Training as a Social Media Manager / Digital Marketing - Digital mums?

[southcoastmama]

Hello,

My children are ages 8 and 10, and as they are growing up, I am looking at retraining and pursuing a new career path.

Because I have always worked for myself or a family business, I massively value the flexibility and freedom this offers.

I am looking at the different training available to facilitate entering into the world of to Social Media Management and possibly digital marketing.

I would hugely welcome any advice or experiences that you have.

I am currently working my way through Google Digital Garage.

I am looking into the Digital Mums course and also Google Squared.

I don't know whether I am kidding myself, that after taking a course, I will be able to work from home in this field.

I have skills in sales, marketing, branding and running my own business.

I really look forward to any advice xx

Hi southcoastmama, I did the Digital Mums training last year, starting in January and I graduated in June.

Your background sounds perfect for the course. I was a teacher in my previous life so had NO experience of marketing but here I am, 11 months post graduation working as a social media manager! I have 3 clients and I also do some freelance work for a PR agency, as well as running my own training sessions for local businesses. It's really taken off for me in the last 2/3 months and I had to turn down work last week (and pass it on to another graduate) as I just cant fit any more in right now!

My children are 2 & 4 and I have 3 days of childcare a week so that's when I work. When they're both at school hopefully I'll be able to expand and take on another client or 2.

I can only tell you my experience but for me it's working. I left a well paid (but unflexible) job to take the leap in to self employment and I doubted myself for a long time but I'm proof it can work!

Happy to DM you my email address if you want to know more.

I'm interested in these - previously used to managed my employers social media accounts.

Do digital mums refer clients to you cheeky?

Sorry, nothing really to add, but interested in this too.

Hey Southcoastmama,

Ok so first of all just to flag that I am both a Digital Mum and also work for them so want to ensure complete transparency on my part

I know you've undoubtedly posted on here because you'd like to hear a variety of viewpoints and you're clearly already in the midst of in-depth research but I thought perhaps some clarification on what your chances are of finding work after Digital Mums training might be helpful. Based on the circa 400+ students we've trained to date: Our last graduate survey showed that 4 in 5 of them go on to find flexible work - No other course, social media or otherwise, comes close to matching this. Obviously we can’t guarantee you work, but we’re as close as it gets.

The reason this number is so high is that our training and processes are all focussed on getting you job ready. Everything you learn is applied to a real campaign (with a real business on our Associate Programme) so you are ready to apply your learning with a client as soon as you graduate. We also offer an add on course (currently free) which focusses specifically on setting up your freelance business and finding clients.

To help you keep on top of all the latest social media developments
every graduate joins our amazing DMCollective freelancer group exclusively for Digital Mums grads which acts as a continuing source of support, ideas and job opportunities after the training is finished.

Obviously I think the Digital Mums training is amazing, but to get a less biased opinion, check out independent reviews on Facebook or Google.

Hope this helps. If you’d like to speak to someone about the training you can book a call here
Very best of luck with whatever you decide to do

Heymacwey no they don't directly refer clients to graduates. Once you complete the course you get access to the graduates' FB group and that's where some job opportunities can be found, either posted by someone from Digital Mums or by another graduate.
Digital Mums offer a mini 'Do The Hustle ' course with tips and advice for finding work yourself. One of my clients came from a cold email I sent (I am a user of their product so not entirely cold I guess) and my other two were from being featured on another Facebook page. My freelance work for the PR agency came from a post in the graduates Facebook group. Work can come from such a huge range of places!

Thanks cheeky

Thank you both CheekySmile and PottyMouther. You have given me lots of positive insight that I have been mulling over.

Cheeky - You sound like you are absolutely flying!

I am 100% sold on the Digital Mums course. Going to get in touch with them on Monday.

I have scoured the internet, and only see great things.

Really looking forward to a flexible future

Thanks again xx

It seems quite expensive to me based on what they are offering. Especially the £1800 course, it seems to be skills that you could pick up yourself via linkedin/lynda.

Is it the networking element afterwards that is worth the money?

