"News, Herds, and Waterholes – Lessons from a 6 year old"

I was getting my boys ready for school this morning

Charlie (6) and I were downstairs while Joshua (9) was upstairs preparing to brush his teeth.

- "Dad! There’s a spider in the sink" (News)

- "Rinse it away"

- "I can’t!"

I went up to sort out a trivial event.

Charlie, still with only one sock on, got there *way* ahead of me (Herds)

We *all* rinsed the spider away (Waterhole)

Lesson: News is potent stuff which will draw people in to a collective place to satisfy insatiable curiosity

Learning from Children

Children are extremely opinionated, and not at all afraid to show it!

In fact, they will often deliberately provoke an argument to get their opinion across.

"Whatever …"

Daddy (47) and Charlie (5) are getting out of the car and going inside the front door of the house.

A pigeon is cooing somewhere in the background.

Charlie: "Is that an owl hooting Daddy?"
Daddy: "No Charlie, it’s a pigeon"
Charlie: "No it’s not, it’s an owl !"
Daddy: "Whatever Charlie, whatever…"

What we learn:

• People can have very strong opinions
• (Even when they are demonstrably wrong)
• Some people are not afraid to exhibit their opinion
• You can have an argument about it, if you choose to

AdWords application (for your ads and landing pages):

• Ask for an Opinion
• Reinforce that Opinion (Empathy), or
• Deliberately challenge it (Controversy)
• Get people involved with you according to what they feel about something