Award winning parenting website MyKidsTime.com is marking a decade in online business, and to celebrate, founders Jill Holtz and Michelle Davitt, along with editor Emily Manning, recently hosted a birthday party at Collins Barracks, National Museum of Ireland (Decorative Arts and History ) in the beautiful setting of The Palatine room.
Guests and children enjoyed some party classics – board games, Lego, costumes from NMI, and a hat dress-up box as well as a colouring corner. There was a beautiful cake by award winning Corinna Maguire of Lovin from the Oven which was a true work of art. Guests did not leave empty handed as they were treated to goodie bags containing some Lego from LearnIT, a cool travel toothbrush from Swords Orthodontics, books from Tara Book Company, juice from Appy Kids Co, The Ardilaun Hotel fairy garden map, and a Select Hotels of Ireland voucher.
In today’s world parents are stretched and pulled with parenting, work, caring for family members, and other responsibilities, so the balancing and juggling act is constant. MyKidsTime has created a library of blogs and posts, with useful and knowledgeable information, as well as life hacks for parents which save them time and money, and also improve the quality of their lives.
Founded in 2007 as a local listings website in Galway, Mykidstime.com has evolved into a nationally trusted online brand for parents.
"There has been a big shift from desktop access to mobile, from the way that digital content is created, to social media arriving on the scene," said co-founder Jill Holtz. "We’ve seen great developments in parenting methods as well as the use of technology and gadgets. We are constantly looking ahead to keep abreast of these innovations."
In the last decade the site has built up a substantial following with 91,000 parents on its monthly mailing list, Google verified 3.3 million page views in 2017, and a whopping 630,000 fans and followers on social media. Not only does it have a huge following, but the team consistently achieve exceptional reach on social media, with a 6.5 million reach in January and 1.1m post engagements on Facebook alone.
MyKidsTime is evaluated annually by Userneeds showing that online users consider MyKidsTime as one of the most trusted online brands.
During its 10 years in business, MyKidsTime has partnered with household and international brands engaging parents. From local businesses running children’s camps, to well-known attractions such as Westport House and the National Museum of Ireland, to established retailers and public sector organisations including Marks & Spencer Ireland and Bord Bia, the website has a proven track record of delivering quality awareness campaigns to parents while achieving exceptional results.
“We started MyKidsTime just before the recession hit so it couldn’t really have been a worse time to grow a business," Jill Holtz added. "We have always tried to offer businesses a personal touch with our attention to detail to make their advertising stand out. While it has been a rollercoaster, I can say it has been exciting to grow and build a community of active parents who trust what we tell them.”
Michelle Davitt, co-founder, said: “With our team of home-based parents working on compiling quality information for our audience, we’ve been able to offer ‘flexible working’ while at the same time tap into the ideal content creators – parents trust what other parents tell them. Working with our advertisers to present their brand in engaging ways is a pleasure, I find it very rewarding to see parents’ reactions to our content. And it’s been great trying out new innovations as we went along, from our new app to our online magazine for mums, My Time, and a personal favourite, our weekly Facebook live channel videos.”
Download the app, follow MyKidsTime on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and check out the website on www.mykidstime.com
