What I Learned From the Kids at the Lemonade Stand

Lemonade Stand Marketing

The funniest thing happened to me today which embodies the theory of why people are very different in their marketing methods. I was driving down the road on the way to a clients business and passed some children selling lemonade. All fine and a typical summer activity which is why I love Pittsburgh.

Memories came back to me remembering doing that same thing. Of course we drank all the lemonade and strong-armed some sympathetic parents to buy. That’s what kid marketers do I guess. I then began thinking about why as humans we are really just oversized children. Those same techniques are used every day by some of the largest companies in the world. Google ring a bell?

In the course of driving up to these kids, some stood up when they noticed my lone car turn on to their secluded suburban street. With their little marketing minds at work having planned their location, their price points, their signage, and their secret blend of lemonade that only a parent could love; you get the point.

Some were there because that was the place to be and couldn’t be bothered about the lemonade. Some budding capitalists were already counting their piggy bank retirement 401K and mutual fund contributions – those were the kids seated in the chairs behind their stand. Others were beginning to shout as if I’d miss 20 kids with a lemonade stand on a quiet street in the suburbs at 2:00pm.

So as a consumer, and a thirsty one at that, I had that fleeting second of contemplation. And I actually considered stopping. As I drove closer the kids were in full wail and one of the kids shouts, “Just Buy It!” in a voice that sounded as if it came from pure frustration that he wouldn’t be meeting with Donald Trump tonight if I drove by. I knew right then and there that he was the marketer of the bunch.

I drove passed. Why? Why hadn’t I stopped? It was drive thru service. The conditions were right for them to all go to Harvard on my lemonade sale split 20 ways. It wasn’t like there was a lemonade stand on every corner. What where the circumstances that precluded me from stopping. Was the memory of the taste of our lemonade we made as kids that bad? Maybe. Or was it the situation? The timing?

Given different circumstances I would most certainly have stopped. The screaming and yelling kids’ trying to coerce a sale was what did it. That and I’m a cappuccino guy. Screaming wasn’t enough for those kids. Yet many marketing and advertising agencies still do this. Search Engine spamming ring a bell? Article marketing with nonsensical posts? Is bombardment enough for me to be persuaded to buy something? Am I willing to buy from a brand that screams at me? How long until Google invents a shower radio called Google Wet to sell me ads?

If I post, “Just Buy It” will the masses come in droves begging for our Pittsburgh Web Design? For our Pittsburgh Search Engine Optimization Services? For our Pittsburgh Internet Consulting? If I corner prospective clients with all that jazz about top Google results and a pushy tone will it help? Probably Not.

Thanks kids for providing me hours of thought. A special Thanks to the,”Just Buy It” kid for the fodder for this post. I should probably drop by and give him a royalty on my next sale.

Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing Campaign Strategies

The first 3 posts in this series:

• Planning Your Social Media Campaign
• Analyzing Your Social Media Campaign
• Implementing Your Social Media Campaign

have showed how to plan your social media campaign, analyze the social media market, and implement a social media campaign. Now it’s time to look at measurement of your efforts to determine your campaigns effects on Traffic, SEO, and Reach.

Measurement statistics or analytics, as they are referred to, provide a way to judge how effective your campaigns are to date. Analytics can provide valuable insight into strengths and weaknesses of your social media campaigns and sniff out opportunities that you may have to promote your campaigns and your business.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MIX – ANALYTICS

All websites and blogs should have some form of Analytics. The screenshot above is from a Twitter analytics tool called Twitalyzer. Measuring your success in the Social Media arena is very important. There are many great social media platforms to choose from; as mentioned in the previous posts in this series. Measuring your traffic on your website or blog can be done with a simple hit counter. Other more involved statistics can be done by implementing Google Analytics or AWstats.

Here is a great article to show you how involved statistics can be and how much they can cost. (see comments) Having said that there are loads of free tools that you can utilize to measure your social success in the marketing arena for free.

A great free tool for you to benchmark where you are at any time is http://www.socialmention.com/. This is very powerful and provides you with a number of options for finding your content and reach. Of course if you are yet to start your campaign then it can give you an idea of how competitive the social media landscape has become for your terms.

Another free tool we really like is http://www.howsociable.com . This tool generates scores based on your level of involvement in dozens of social media sites. It is no frills, no login, and generates a nice idea of how well your campaign is progressing.

Just remember that analytics are only a barometer of how well your doing. The true measure of your success is always conversions. Need help with your Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing campaigns? Contact Blackball Online Marketing for a free analysis.

Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing Campaign Strategies

We hope you have already read the Planning Your for Social Media Marketing Campaign and the Analyzing Your Social Media Marketing Campaign posts. If not take a minute or two to catch up. That was quick. Having gone through the steps in the previous posts all that’s left to do is have some fun. Research for us is fun.

Now that you know your company’s strengths and weaknesses as identified previously it’s time to research the Social Media channels that are right for you. We mentioned previously about asking your present clients “What if any social networking sites do you use?”. This information can now be put to use in a real way. Explore a little and draw your own conclusions.

The absolute first thing we did was to build a blog. While this may not be a strategy you wish to employ right now keep it in mind. There are many blogging platforms out there. Blogger, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, and Drupal are the top blogging sites according to the Alexa rankings as of this writing but there are also other alternatives.

Social Media Blogging Platforms

Blogging on your own site has a number of distinct advantages. The traffic you generate will be all yours. As you become more proficient with your blogging tools and your writing, you will generate a clear channel to your audience with no static. A one to many relationship between you and your customers / readers. Why not have the traffic you generate with your words and your thoughts benefit you? Sounds fair – right? This is not the case when you choose a platform hosted elsewhere. Yes, you can link back to your main site but it doesn’t carry the same weight. One the flipside, more technical skill is required and someone must administer the blog thus using company resources. Blackball Online Marketing designs custom blogs for small business and can help you implement your small business social media campaigns.

One last thought on blogging. This requires commitment as well as any other business initiative. Social Media, and business for that matter, is really all about commitment. Cultivate your audience and your business relationships will grow and prosper.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MIX – IMPLEMENTATION

Into Action - Whether you chose to implement a blog or already have one it’s time to take your research and put it to use. Use Alexa to find the sites with the most popularity and the most reach. Are any of these on your lists of sites already mined from your customers? Have a look at the Social Media sites on this list and do your homework.

A short list of must have sites in our opinion.

• Twitter – This site is easy to understand and implement and it lets you get your feet wet with minimal effort. Please read all their valuable info on the site to get you started.
• YouTube – This is the second largest search engine on the Internet – don’t let it pass you by. Get creative and make some videos for publication.
• LinkedIn – A very business oriented site that let’s you develop a business profile and sharing level without the non business noise that comes with most of the other sites.
• Facebook – Yes we said Facebook. Although there are still some privacy concerns as far as simplicity, this is still the big dog of social media marketing and should not be overlooked.

So if you’ve been following along and developed a list of sites to submit to, here is where your blog or website represents you to the rest of the blogosphere and the rest of the net. Share and promote your blog/site everywhere you can. It’s the world’s view of you. So keep this in mind when blogging and commenting on other posts or pages.

As you grow your social media following you’ll likely have many logins. Write these down as you submit to them. It will save you a lot of grief later. Hope to see you on a social media site out there or get started now and join our blog and comment right away. We’d appreciate it.

Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing by Blackball Online Marketing