Learning Marketing With My Kids

A few days ago, I was reading one of my favorite weekly eNewsletters, Wednesday Wisdom from Women TIES (www.womenties.com). The owner, Tracy Higginbotham, wrote about being introduced to You Tube by her sons. What she never anticipated was the effect that introduction would have on her business or how soon it would happen.

It made me think about how much our marketing decisions have changed because of the influence of our kids and their attraction to all things electronic.

My daughters, who are 12 and soon-to-be-11, have had a similar effect on me. I enjoy watching iCarly with them. It's a cute show about three friends who have their own web show. Very trendy, very now and the characters are fun.

On a recent episode, the kids broadcast a very popular 'Fred' video from You Tube. One of the kids commented that he didn't think 'Fred' was very funny. As we know with the internet, news travels fast. Very quickly the iCarly kids found out 'Fred' was mad, refused to make any more videos and was telling everyone to boycott iCarly. Finally, the iCarly gang met with 'Fred' to straighten things out. 'Fred' admitted that it was a marketing ploy to generate more interest in both 'Fred' videos and the iCarly web show.

What an incredibly ingenious script. As we all attend seminars discussing why we need to join Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as create podcasts and webinars to promote our businesses, our kids are learning the same techniques while watching their favorite shows. A far cry from what we learned from Tom and Jerry!

What's even crazier is that the show itself is a very effective marketing tool. The first thing my kids did was find all the 'Fred' videos on You Tube. Score!

As Tracy is preparing to tape her next luncheon speaker for a You Tube video, I am releasing my first blog post. All the while, I am listening to and learning from my kids. They are so open to all these new ways of communicating with each other. Whether or not we ever post a video to You Tube, we should try to remain open to new ideas and new ways to conduct business. After all, isn't that at the core of being an entrepreneur?