We also have some funky new colours available. As always the quality is top of the range. Our stripy and plain tops will retain their shape wash after wash. They are soft and comfortable to wear.  We have lots of testimonials on site that mention the outstanding quality of the tops.

One customer recently pointed out that our tops are “wonderfully bright and different, and not too gender-specific”. If you are a little fed up with the drab browns, dark blues and greys one usually find in the shops (especially for boys) look no further.

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Children’s Clothes: New Stripy Tops in Funky, Trendy Colours

The opportunities provided by sites such as facebook are undeniable.  As with any social media tool, marketers have an opportunity to use Facebook to expand their online footprint and engage with customers directly. 

Creating a Facebook fan page is fairly straight forward, but getting it to work for you will take time, dedication, and planning. Don’t expect to create a page and instantly have a huge fan base. I soon learnt this will not happen!

Build good content, make it easy to share, and let people know about it, and over-time the community should grow.  The more content you create and the more you engage with your Fans, the more people you will be able to reach on a more regular basis.

For me it is about being real, authentic and transparent.  I sell children’s tops, primarily lots of bright, colourful stripy tops and t-shirts. These are primarily purchased by mothers.  Facebook allows me to target ads to very specific demographics, – the impact of ads ends up being far broader than what you actually pay for.

53% Facebook users have kids. My target market clearly spends time on Facebook. It may not be a relevant site for all companies, but for me it clearly is. My task over the next year or so is to;

• Create brand awareness
• Build my online profile
• Drive visitors to our website, fan page and blog
• Keep customers informed
• Engage with customers and fans
• Conduct market research

Eventually I hope my facebook strategy will enable me to reap the benefit from viral marketing.  The opportunities are undeniable.

Following site are good reference points, – they know their stuff and is worth a read!

http://mashable.com/2009/04/01/optimize-facebook-page/

http://www.hubspot.com/facebook-for-business-marketing-hub/

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Facebook for Business

How did it happen that someone fairly outgoing as me ended up as a recluse…………

Well, my determination to succeed has made me focus on the task in hand 110%. But also when I first started out, I again and again was a little disillusioned with the help and support available. So I assigned myself to the fact that reading books and articles would be the only way to find the solutions to the problems I was facing.

From the moment I decided to enter into the children’s clothes market by selling Scandinavian children’s clothes online, it has very much been a case of buying a few books and just getting on with it. Well, perhaps not a few books……….many in fact. I have books about programming, blogging, SEO and you name it. I alone have seen Amazon through the recession! I read these books, while “watching” my girls at their swimming lessons, while cooking dinner, on planes and you will even find a few in the car just in case the traffic light is really slow.  However, one of the problems with working on your own (apart from going slowly insane, yes I do find myself having long conversations with the checkout girls at Sainsbury) is the lack of input and feeding ideas of another person…………if I am really truthful I have missed that.

Not long ago I came across the national B2B centre at Warwick, – how I wish I had come across these guys much earlier……….. Last week I spent a couple of hours with Mark Bonnett and Gareth Edwards discussing www.ksbkids.com and the tools available to increase my natural rankings in the search engines. We among other things discussed my blog and potential content for posts. I saw that Gareth very kindly in his blog wrote “Much easier with Malene than other clients since she cottoned on very quickly to what we were trying to do.”  Well, not sure I was that quick but it was inspiring to discuss ideas with two other people and for a lack of a better expression it was the kick up the butt I needed.   Within half an hour we had written up many ideas for my posts, facebook entries and Tweets.  We discussed how I sell many black/white stripy tops for French days at primary schools and how many of our plain tops are used for nativity plays!

It was inspiring spending time at the B2B centre.  In my experience working on your own is not always ideal; some times creativity flourish best when working as a team.

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Recluse………well hopefully not for much longer

May I take this opportunity to recommend Penguin to anyone looking for a reliable, secure, supportive and generally outstanding host for their website. I have not come across a more professional company.  No no I am not on commission, but my life has become a lot easier since I transferred my site to Penguin.

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Hosting your site

Matilda casually replied, without ever taking her eyes of the road “yah…….but I gotta survive today first”. Honestly, – she should try leading my life! May I just here add – before I get any phone calls from social services – Matilda is a well loved little girl and really her life is not that bad although it obviously felt so on this particular Monday morning!

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

It is hard being 6 years old

What do I know you may ask……….well, very little in fact. But even so the guys down there had invited me a long.

I have had no training on social media, attended no courses on the subject – but I try the best I can to grow awareness of KSBKids through social media. I try things out, evaluate the results and modify and adjust as I go along. It is without doubt a learning process.

Why am I interested in social media? I find it very exciting that a small company like mine can with very limited funds create awareness and increase sales. Traditional marketing channels would not have given me the same opportunities without committing a large budget.

Working facebook, twitter and blog is great for increasing awareness and raising your ranking in the search engines. However, like anything else I think it is important that you define your strategy clearly. What are your goals? What are you actually trying to achieve? How are you gonna do it?

Social media is not something you should just do when you have 5 minutes spare. It takes time, you need to be plan it, be consistent, push your brand awareness and pick the challenges where your customers interact. It is a long process and results will not come immediately.

My target market is to be found on Facebook, consequently Facebook is my main focus. Although Linkedin is great I dont think it will drive customers to my site in the way facebook can. Linkedin is tremendous for advice and building your network. But from a viral marketing perspective I think Facebook will provide the best opportunities for my business. The way Facebook presents “update” is viral marketing at its best.

