For the next 3 weeks I will be hosting a discussion on ‘Online and Offline Word-of-Mouth Tactics for Successful Business‘ on MumsLikeYou.co.uk

Unlike traditional offline and online marketing Word-of-Mouth is not about how many people a marketing message can reach directly, but more about how many people pass the marketing message on to other people and start conversations about it.

If you have your small business or thinking of a start your own venture and need advice on how to make other people talk about your company, I will be happy to answer your questions.

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A shortlist will be selected during August. The Mumpreneur Awards’ independent panel of judges will deliberate and the winners will be announced at The Mumpreneur Conference on Saturday 18th September 2010. The ceremony will take place at The Heart of England Conference Centre, Warwickshire.

The Mumpreneur Conference and Awards 2010 is an event aimed at supporting and celebrating mums in business. A full day of fun, you can meet like-minded women, join in with a selection of our 6 seminars, listen to the inspirational speakers, and more. Tickets cost just £20 which includes access to the entire conference, the award ceremony and lunch. A must-attend event for any mum in business, or considering her option.

The Mumpreneur Conference is organised by Ella Events, a business run by two mums in business based in the West Midlands. Ella Events began with organising Baby Fairs around the region, and by combining their best skills, Amanda and Laura are able to organise fantastic events to support small business, local parents and business mums. With six children aged 5 and under between them, and their own individual businesses, they know better than anyone else what can make an event suitable or busy mums juggling business life with their family, which is why the Mumpreneur Conference is aimed to be affordable, accessible and fun for all business mums in the UK.

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Here Iveta Tancheva shares how she came up with the idea of Mums Like You

I decided to set up Mums Like You, early 2009 when I lost my job in the City and was at home looking after my baby daughter. The idea was initially to create a networking site which enables new and first time mums to stay connected and find friends.

When I did research on what is already out there and what mums want, two things quickly became clear – that a lot of mums live away from their families and friends as a result leading them to feel quite isolated at times, and that they increasingly rely on the Internet to find the support and information they need when on maternity. In addition my research confirmed my own experience as a first-time mum that word-of-mouth is an extremely important source of information. These findings were instrumental in extending the capabilities of Mums Like You to enable mothers to share valuable information and solve real-life problems online.

The Reviews section for example is becoming a place where mums share their opinions about products and services and find out what other mums think before making a purchase. Another example is the Marketplace area, which enables mums to list and sell baby kit they no longer need or advertise to find childcare help.”

How Mums Like You differs from the other parenting websites and social networks

Mums Like You offers a range of interactive tools unavailable on other sites. We believe there is enormous value in collective knowledge and experience of mums.

The site therefore aims to pull together everything they want to share; making sure it is easily accessible for the benefit of all mums. Unlike other sites, we rely entirely on our members for content and the website evolves the way our members want it to. The site is simple and easy to use, and enables mums to find the information they want quickly and efficiently. We are also presently working on a number of new tools designed to help mums during pregnancy and the first months after birth, which will be released in the coming months.

What was your biggest challenge during the development process and how can other start-ups learn from this?

The biggest challenge was spreading the word about the website and getting mums familiar with it. Marketing was, and continues to be, one of the most important and challenging aspects of the business. The good news is that with the advent of Twitter and other social media sites, it is now far easier to connect to our relevant audience. The downside, however, is that it’s very time consuming and takes a lot from the resources of a start-up business. I guess the key lesson for me was that I had to try out a few different advertising and PR activities before focusing on the ones that worked best for my venture.

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