Keeping Youth Safe Online

Many people out there are scared of the internet. They’re scared of its power, but hey, if Superman hid his powers from the world, he wouldn’t be able to help anyone at all!

The key is to contain and protect your youth from what they might come across online, and with some extra knowledge about what to do and what not to do, can help go a long way.

So here we go, three key points to keep youth safe online…

1. Don’t give our personal information. It’s kind of simple…in real life, if you don’t want someone to go use your credit card, don’t give out your details to people. Same with the online world; if you don’t want randoms calling your cell phone, don’t give out your personal information. Re-iterate to youth that whatever you put online will stay there forever, regardless of whether they take it off, it will always be stored somewhere online in a little box, and hackers have ways of retrieving this information. Don’t let them be a victim to this, so just a gentle reminder to not put out their address, contact phone numbers, or any type of details they don’t need on there. Many people are scared to set up profiles on social networks, because they believe their identity may get stolen. The way I see it, living in real life is way more dangerous – if someone really wanted to steal your identity, they can stalk you to your house, get close-up shots of your face, and steal your credit cards out of your wallet. Online, you hold a certain amount of authority over what information you want to make available for the public; heck, you don’t even need to put up a real photo of you – put up a photo of a cartoon, or a nice sunset…you are allowed to be in control, so stay in control.

2. Invest in security software. Just like parents put parental locks on certain channels, you can do the same to prevent any viruses, or to block unwanted websites online. It’s fantastic that you have the option to protect your online use so much, so don’t overlook a few tens of dollars.

3. Limit their time on the internet. Research is coming up with horrific figures about how much time young people are spending online…help contribute to minimize this in your household by limiting the amount of time your young people are spending online. It will ensure they are most productive during the time they do have, and also have time to do other things in the REAL world. A great tip many parents are talking about, is to not let young people…probably more the pre-teens, be online past their bed time. Apart from the corneas getting damaged, it will disrupt their sleeping patterns, which is not recommended for growing, evolving bodies of adolescents.

They may be simple, but definitely effective to help keep your youth stay safer and healthier. You can put all these in practice, starting today, and if matters are getting really out of hand, how about an online/computer-use set of rules to make sure everyone knows the rules they can stick to. It doesn’t have to be a big Super Nanny poster, but a good 5 points that you can brainstorm with the whole family can make online use fun, productive, and staying safe, effective in your household.

What is the best piece of advice you can give, or have been given about staying safe online?
Also, check out the video about the topic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8vo0_HUtY

Annoying Youth Habits in your Workforce

Day in and day out, more and more youth are coming into the workforce. And no wonder – half the world’s population is under 25 years old, and the new generation’s work habits are following them into the workforce. Bad attitudes, scruffy work clothes, turning up late and in general, disregard for not understanding when the business doesn’t do well, they may be out of a job.

Sure, that sounds like the generic youth job of a bartender, or coffee-maker, but it extends way into the corporate and SME world too.

The twisted youth minds are a hard one to understand, but when it comes to it, unless your generation wants to be blamed for the bad habits instilled in today’s youth, it may be good to pay some attention to what they react to, and what will help them achieve more in your business.

Many attitudes come down to the parenting young people have received. Do they respect you as an employer, comes down to: do they respect adults in their lives? Showing up in scruffy clothes, comes down to: were values instilled about respecting the people around them?

Having asked around, some of the most common problems with youth come down to the same answer:

The issues are: coming in with scruffy clothes, Bad attitudes, and showing up late for work
Why do they do that? They know when their shift starts…do they not own an alarm clock??!

If only things were that simple. When a young person’s shift starts at 9am, they’re likely to show up at 9am on the dot. Coming in scruffy clothes…perhaps that’s how they actually dress. Bad attitudes aren’t kept in check unless someone complains. So why not just tell them! Picking up on turning to work late, older generations understand that a 9am start time means coming into work 10, 15, minutes before start-time so they’re dressed and ready for work. Well, not in this world – youth will show up when they’re expected, sometimes later. The warning for being late will be obvious, but not when they show up on time, even if they spend 10 minutes to get into ‘work mode’, thinking they’re paid for the time they’re on the premises.
What’s the way out of it? Tell them what you expect and why – whether it’s about the dress code, attitude or time management. What may seem very obvious to you about workforce attitudes will be different to today’s youth due to their parenting they received. If you expect to run your business in a particular way, don’t let it to their common sense to decide what’s right and wrong – tell them. Come up with a Code of Conduct with all the rules written out so if they come to work ‘on time’ instead of 10 minutes earlier or are wearing a ripped shirt, you can point them back to ‘the rules’. No if’s or but’s there….

How do you/how would you keep your young workers in check?

Parenting Expo and Second Book Launch!

So the second book is finally here.

FINALLY!!

Absolutely excited to the max about it - check out the video HERE



The official launch will be at 2pm at the Parenting Expo....all you people in New Zealand, I look forward to seeing you there! More info on here: www.upperhuttcity.com/parentingexpo

It's The Little Things...

Imagine starting your day with a cute coffee that someone's put some effort into! Wouldn't that just make your day a gazillion times better?


After all, isn't it the little things in life that make the biggest impacts?
Think about the little things that you can do...for anyone, on any given day...

• Saying 'I love you' to your teen who you just had a huge fight with
  
  
• Getting a friend some flowers just because
  
  
• Leaving a handwritten note for a colleague to congratulate them about...anything!
  
  
• Calling a long-lost contact, just to find out what's up
  
  
• Leaving your mark in your work with pride (like drawing on a coffee...although I AM yet to find someone who is brave/skilled enough to draw their number in a coffee...I'll find them...one day...)

What are the small things you can start doing today?
Or what are the small things you do already? Let's add some happiness to this world, peoples...
I'm off to write a whole bunch of handwritten notes on bright pink Post-its...just because :)

Love and kisses! xoxox

Engaging Us as a Generation...