Finally it is crucial to be consistent. On the www.ksbkids.com website you will see many links to the facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/pages/KSBKids/43020354914 .  Customers can link straight to the facebook fan page, but they also have the option to click the Facebook icon under individual items of children’s clothes which will then show up on their facebook page and be visible to all their friends.

Blog entries can be added to customers Facebook page , delivery notes mentions the Facebook page etc. etc. and I am currently trying to ensure that all these channels (blog, website, facebook) visually look the same. It is coming back to the point raised earlier about pushing the brand.

I believe people like buying from a person – hopefully Facebook will help me to establish a successful online business.

KSBKids and social media.

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Childrens Clothes and Warwick Business School

Social media activities like these are viral marketing at it best, it gives small businesses like mine a chance to compete with the larger organisation. Suddenly, the playing is more even.

However, do we all fully understand how to maximise the opportunities these inbound marketing activities present. Well, I don’t………………………. I am however a little wiser after reading the following guideline about Twitter.  Let me know what you think. 

http://www.shcl.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/twitter-for-business-ebook.pdf

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Twitter – how to use it correctly for business purposes?

By sitting in my little office, working away on the computer, I avoid the lonely evenings in front of the telly. Am I in fact kidding myself by always finding work to do? Am I avoiding the reality that I am single and in fact there is no one to chat and cuddle up to?

Do you know what…………… I dont really know the answer to that. But there is no doubt that in some ways setting up KSBKids haven given be something to focus on through the whole divorce process.

Finding yourself as a single mum at the end of your thrities is not fun. There are many people worse off than me. But I like anyone else have days where I start to doubt myself, – what did I do wrong? Will anyone ever love me again? Who will want me with 2 kids? Some days I am fine, in fact even happy with my single status, but other days does unsettling thoughts sneak up on me and I end up feeling a little uncertain and insecure.

My emotions feel more extreme than they ever have done previously. Little things can rock my confidence, but on the other hand just one nice comment from a customer can make my day.

Yesterday, tired and over-worked, kids and soon to be ex-husband playing up (yes I did consider putting the kids on ebay – 2 for the price 1 and no I wont disclosed what I considered doing to my ex but pleasent it wasnt ) I had one of those days where I had had enough and my confidence was simply not at its best. One of those days where the insecurities gain strength…….

But life is funny and very unpredictable.

Late afternoon there was a knock on my door. To my surprise it was my local Taxi driver. He has on numerous occasions taking me to the airport etc. but if  honest  he has also on more than one occassion had to listen to me when I have been rather intoxicated……..well yes drunk I guess!  Can I just here point out that Mr Taxi Driver is happily married and at least 20 years older than me!!!!  During these trips we have talked about being single, exhusbands, arranged marriages, food and how he used to run an Indian restaurant.

Yesterday, he knocked on my door to inform me that at 8 o’clock this evening he is bringing a complete Indian meal round to my house.  I was so surprised, laughed and asked him why………………..”because you are a nice person and you have always been very respecful to me”. 

How nice is that? He will never know, but he picked the right day to be nice to me – just when I was starting to feel a little insecure he reassured me that I am not that bad after all.

And listen to this, it gets better…………….. Les the window cleaner is taking Frances (neighbour and top friend) and me to the pub on Friday evening………..why “because we are his best customers”!!!!!!!!

So this is the week where Mr Taxi Driver cooks me a meal and Les the Window cleaner takes me to the pub. Why did I worry about being single and lonely?

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

Mr Taximan and Les the Window cleaner

Extra money from an additional job wouldn’t go a miss, - but perhaps getting a job would also me good for me. I am not an introvert, I like company, I like socialising and interacting with other people so perhaps getting a job would be good for my own well-being and personal happiness!

But here it comes………what am I gonna do? What am I good at? I mean I cannot remember the last interview I had it is that long ago!

In a rather desperate moment I sent an email to a few friends saying “help, need a job, what do you think I would be good at?” – well, an abbreviated version of my email but I trust you get my point.

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

New Job?

However, here is the problem I drove home with a deeper understanding of SEO, had gained an understanding of the importance of blogs, page titles, inbound links and even that I will get a slap from Google if I cheat.

But as I was driving along I also felt the panic sneaking up on me.

How can I possibly manage to do it all?  Do I really have the knowledge to do it all correctly? You see……………… I am not sure I do. Perhaps I have bitten off more than I can chew.

I set up KSBKids to survive, to create a living, so get a job I could work around my kids (those of you who read my blog will know I am a single mum). I simply wanted to survive financially, supplying what I perceived to be a gap in the market. I want – and still want – to supply good quality tops and t-shirts for kids. I want to supply quality children’s clothes for boy and girls.

I think Boden is doing a fantastic job and so is nordic kids, I am by no means seeing myself as the new Boden – I simply think the children’s clothes I sell will appeal to a similar market.

Yet here I am stressing about SEO, working 24 hours a day, and I most definitely not got the work balance right. Feel overwhelmed and unsure if the time has come to get a proper job. Will I ever fully understand SEO and even if I do will I have the time to do it all without neglecting my kids all together. Sometimes the stress of being a single, (and I guess ambitious) working mum can be a little too much.

Post from: KSBKids, trendy children's clothes online

SEO, blog, twitter, titles, tags – help!