Social Mums Star – Vicki Psarias

We’re excited to bring you a brand new blog series where we interview successful mums in business to find out how they have used social media to grow their brand. They will be sharing their top tips as well as giving you an insight into their working day.

When we came up with the idea for this blog series there was only one person we wanted to kick it off with, the queen of the mum bosses Vicki Psarias.

Vicki aka Honest Mum is a multi award-winning blogger, author and broadcaster. She was a filmmaker and TV Director before setting up her blog and can often be seen on national TV as a parenting expert.

If you haven’t got yourself a copy of Vicki’s bestselling book MUMBOSS we can highly recommend it. It’s packed full of tips to help you juggle a successful business with raising a family.

What inspired you to start your business?

My blog was an accidental career. I suffered from a traumatic birth in 2010 with my first son and set up my blog as a means to hopefully rediscover my voice and confidence. Within a few weeks, I was (much to my surprise), approached by advertisers and by the time my second son was born in 2012, I was a full time blogger and vlogger. I didn’t even know blogging could be monetised when I first started blogging, and it certainly wasn’t my intention to leave directing, but discovering this empowering, creative and flexible career that works around my family has been a gift.

Sharing all that I’ve learned in the past 9 years in my book MUMBOSS and meeting others who say it’s helped them start up their own businesses, keeps me going.

What does a typical day look like?

I love doing the school-run as my children’s school is in Eton and it’s beautiful there by the river. I have become strict with my routine so if I’m not filming Breakfast TV or have a morning deadline, I hit the gym for an hour then head home to write.

I sometimes meet a friend in town for a coffee before school-pick up around 4/4.15 as the children do sports/ art and French after-school clubs in the week. Today I’m filming with Closer Magazine/ Closer TV then I’m straight to a bespoke jacket fitting. I love that no one day is ever the same. The constant is down to my children. Most days I stop my work from school pick-up until bedtime then do a little more, before Netflix and sleep. Being my own boss is empowering, and I make sure I implement balance where possible and time-out, to prevent burn-out.

What is your favourite social media platform and why?

I veer between Twitter and Instagram although Twitter will always have a soft spot in my heart as it was the first place I connected with like-minded mums and dads along with my blog. I love the conversation there and the breaking news of course. It’s a great way to garner press too. Search the #journorequest hashtag. I adore the Stories particularly on Instagram, the immediacy and behind-the-scenes of the more polished veneer there.

How has social media helped you grow your business?

Digital thought-leader and author, Natasha Courtenay Smith likens a blog and social to an octopus. The head is the blog/ website, social, the tentacles.

Social is a great way to tell your story on different platforms. My blog reaches a global audience with UK, US and Australia dominating whereas my Instagram account is mostly the UK. You can’t assume that the same audiences will follow you on every platform, and you need to create content specifically with each handle in mind.

What social media tips would you give to other mums in business?

Look at your Insights tools to work out the best time to post and which are the most popular hashtags in your genre to help with visibility.

Video is being pushed everywhere so do upload video content natively to each platform for the greatest visibility and re-package content to fit each platform.

You can promote your work on social media too but make sure you’re not simply link-dropping and endlessly plugging as people will switch off. Take time to start a conversation and keep it going, replying to your followers and engaging with them.

Use the same gravatar too, on each handle and name if you can, and a human face always engages more than a logo. Remember that Facebook and Instagram want to phase out organic reach in favour of paid reach too.