Why your kids should build an audience on social media

When it comes to choosing teachers for our programs, I’m pretty picky.

I want to bring in experts and professionals from the world’s leading organizations.

But I also want to work with people who live out Prequel’s values.

And this is exactly why JP was a perfect fit to lead our AI Masterclass. 🤖

JP is a multi-passionate human. He’s a:

• Professional volleyball player

• Video creator

• Professor (teaching a university’s first-ever YouTube course)

• Real estate investor

Prequel teaches kids to pursue a wide variety of side hustles – and our instructors practice what they preach.

JP has absolutely killed the follower game — so in today’s newsletter, he tells us how kids can build an audience on social media (and why they should).

Let’s dive in 👇

A lot of you are worried about your teen’s confidence.

Umm… have you seen their TikTok lately? 😬

Help them build confidence where it matters most — standing out in the college admissions game.

At BETA Camp this fall, your teen will launch a business in 10 short weeks.

Paired with the lessons from today’s newsletter, that oughta get ‘em noticed.

Enrollments close Sep 17. Space is limited. Get on it.

💡 Becoming a social media influencer = a smart move for your kid’s future

🤳 Would you actively encourage your kids to become social media influencers?

JP built a huge audience on TikTok (amassing over 100k followers in under 4 months), and he thinks kids should, too — here’s why:

Kids who have an audience on social media have an insane advantage over the rest of their peers.

📱 Having an audience helps kids land internships and launch businesses.

💰 It’s a distinctive negotiating tool once they enter the workforce: “You can increase your base salary just by having a high follower count,” says JP.

🎓 It signals to colleges and future employers that your kid is a self-starter, dedicated to achieving their goals.

“Having an audience was a bigger contributing factor to getting jobs than my bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD were,” says JP.

In other words, growing an audience on social media isn’t a pipe dream – it’s a great way to stand out from the crowd of students with the same grades, SAT scores, and extracurriculars.

Helping kids stay safe while growing on social media

Most parents can agree there are benefits to growing on social media.

⚠️ But there are still concerns, too — what if kids encounter trolls? What about maintaining their privacy?

That’s why JP recommends kids separate themselves from their online brand.

“They should always be able to disassociate themselves from the persona, because that also means being able to distance themselves from haters or trolls,” says JP.

It’s also why kids should only build an audience with a clear purpose.

So if their goal is just “to be famous”, they should re-frame that.

The real value of social media comes from demonstrating established expertise in a given area.

Take Prequel student Grace Price for example:

The purpose of her account is to educate people about the latest cancer research. 🧬

Her niche is specific, and so is her content. She’s not talking about her personal life on her account. And this helps her accomplish two things:

• Showing her expertise in the medical research field

• Maintaining privacy over the rest of her life

(By the way, Grace landed a summer internship directly from Twitter –ehh– X)

Kids can also build a social media account anonymously.

This works great on platforms like Substack or Twitter (X), which prioritize writing over more visual content.

But with AI, kids can run anonymous accounts on visual platforms, too.

Just check out this Youtuber who runs his account facelessly, using AI to create every portion of the videos.

Using AI to overcome the biggest social media hurdle

If growing on social media is so valuable, why doesn’t everyone do it?

The biggest challenge with social media is being consistent. 

“A lot of people give up before they’ve even given it a fair shot,” says JP.

“Most people don’t understand that you need to dedicate at least two years to growing on YouTube, for example. Unless you’ve posted consistently for that long, you can’t say there isn’t an audience for you, or the algorithm isn’t fair.”

To help kids overcome these challenges, JP recommends using AI.

“To be successful on social media, you have to post a lot,” says JP. “For TikTok, that means 4-5 times per day, every single day.”

But with AI, you don’t need to come up with all those ideas on your own.

• Ask ChatGPT for a list of ideas to grow your Instagram account.

• In seconds, you’ll have hundreds of ideas to choose from.

• To get even better results, try out the prompt below 👇

What’s possible with AI: Going beyond ChatGPT

As we’ve covered, AI is crazy powerful. It can…

👉 generate an infinite wellspring of content ideas.

👉 power an entire YouTube channel.

👉 even create a Wes Anderson-style remake of The Lord of the Rings.

The more you learn about AI, the more you realize that ChatGPT is just the beginning.

There are already so many AI tools that are changing the way the world works, and this train ain’t slowing.

So if you want your kids to thrive in that future world, they need to truly understand how AI works.

That’s why we created an AI masterclass for kids (led by JP!).

No matter what new AI tools surface in the future, kids in our programs will be equipped with the skills to make the most of them. 💪

In the very near future, the kids who can speak the language of AI will have a huge advantage over those who don’t.

Interested in learning more? Sign up here to join the waitlist.

Community Highlights

My friend Sami Ngo (who is also a subscriber on this newsletter!) just dropped some incredible knowledge on her Instagram story that I had to share: 👏

Sami’s kindergartner was asked to sell 20 raffle tickets to raise money for the school’s STEM program.

Most parents would just buy the 20 tickets for $40 and call it a day — but not Sami.

Instead, she spent an hour teaching her 5-year-old an important life skill.

And it worked – afterward, her son proudly said, “Mama, let’s set up a booth in the park to sell my art soon. This time, I can keep the money.”

I’ll leave you with this:

Even when it’s hard, choose to teach. Your kids will thank you.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo

Follow my journey on LinkedIn