Life Lately Posts – South African Working Mom Blog

2017 Round Up: Top 5 Posts Based on Reader Engagement (plus my favourites)

I kicked off the blog in May 2017, and have been loving it.

I have grown a new set of skills, that I am able to apply to my job and personal life.

Blogging thus far has allowed me to develop writing (making progress), story telling and social media management skills. I can also figure out technical stuff for the website and have been expanding my network.

Over and above this, it has allowed me a space to express my passion for keeping mothers in the workforce and getting fathers to do more house work (an equal world and all that).

Tired of me going on about this topic, my husband and friends are relieved that I now have the blog.

[bctt tweet=”I love writing about topics that may inspire working women, especially working mothers. My blog is my little corner of the internet to do just that.” username=”cherralle_”]

Incase you missed them, here are my top 5 posts for 2017, based on views, share and engagement

7 Leadership Lessons from Game of Thrones

My top post is still the Game of Thrones Leadership lessons article. This was an idea that popped into my head one Sunday morning, on the eve of the finale of Game of thrones Season 7. I typed it up then and there and posted it.

I was reflecting on the leadership roles played by main characters. Then I thought, ‘hey it would be fun to pull out the leadership themes as it would apply in normal settings.’

People were all fired up about the finale that day, and so timing was perfect!

2. The Side of Motherhood That We Do Not Post on Instagram

This one hit a chord. Read mostly from Facebook, and still being read non stop from Pinterest.

Again, this idea came to me one night. I sat down, wrote it out and posted it on the same night.

It was about me wanting to share that I feel that motherhood is awesome, but it can be kinda sucky too. And I am okay with that.

I wanted other mothers to know that we all go through our ups and downs.

[bctt tweet=”Readers love reading personal accounts about motherhood + they want to know other mamas are imperfect too” username=”cherralle_”]

3. The Other Side of Maternity Leave – The Coworkers we Leave Behind

I was surprised that this article has resonated.

Our co workers carry a lot of our responsibilities during maternity leave, and light to be shed on this (out of gratitude).

Interestingly, a lot of readers are finding this post from google search, suggesting that people are looking for answers around this topic.

This website contains a number of posts on maternity leave as it’s a key milestone for mothers, and I tackled breast pumping at work after maternity leave.

4. 7 Reasons Why I Am Pretty Certain We are only Having Two Children

It is clear that readers enjoy catching a glimpse into the life of an everyday mom. Interestingly, you guys really loved this one. I wrote this at a time when I felt content with our little family.

I caught myself day dreaming about having a third child, and that leaves me worried about this post!

Apparently three is not much different from two in terms of work?

I don’t think I am going to find out!

5. 10 Things a Working Mother Needs to Survive

One of the main topics for this blog is to talk about common challenges faced by working mothers. A theme of working parenthood and career topics is the foundation of My Daily Cake.

This post was another spur of the moment post, that came up as I thought about all the chats I have with friends and colleagues. We share ideas and stories about things that make our lives easier as we manage work and personal commitments. And Boom…. out popped a blog post.

Interesting tidbits

My husband featured on my blog. I shared a blog post around how we practice equally shared parenting (most of the time!) and he shared his personal perspectives as husband on this equal parenting thing.

Reflections on August and Social Media Tools For The Blog

I am three months into my blogging journey. Yay! Still going strong and still wondering why I picked this as a hobby *tongue in cheek*. Last month I blogged why I want to write for working mothers, you may check out this post here.

This update will consist of:

What I learnt in August
Social Media and Its Tools – how it is going so far
Top 5 articles for the month of August

What I learnt in August

Life stuff

Young people have wisdom too. I was blown away by a group of young women who shared their story at Womens’ Day Event at work. Two of whom were in their twenties and they were mining engineers (yes miners who went underground!). They each shared their teachable point of view and a life lesson. These young women were strong enough to break into a male dominated industry, but also learned how to thrive and maintain their own identity as women.
I cannot manage time. I have given up on managing time. The hours are the hours. As life gets more intense with work and personal demands increasing, its what I choose to do with my time. Prioritization is important.
Motherhood is not always joyous. I don’t need any person to agree or disagree. I own it. Its tiring, exhausting, and sometimes I want to do other stuff. But I trek home and do my part for my kids. I wrote about the part of the motherhood we do not Instagram about here.

Blog stuff

I optimized my blog for mobile. Very critical as 80 – 90% of people reading, do so on their phones. I was stuck on how it looked on desk top, I neglected the mobile piece. Well that is fixed now!
Bloggers are the friendliest bunch of people you will ever meet! I attended my first blogger meet up though SA Mom Blogs!
I guest posted on Nicole Subben’s blog Peanut Gallery 24/7 about top three books for women; and one my articles was posted on Parent 24, You Online and Women 24, check it out here.
I learnt about Social media! See next section!

How Social Media is Working Out For Me

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mydailycake/

I launched my Facebook page in Early August. Yay! Using facebook from the perspective of a ‘blog’ is very different. Facebook is a channel for me to get my posts out to my target audience.

