{"id":82233,"date":"2015-10-28T12:07:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T12:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=82233"},"modified":"2015-10-28T12:12:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T12:12:53","slug":"spotlight-siobhan-freegard-founder-of-netmums-channel-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/spotlight-siobhan-freegard-founder-of-netmums-channel-mum\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I was inspired to set up Channel Mum after watching my own children&#8217; Siobhan Freegard, founder of Netmums &#038; Channel Mum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Vuelio is delighted to announce that\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/siobhanfreegard\" target=\"_blank\">Siobhan Freegard<\/a><\/span> OBE, is one of the judges to make up the\u00a0brilliant panel at\u00a0the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog-awards\/\" target=\"_blank\">Vuelio Blog Awards<\/a> that is all set to take place on 27 November in London. For the blogosphere, Siobhan needs little introduction &#8211; she is the founder of \u00a0Netmums, UK&#8217;s largest, most influential parenting website and now Channel Mums, a\u00a0<\/strong><strong>YouTube community for mums, called Channel Mum. <\/strong><strong>Siobhan spoke to us about\u00a0the YouTube generation,\u00a0Textbook vs Truth, ITV&#8217;s stake in Channel Mum, working with brand marketers and more.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What made you launch of Channel Mum and how will it make it different from Netmums?\u00a0<\/strong>I\u00a0was inspired to set up Channel Mum after watching my own children &#8211; when they want information they don\u2019t Google it and search text based websites, they look on YouTube for video. The millennial generation\u00a0want information visually. And now the YouTube generation are growing up and having families of their own: 80pc of babies are born to millennial mums age 34 and under.<\/p>\n<p>Netmums remains a hugely important\u00a0parenting information source, while the Channel Mum audience is much younger and it is entirely video based.\u00a0It\u2019s really the next generation of parenting information and\u00a0is at the forefront of web innovators<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Channel Mum all about and what advice do you have for others who would like to go down the Vlog channel.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Channel Mum is the only parenting resource that gives you the Textbook vs Truth on every issue that matters to mums and dads. We have lots of information on the expert and official line on everything from breastfeeding to giving birth, then we also have our roster of the UKs top parent Vloggers revealing the truth of what really happens! It\u2019s a fun and wonderfully inclusive community that mums love to be part of.<br \/>\nVlogging is a great way to get involved and share your parenting story. A third of millennials under 34 are planning their own channels so if you\u2019re thinking of trying it, the key is to have your own USP. Always be authentic and show your true character as it\u2019s hard to hide who you are on video &#8211; it isn\u2019t like posting up text in a forum or blog. Don\u2019t try to script your videos, chat away naturally and your video will feel much warmer and more engaging. Make sure you promote your Vlog on social media, and don&#8217;t put off getting to grips with the geeky stuff like &#8216;Analytics&#8217; to see what is working and what isn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ITV has recently purchased a minority share in Channel Mum. What does that mean for the business? Will it change anything?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Investment from the UK\u2019s biggest name in entertainment is significant as now we are moving the business to the next level.\u00a0 There are lots of very exciting projects and collaborations in the pipeline but I can\u2019t reveal it all yet. Sign up to Channel Mum on YouTube and we\u2019ll reveal all soon!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who makes up Channel Mum currently? (demographics)\u00a0 Who can sign up to it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anyone can watch Channel Mum from brands to PRs to parents to people interested in working with us, but the majority of our audience tends to be young mums aged 34 and under. With four in five babies born to younger mums, they need a place of their own to go and that\u2019s what Channel Mum is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How would you like PR\u2019s to work with you and what sort of press releases would catch your attention?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are several ways PRs can work with Channel Mum. On a basic level we cover parenting news content or we have packages available for brands to work with our Vloggers whether attending and vlogging from events, doing product trials and reviews or bespoke branded content. \u00a0Video is the natural way to &#8216;show and tell&#8217;.\u00a0Vloggers are key peer to peer influencers: the camera never lies, and Vloggers only work with brands or products they believe in which has created a circle of trust with the audience. Video is first and foremost a story telling medium and we work with each brand to create a bespoke campaign. Get in touch at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:hello@channelmum.com\">hello@channelmum.com<\/a>\u00a0if you have a brand or product story to tell or just for a chat to find out more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there enough demand on YouTube for branded parenting video content?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s huge demand and it\u2019s growing rapidly. Recent YouGov research found mums are six times more likely to post video clips than the general population and 12 per cent upload clips every day. We are only just at the start of what this is going to mean for brands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How have brand marketers responded to Channel Mum so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brilliantly! For a new concept we\u2019ve had every type of company want to get involved from Government-backed campaigns to some of the biggest names in parenting brands. Marketers know they have to account for every penny of spend and are looking for new and creative ways to do it, that really has the audience engaged, and this is what Channel Mum can do for them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your 5-year vision for Channel Mum?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have always believed it takes a village to raise a child, but in our society over 6 in 10 new mums live miles from their close family. In five years we\u2019ll be the new parenting village: the go-to destination for young parents, plus a springboard for talented Vloggers to launch a stellar career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vuelio is delighted to announce that\u00a0Siobhan Freegard OBE, is one of the judges to make up the\u00a0brilliant panel at\u00a0the Vuelio Blog Awards that is all set to take place on 27 November in London. For &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":82238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1449],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}