Mixing business with pleasure (From Worcester News)

Mixing business with pleasure

10:40am Wednesday 24th June 2009 in Search

A REDDITCH mum-of-two is seeing the benefits of using social media as a business backbone.

Scandinavian-born Malene Hansen Stanley has seen her business flourish after embracing a less traditional way of spreading the word in the form of tweeting, blogging and posting.

Malene, who had no experience in websites, ecommerce or social networking sites, launched Scandinavian clothing company, KSBKids.com (Kids Should Be Kids) in 2007.

With help from the National B2B Centre, the West Midlands’ e-business centre of excellence, Malene has seen an increase in sales leads after successfully using her blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages to target her customers.

Malene, 38, said: “I launched KSBKids.com when I needed an extra income to support myself and my two young children, Emily and Matilda.

“I soon discovered the National B2B Centre and received all the help and advice I needed to get me started on marketing the business through social networking sites.

“I achieve customer loyalty through using social media - my customers get to know the person behind the business as I write about all sorts of things relevant to my target market including life as a single mum, dating, working around the kids, and of course updates on the KSBKids products.”

Malene has over 65 customers that have joined her Facebook page but firmly believes that this will increase now that word is spreading.

She added: “Facebook is viral marketing at its best, but there are downfalls to using social media, it is time consuming, and in order for it to work you need continuity.

“The key is to have a clear strategy, the social sites you choose to use should be linked and you need to push your brand identity in a consistent way.

Gareth Edwards, from The National B2B Centre, said: “Using social media is a cheap but very effective form of viral marketing, and one which can be monitored and updated at any time of the day or night.

“I’m delighted that Malene has found our help and resources so useful, and will continue to help her and any other business which can benefit from our services.”