It's been a while since I blogged on here, but I have something I'd love your feedback on, as I wrote on the Emergen ygenclub Blog...

An article I wrote got published in last month's Speaker Magazine that goes out to all members of associations run by the Global Speakers Federation around the world. I've put it up linking back to the magazine on HERE.

I tried to focus on key myths that I've heard go around teachers and speakers, breaking myths like...

• You have to be young to engage youth.
• You need to be cool.
• Textbook content is good.
• I’m an adult, so young people need to hear my funny stories about my life.
• You must be inspiring and positive.

What's been amazing is getting gazillions of e-mails and calls since the article came out, from people wanting to know more tips, more insights into how to engage us, young people as an audience.

So I'm here to get your feedback...what other myths should we bust?

What advice would you give an older speaker who completely missed the target of engaging an audience you were part of?

What tips can you share, perhaps even from your experiences?

New Year Resolution for Grandparents: Getting Social Media-ized

The world has brought on a huge hype about Social Media and how we communication with one another as a result of this phenomenon.

New Year resolutions come in all shapes and sizes, but this year I hope you take into consideration utilizing Social Media as a grandparent. There is much literature about why you shouldn’t use Social Media, but you know what, here are some strong reasons why you should use and embrace it.

Communicating with Grandchildren
Young people with their technology are a lost cause these days. Just kidding.
But seriously, Social Networking has opened up many doors for families to keep in touch. In what other age could you keep up with what your grandchildren are doing 24/7, with instant updates?
People think they need to make a Facebook profile, and that they’ll need to spend a lot of time to maintain it which means they’ll need to go on there every single day and write something every 12 hours. Firstly, you can sign on there once a month for all Facebook cares – they are about numbers anyway. Secondly, when you set up any sort of profile, be completely clear as to why you’re on there. If your primary goal is to see what your children or grandchildren are up to so you can stay in the loop and make conversation later, or comment on it through Facebook, don’t worry about updating your page every time you log on. All you’ll need for your profile is to upload a photo (if you like), set your profile to private so weird people on Facebook won’t stalk you, and write one or two sentences about what you’re up to once in a while if you feel like updating your family members about it at this platform.
It doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of time. Facebook is one of the only platforms where you may find out about your daughter/grand-daughter’s engagement before they announce it, you can keep tabs on who is visiting what city, what someone’s latest favourite food is, and get invited to and learn about events the whole family are attending (this can be family reunions, concerts, and others).

Blogging your passion
The world marvelled when a girl called Julie started blogging out of all the meals she cooked from Julia Child’s recipe book. Blogging can start you off on a ride to stardom, but even if stardom isn’t in your cards (or in your hopes), if you enjoy a particular hobby that you enjoy writing about, you can create a small following of an audience online by blogging about your hobby.
Go onto Blogger or Wordpress, create a simple account and start posting! What does this ‘posting’ mean? It’s a simple way of saying you are writing into your blog – like an online diary. Hate to write? Why not show off your photography skills? Instead of writing, post your photos online.
Tell all your friends and family about your blog – people may start following it, and at the very least, you’ll know your work is floating out there in cyber space that people will be stumbling upon from time to time.

Make a community
You probably have a whole group of friends who either hate or are confused by social media just like you. Why not get a group of you, and visit SeniorNet who can help you become computer-savvy. Or, if you already are on social networks, apart from keeping tabs on your family, you can socialize with them through the internet. The internet will make it so much more faster for you all to..
Share links to interesting stories, recipes, events
Update each other instantly, instead of phoning around only to come across answer phone half the time
You can use it at any time of day. How awkward would it be to get a phone call at 4am from a friend who’s calling to ‘just remind you about this week’s event’? On social networks, if they really must get in touch with you, they can leave you a comment or message at any time of day, and be rest assured that you will check it when most convenient for you.

Are you already excited to get onto Social Networks?
Or aren’t you?

Get your Business Social-Mediazed!

Although I’m a huge advocate for Social Media, but at the end of the day, it’s merely a marketing platform, and just like you, as a business, don’t visit every business networking event, your business also doesn’t need to be on every social networking site, so here’s a few tips to help you be as productive as possible in your online ventures:

- Have a reason. Sit down and ask yourself: what do I hope to achieve through social media? Is it to drive traffic to my site? Or will I get more business by sharing articles and links that will be useful to my potential clients and become a trustworthy brand by being an information hub?

- Do your research. Numbers are available everywhere – as a business, take a look at the social media sites that attract your demographic, and use those. If you’re a business selling office chairs to large corporates, your primary audience won’t be found on Bebo, which is made up of the Gen Y & Z audience with a passion for socializing with their age group.

- Find time. Social Media can become daunting if you get stuck on checking your profile every time a new alert comes into your inbox. Set aside, say, half an hour every Monday morning to reply to messages and update your personal/business page and stick to it.

- Automate it. A couple of useful tools our clients love are ping.fm and futuretweets.com. Ping lets you update all your social networks at once with the same message. Say you’ve done your half an hour of updating on Monday but come Tuesday and an important press release just appeared in a local paper about your company. You can log onto Ping and send a link to update all your profiles without logging onto each one individually. FutureTweets is a great partner for businesses on Twitter - you can schedule a series of tweets to go out to your Twitter audience at different days and times. Free, quick and easy!

And if you need any extra consulting, or a full-time person to do everything to get your business social-mediazed for success, let us know – our team of Social-Media savvy youth are ready to add success to your business exposure and profits.

Catch you soon,
Eva-Maria
eva@socialnetworkingnz.co.nz
www.socialnetworkingnz.co.nz

....WOW technology's gone far! For the video version of this blog post, watch it here: