could take her in and it'd be fine and then I wouldn't be left with the memory of her going to sleep. In the end though I decided I had to do what was best for her and minimise the trauma for her rather than me. 

So I put on my big girl panties and got on with it. In the end she was so tired from being awake and waiting around all day she actually wanted to go to sleep anyway. She was relieved she could finally lay down on a bed and have a sleep. It helps that the surgery was booked for when she'd normally have her day time nap. In the end it wasn't anywhere near as traumatic as I thought it was going to be. 

During the operation I just kept telling myself she was having her nap so I didn't worry as much. I only started clock watching when it got to an hour which was how long the operation should take. Fifteen minutes after that I was getting a bit antsy and posted this photo...

Waiting, waiting, waiting... longest day of my life. #hospitalssuck
Posted by Finding Myself Young on Wednesday, April 8, 2015

About ten minutes after that photo was taken the surgeon called me to tell me everything had gone well {while I was sitting on the toilet, of course, stuff like that only happens to me}.

After that I was relieved and thought the stress and worry was all over. I was so excited to see her in recovery.... until I got there. I was expecting her to be half asleep lying on a hospital bed still groggy. How wrong was I. 

Walking into recovery I could hear her screaming her head off from three aisles away. When I got to her she was bright red and shaking {as well as screaming her head off}. She was beside herself and the poor nurses were super happy to see me because they couldn't console her no matter what they tried. Thankfully mummy cuddles and mummy's voice went a long way towards settling her down, but she was still really unhappy. Once they gave her more pain meds and they finally kicked in she calmed down and went to sleep from utter exhaustion. Poor thing would've been so scared waking in a strange room hurting and not knowing why. I felt worse seeing her like that in recovery than I did watching her go to sleep. I really hope she never experiences pain like that again.

She stayed sleeping on my chest for three hours on the ward. Snoring and whimpering every now and then. Even though I was busting to pee and couldn't feel my right arm, I was exactly where I needed to be. 


The hours on the ward passed surprisingly quickly because we were being thoroughly entertained by the other kids asking the nurses questions - Do you have kids? What's their names? Do you have a husband? Kids really surprise me how upbeat they are even when they're in pain. 

Just before 7pm we were allowed to go home and she was beyond relieved to have her cannula out and the monitor off her foot. And I was more than happy to leave the hospital after ten hours. I sat in the back of the car on the way home to hold her hand and she had another little nap.


We were expecting a sleepless night {well I was because T never hears her during the night}, but she surprised me and slept from 8:30 to 6. It broke my heart when she was trying to cover her head with pillows when she went to sleep to stop the pain. Poor baby.


This morning she's been pretty much back to her normal self already, walking around pointing at everything saying "dere, dere, dere". In the car on the way to the specialist check-up everything was woooooowww and when we went down a hill or over a bump it was wooooooooaahhh. Such a difference to last night when she was dead silent or crying in the car.

It really is amazing us how quickly she's bouncing back. Even though its only day surgery these days, I still remember how painful it was from when I had it done and they only operated on one of my eyes whereas they did both of hers. She's such a little trooper.

Hopefully in 2 weeks when we go back for another post-op check it's improved enough that we won't need to contemplate surgery again in the future. Because I really don't want her or us to go through this again.

Pre kids I never knew just how emotionally challenging it could be.


Toni x