Woohoo! I’ve just found out that I passed the Digital Mums Strategic Social Media Manager Live Learning Programme. So I feel now’s the perfect time to share my experience with you.

It’s been quite a journey and an extremely busy six months. It had been a while since I’d studied anything. I’d done the odd evening course over the last 13 years since I graduated from University; a lovely relaxing course in massage, as well an etching course which I found therapeutic, but nothing like the life changing, all-consuming Digital Mums course.

From the very beginning it took over every minute of my spare time, no more flicking through Netflix to find a movie to spend the evening chilling out to (thankfully we had just finished the last series of Breaking Bad!), every evening and every one of my daughter’s nap times was spent studying and doing the hustle! (more on that in a minute).

The world of social media is constantly changing and evolving so much of my time was, and still is, spent keeping up to date with the latest industry developments and news and finding answers to any problems that arise, something us Digital Mums like to call ‘doing the hustle’. It was so easy for an evening to pass without me writing one word of my assignment but instead catching up on my ‘must read’ articles saved to Evernote. But I was fascinated by the world of social media and I very quickly realised this was the perfect career change for me.

Having never done any online learning I found the Digital Mums course to be very well organised and structured. I had worried that without physically going along to a class I would be tempted to skip my homework or put it off until the following week. But the course is designed for busy mums so the assignments you get each week are achievable (although I did spend far more than the 10-15 hours per week I was told it would take). Also the support you get from the specially set up Google+ community and your own peer group is amazing. Any question you have no matter how silly you might feel it is, will be answered quickly and in depth.

But by far the best part of the course is the hands on experience you gain working with a real client, on a live social media campaign. There is no better way to learn than by actually doing something. No matter how many video tutorials you watch or practice reports you write nothing makes you learn quicker than doing something for real that the whole world can see!

I was lucky to be given a great client – Hannah and Hugh. A natural range of skincare for babies run by mumpreneur Pamela Orji. We worked together to design a campaign that would use social media to help build much needed brand awareness for her amazing products. The campaign consisting of 8 weekly competitions was a huge success, I was able to increase Twitter impression by 427% and follower numbers by 66% as well as the engagement of tweets by a massive 800%. I also set up a successful Pinterest presence and increased Facebook likes by 60%.

All in all the whole Digital Mums experience has been a real life changer for me. I have learnt more in the last 6 months than I think I had in the last 6 years put together. Although my most important job is still being a mum, I have a new career that I’m passionate about and it feels good to be doing something for me.

Gemma, The Social Mums