Facebook remains my main source of traffic (90%).
Organic reach on facebook remains very low and it is predicted to become lower, and so ‘boosting’ is required. Only 16% of your page fans on Facebook will see your post.
Your Facebook page is a heaven for marketing , if you do targeted boosting.
Boosting an actual post, even for $2 for a day or two may be needed in order to get it in front of the right eyes
A combination of timing (Thurs/ Friday is better); an engaging caption and ‘clickable’ blog post title grabs attention!

[bctt tweet=”Facebook drives 90% of my blog traffic. But Low Organic reach is a reality (more boosting)” username=”cherralle_”]

Instagram

http://www.instagram.com/cherralle

I have a love hate relationship with Instagram.

I find it fun and beautiful.
The fact that someone can use one picture and tell a short story around it, is amazing.
Engagement, is short and sweet
Instagram has expanded its offerings with stories, live streaming and multi picture posts! Its definitely a platform I will continue to spend time on.
What annoys me is people who follow you, wait for you to follow them then unfollow you! Its exhausting. Can people just follow who they want to follow? Stop being dodgy.

Twitter

@cherralle_

I am loving twitter.

I have been using Hootsuite to proactively schedule out tweets. Which is helpful as I do not have much opportunity to tweet during the day.
Hootsuite is one of my ultimate favourite tools right now plus they have an awesome blog for of useful content!
I definitely find myself using Twitter a lot. I am reading articles and blogs from twitter mostly. Personally it’s my ‘go to’ platform for reading and education at this stage.

I am experimenting with the free versions of Tailwind and Boardbooster to schedule daily pins. Pinterest is not a social media platform but a visual search engine. And so, the idea is to generate traffic from Pinterest through creating visually appealing pins linked to my blog. In this way I could get into the news feed of my audience or in search results. I will see how that goes! Pinterest now matches Instagram in terms of website traffic. No, don’t get excited, its miniscule! Oh, and I changed my profile to a business account, which has more features.

Not Social Media: But Canva

I am obsessed with Canva!

It is my ULTIMATE favourite tool right now, and it is free! I use CANVA to create images for Instagram, blog featured images and Pinterest!

Life Lately Update and Why I Am Writing a Blog for Working Moms

I started writing on the blog about two months ago, and I wanted to share an update of how this has been going. In this post, I will cover:

why i write
why i want to write about working moms and their careers
currently reading, watching, anticipating and feeling

I write.

Writing has given me an opportunity to share thoughts on parenting and working motherhood. At times I feel as if I am bearing my soul, it is sometimes scary to push that publish button.

I learnt from South African blogger Melissa in 9 Lessons I Learnt in my first year of Being a Blogger that feeling scared at this juncture happens.

Why do I want to write about moms and careers? Because moms deserve awesome careers too.

I often come across women (including me) who:

- work hard but who are afraid of starting a family as they fear it will damage their career
- pressurize themselves (and each other) to be perfect
- talented women, not claiming their space at work because of myths that ambition is not for ‘mothers’
- Guilt around not being “mom” enough and guilt around not spending enough time at work

Is it hard being a working parent? Yes, nothing worth it in life is easy but it is also very rewarding. I do not have the answer to these dilemmas, what I do know is that we need to be okay to talk about it.

Whatever you decide as a woman, you need to do what works for you and your family.

[bctt tweet=”I believe in choice, whatever you decide, whether its being at home or working, its up you” username=”cherralle_”]

Posts that people responded well to:

Do I Still Need to Lean In When I Am Just So Tired

Will Gender in Kids Clothes Every Go Away and Should We Even Care

I Am Okay with Being a Good Enough Parent (in SA Mom Blogs)

This demonstrates that people are enjoying reading about real accounts where personal experiences are being shared.

The blog

Having a blog is work, boy oh boy! To maintain my blog, I am writing, reading, commenting on blogs, and always researching trying to figure out how to change something ‘technical’ on my blog. I feel at times like my blog is a third child in my life, it needs love, attention and time. It’s an intense hobby.

[bctt tweet=”I feel at times like my blog is a third child in my life, it needs love, attention and time” username=”cherralle_”]

I read more now than I ever have in my entire life. Topics I read about: content marketing, social media, writing, motherhood, career topics, digital marketing, any topic to broaden my knowledge. The blogging community is very engaged and supportive, and I am learning a lot from them.

Currently

Reading: Shonda Rhimes – Year of Yes and am about half way. It is a very entertaining read and I now I cannot put it down (after a super slow start). I am in love with this book.

Watching: Game of Thrones (duh!)

Anticipating: we have a week of holiday coming up, so I am looking forward to this. Also, Caitlyn turns four in September, and Ava turns one in October! Insane how quickly time has flown by!

Feeling: Feeling excited about all the new things that I am learning, and all the new people that I am meeting (albeit virtually). I am also feeling appreciative about people responding to my blog, and hearing that something resonated with them.

That is me.

If you are a working mom, what topics would you want to see in a blog that will add value to your life and career? Let me know in the comments or contact me.