Shownotes:

In this episode of the Social Lights Podcast, podcast host and Social Mediology founder Kate vanderVoort chats with Nicole Millard, co-founder and community manager of Australia's biggest privately owned parenting and women's blog, Stay At Home Mum.

About Nicole

Nicole has worked tirelessly over the last 10 years alongside her business partners, Jody and Brendan Allen, to build a huge online community for not only Stay At Home Mums, but all parents (including dads!). Their online communities have more than half a million members.

As a natural progression from creating this community, Nicole created Tenacious Digital, which is a small digital marketing agency offering services such as website design and social media coaching to small businesses and start-ups.

BIG IDEA 1

“The community grew because we were them, we were our audience” (07:22)

Nicole shared that they started their group to share some budgeting tips and how to save money but then people started talking about their kids and family and it became a parenting website.

She said that it grew into a massive community and portal of information where so many women (98% of the group) and dads as well, came to them for help. She believes that part of the appeal was that they were mums just like them, and so, the community had that affinity with them.

BIG IDEA 2

“It's just more for people to put their confessions anonymously on there.” (10:45)

On starting an anonymous community, Nicole talked about the long process it took for them to decide on it. She said that want to have a community on the website as well as on social media so they gave an anonymous forum a go and just see if it works.

Nicole shared that they had to build a lot of security measures to get rid of the spam posts and trolls, etc. They had it set up so that they can block people even though they don't know who they are. In addition, they managed to get a bit of a culture going there and a report mechanism where the users can report spam or inappropriate posts. However, she admitted that most of the time they let things go and run their course.

BIG IDEA 3

“People appreciate authenticity and honesty” (20:51)

Nicole recalled when they were building the community, they just straight out ask them how they could help people with their problems. She added that in order to keep your community engaged, you need to keep asking questions and finding out what they want to know.

 On handling her community, Nicole shares that she has been depending it very much on instincts compared to statistics. She says that in order for you to grow your community, it takes a lot of dedication, work and time but you have got to be on your authentic self and show your face because people want that connection.

Social Media Links:

You can find Nicole Millard at:

Stay At Home Mum: www.stayathomemum.com.au

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StayHomeMum

Instagram: http://instagram.com/stayathomemum

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/SAHMum/

We’d love you to join us for future episodes of the Social Lights podcast, produced by Social Mediology.

You can connect with us on Facebook at @SocialLightsPodcast and find future episodes at socialmediology.com.au/sociallights.

Thanks for your time and stay inspired,

Kate vanderVoort