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As Social Media and Online statistics continue to grow you need to think about preparing your children for tomorrow’s world.  As brick and mortar businesses continue to flounder and more companies hit the net, the skills necessary to succeed online will become more vital than ever.

Reading

It all starts with reading.  Train their brains to read from all types of sources.  Books, Kindle, E-books, and online articles.  Limit their television viewing.  Provide your kids with a variety of content.  Let them discover their interests.  The words, “Oh, you have plenty of time to figure out what you want to be” are poison to the ears.  Just think of the advantage you would have had if you found your passion/love at fifteen or younger.  Be consistent and make it enjoyable for your kids.

Writing

Your daughter or son just finished a book.  Have them write down their thoughts about the book.  Go out and purchase a journal for them to keep a diary.  Even if it’s only a sentence or two a day, it becomes habit.  Most kids lack a filter.  Take advantage of that and encourage creativity to be expressed on paper.  If they are going to be solid online, they are going to have to write.

Blog Posts, articles, and E-Books are the core of many online superstars.  The obstacles to becoming an author of a book have been reduced.  While the costs of creating a self-published hard cover book are steep, you can create an E-book inexpensively.

Have your kids take a typing class as soon as possible.  It’s one of the most valuable classes they’ll take in school.

Public Speaking

The more comfortable your kids are speaking in a front of a group they know, the better they will be in front of strangers down the road.  Have them practice in front of the family and videotape the speech.  Start simple until they find their rhythm.  From there you can have them start to memorize a short speech.  View the videotape with them and suggest improvements.

It’s the end of your kids birthday party and you say thank you to everyone.  Instead of you speaking, give your child the floor.  Have them say a few words in front of the party.  Let them order their own food at restaurants.  When these opportunities arise let your children do the talking when you appropriate.  Let them speak.

Their public speaking talents will pay dividends when they’re asked to talk at conferences in the future.

Photography

Unless you’ve spent most of your time out of the solar system you realize how visual we are as human beings.  Sites such as Instagram, Flickr, and Google Plus are widely popular and cater to photography.

You see images in just about every blog post.  If you don’t, you should.  Don’t fight it if you don’t get it, photos and images are very important to online success.

Allow your kids to take photos from any device that includes a camera.  Again, familiarity and consistency will lead to improvement.

Trey Ratcliff is arguably the most popular and social media savvy photographer on the planet.  He’s taken his love and talent for photography and built it into a 7 figure a year business.  Start taking pictures kids.

Building Relationships

This is arguably the most important part of this article.  Learning how to build relationships is paramount to a successful online career.  Are there exceptions where individuals succeed with little or no help from others?  Well of course, but if you want to put the odds in your favor, you need to build relationships.

Have your kids become friendly with not just kids their age, but 2-3 grades above theirs.  First, they can learn from older kids that have experienced what your kids are living currently.  Secondly, the transition to High School from Junior High can be challenging and full of anxiety.  If your kids have built relationship with older kids throughout their education, then entering High School will be seamless and welcoming.

If building relationships is instilled and practiced, your kids will create so many opportunities for themselves as they get older.

Sharing and Giving Back

Whether it is for someone less fortunate or just a friend that needs a favor your kids should be giving and caring.  The mindset should be to help others.  We don’t want our kids to ever be taken advantage of, but sharing and giving back should be the norm.  Have them visit nursing homes and/or Hospitals to visit sick children.  It can be humbling and fulfilling to kids.  Helping others should be a staple.

There is a lot sharing and philanthropy online today.  Have your kids find a cause to help and own it.  It could be illness that a relative or friend has battled, which would be relatable to your child.

Take advantage of Technology

We’ve come a long way since the Commodore 64.  Those were the days.  Many kids have direct or indirect access to Smart phones, Tablets, and/or laptops.  Your kids should embrace the technology offered today even if you, as a parent, have lukewarm feelings.  Technology has become engrained in both our personal and business lives.  You don’t have to shove down their throats, but don’t deprive them if they show interest.  There are not many careers out there that aren’t touched by technology.

It’s never too early for a Twitter account.  Your 3 year old isn’t going to be active right now, but at 5-8 they are going to start to be in tune, and maybe at 11-12 they’re ready.  When they reach an age where they gain some interests (4-6) think about registering a Domain name.  You’ll pay about $10 a year with GoDaddy (a) or Netfirms (a) a year, but 5-10 years down the line that domain will have good age and that is attractive for search in Google’s eyes today.  You’re probably putting money away for college, why not spend $10 a year to put them in a better position with a future site/blog.

Obviously you figured out that excelling in the above will help your children in many different career paths.   These are foundations to being successful online and offline.  If your kids are polished in all these areas, they are well on their way to online stardom if they choose.

Please share the article if you enjoyed it and found it of value.  I look forward to your comments, have a great week.

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