Love Streams

I’ve learned more about social media in marketing from my 10 and 12-year-old sons than any webinar or conference. While we’re all scrambling trying to figure out how to use social media in business, the next generation is busy building businesses using this technology.

by Journey Streams

Last summer both of my sons convinced me not to send them to summer camp for the first time because they wanted to have time to explore their own interests and not be forced into daily activities decided by camp counselors. They’re both excellent students so we felt giving them some unstructured time and allowing them to relax was a good call.

My son Journey, age 10, launched his media company: supertechnonerd.com. This wasn’t a complete surprise to me as our house is filled with his art work and he already self publishes a comic book and distributes it at school. (He holds “book signings” once a trimester.)

by Journey Streams

He story boards show ideas for his YouTube channel with his friends using iChat, they call them “board meetings,” and he uses his Flip camera and tripod to capture all the fun on video. His friends and their parents love it!

When my husband set up Jouney’s hosting account on GoDaddy he asked him if he minded having ads at the top of the page. My son’s response was, “It wouldn’t be a real website without ads Dad.” He also signed himself up for Google AdSense and monitors his web stats daily. He communicates with the YouTube subscribers by giving them incentives to subscribe and encourages his peers to get involved.

My older son, Harmony, came to me early in the school year and told me he was now a part of Journey’s production team and a member of supertechnonerd company.

Harmony reads a book every two days, fantasy fiction mostly. His love for reading makes it difficult to keep him in books so he tells us about new authors and titles that he discovers through YouTube vloggers turned authors and we order them on Amazon for him. He’s getting a Kindle for Christmas because his bookshelves are full in his room.

Harmony’s also my World of War craft level master. He made it to level 72 over the summer and recently reached level 80 and started a new character over the Thanksgiving break. He’s made countless friends through the game and they communicate sort of like old-school pen pals. (No WOW during school though, Mom has to set limits.)

The skills their building with these activities are enumerable. My plan is to keep feeding their interests and taking notes!