Thatstoast the cost is certainly a massive factor to consider. I didn't pay that much to do the course last year but it was still expensive (for me!)
I decided it was worth it though as I wasn't just learning the theory of how to 'do' social media, I was actually doing it all for real as they pair you up with a real business and you plan a strategy and put it in to practice on their channels. It also meant that when I'd finished the course I had experience and a reference which really helped me to get work. For some people the business that you train with will want to keep you on after the course but it's certainly not a guarantee.

Hi southcoastmama

I just graduated from the Digital Mums' Associate training programme a couple of weeks ago and am currently doing the additional Do The Hustle extension course which prepares you to go out and get clients as a social media manager. I had already been freelancing for 18 years when I started the course last September but my work had finally dried up and I dithered for a while before I took the plunge. If you want the flexibility to work from home and find a job that fits around family commitments the options tend to be limited. Although I had a marketing background I was a total social media novice, didn't even have a Twitter account before I started, I just figured what have I got to lose?

In terms of finding work, PottyMouther has explained the high employment rate based on 400+ grads so far. In my September intake we have a mixture of some who got kept on by their client/Programme Partner whom they worked for during the training, some who are adding social media management to their existing freelance services, some who have literally bagged clients within days of graduating and others, like me, who are in the process of networking/hustling to get our first paid contract. I can't say yet whether I will succeed - CheekySmile you are nailing it !! But two things make me feel fairly confident a) the campaign you run for your training equips you with the skills to work for any small business/charity/social enterprise/startup you just need to do the research to understand their market, target audience and goals b) the additional training provides resources and advice on how to identify/ target/secure potential clients (based on the experience of previous grads who are now working as freelance social media managers or agencies).

In term of cost, it does seem like a significant financial investment (you can split it into 2 payments to spread the cost) but retraining is never going to come for free and when I was looking at it you can do some free training online courses or paid face to face courses but this is a six month intensive course which incorporates a live campaign which means you get work experience built in for your CV/LinkedIn profile. From that point of view it is pretty cost effective in my opinion.

I won't lie. It is hard work. 15-20 hours a week on average over the six months so you need to be sure that you have the time to commit to it. Because of this I would also advise checking out the start date options with PottyMouther as you get the school holidays off but I'm not sure whether you get a full 6 week break in the summer as I started mine in September.

My advice would be go for it. I honestly have not learned this much in years and with your mini peer group and the online trainee community you do get technical and moral support.

We write a blog at the end of the training to summarise our personal experience. You are welcome to read mine if you think it would be useful (see below). It might give you an idea of what to expect (the highs and the lows!). If you do go ahead I wish you all the best, I don't think you will regret it.

medium.com/@annemmarshall2/how-i-improved-my-digital-fitness-with-a-social-media-zumbathon-16a47dffa9c4

Thanks ladygrinningsoul17

Had a read if your blog too - sounds fab!

Sounds like you really took a lot from the experience

Thank you for your insight xx

I'be graduated from the course and I'm afraid it is far from value for money. I don't appear to be alone in thinking this either with just today a member of a current cohort messaging me to ask if it was this bad when I did the course.

I certainly regret spending £££ on content I could of found (but with less mistakes and confusion) for free online.

The support is non existent and quite frankly a shambles.
I personally won't be recommending and I'm very sorry to have to say this as a year ago I was so excited.

Sorry to hear this. It's a course I have been seriously considering- do you feel in a good position to get some clients now? Are you confident of your future prospects?

I already had a client and I have learnt most of my skills on the job and not through DM. the content is all available for free most of which even Dm are tweeting it out for free too. 😡
In my peer group two said they don't feel they have the confidence to sell themselves as SM experts and they both did REALLY well in their campaigns.

They are spitting out hundreds of women a year now, the market will soon become saturated with half trained mums all wanting to be SM so I think it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I now have a full compliment of clients. I did learn about twitter on the course but non of my clients want that platform.

Happy to talk more off line. DM clearly have great PR and I wish more unsatisfied DM's would speak up as i think it's a lot of money to waste and I really wish I'd spent my money elsewhere. Having got my clients signed up whilst I did the course it highlighted the difference between what I was learning and what I needed to know. Google was my friend.

In the interest of being fair there have been some of my large cohort who speak very highly of the experience but it appears to be the minority.