8 Lessons Learned About Social Media as Your Workplace

1. Keep going; slow and steady wins the race. Millions compete for internet space. Stay on point; don't freak out. Good content always prevails.

2. Dig deep. Do good work. Be fair. Don't steal! (More about this below, #5.)

3. Clarify your message. Define your presence. Command your space.

4. Don't obsess about followers and what-not. Write and post as if you were Oprah.

5. Be generous with others: When you read something you like, share it and give credit to the author / researcher. Guide your readers to other blogs. Keep a link list on your blog. (I'm still working on mine.)

Sad story: One of my favorite blog curators, Maria Popova of Brainpickings, whose worked I admired and emulated, stole a post from my humble blog without crediting me. It was occasioned on the birthday of a well-known poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, and we both needed fresh material for the dated occasion. I took time, dug through files, researched the web, and came up with my own offering while she promptly took it, using the same obscure quote I had spent time locating, as well as the same bookcover graphic. My post, published Dec. 4 at 12:00 noon, is here. Her post (here) was published nine hours later at 9:00pm. I discovered the redundancy because she also stole my tweet. (Alas, the downside of #hashtags.)

EQPlog Tweet at 12:30pm, Dec. 4 2013.
Original research digging up Rilke quote.

Brainpicking Tweet at 9:00pm. How unoriginal!
Help me out, Brainpicker!

Maria Popova has nearly 500,000 followers. How generous it would have been for her simply to retweet my tweet and blog post and help me out.

6. Be generous with yourself. This is your offering to the world. It has value. Don't shrink back from helping yourself by promotion. Even if it is counterintuitive, keep putting yourself out there. Your audience will find you and they will help you.

7. Take breaks to get away from the desk top. Integrate exercise or gardening or baking -- simply some other activity -- into your work day. (Yes, these sessions are also part of your workday.) It clears the head, paces you, and makes you a better worker.

8. Have fun. It is your world. Make it what you want it to be.