The next time you’re seated in front of a workstation checking your email, social channels and blog, ask yourself how courageous you’ve been today.

Courageous is walking toward danger, but it’s also sharing a space with someone in need, sensing distress and offering a connection or just spending your valuable time on someone other than yourself.

Realize each day that as amazing as it is to maintain communication with your extended tribe, it is decidedly convenient with tech tools.

So in this convenient segment of your life, challenge yourself to make a difference.

Our jobs and families absorb the majority of our day but there is always that gap that leaves you feeling frustrated that you haven’t made a difference in another life.

Select a task

Connect to that good karma by using the small moments (under 10 minutes) at your keyboard to fill that gap. Which of these tasks can you accomplish today?

• Find the curmudgeon in your Facebook feed and offer a kind word. Remind them of a commonality in their profile that you share.
• Take a minute to read a friend’s blog, comment on a post and then highlight that post in your social media.
• Say something kind or complimentary to the person who has sent you a simple reminder email. Thank them for their attention to detail.
• Help someone with an open question by checking with your followers on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for an answer.
• People use Twitter lists to find better information. Improve a Twitter list with a more detailed description and more followers so that it will be more useful to others.
• Scroll through your email addresses and surprise someone by sending an email to let them know you are thinking of them.
• Find someone among your social media followers with a new college student and make sure they know about cheap textbook options like Chegg.com or BetterWorldBooks.com.
• Write a brief recommendation for one of your LinkedIn contacts.
• Discover a 404 error, misspelling or form that doesn’t work on someone’s website? Don’t ignore it and move on. Send them a quick note so they can make adjustments.
• Find and share a good how-to video and then provide a summary, detail and a link so that others can learn how to set up a wireless router or how to video chat with Skype.

Don’t finish the day unless you can answer the question: Have I strengthened a connection and made a small difference in someone’s life?

Next time: How to spend larger gaps of free time (20-30 minutes) to help others.

Kevin Cesarz is director of social media and Web project manager at Thread Marketing Group in Maumee (www.threadgroup.com). He also helps create storytelling content for MrElshMedia (www.mrelshmedia.com). Find more ideas about social media at http://klcesarz.wordpress.com.

Tags: BetterWorldBooks, Chegg.com, com, Facebook, I Scream Social, Kevin Cesarz, LinkedIn

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 4th, 2011 at 3:34 pm and is filed under I Scream Social, Toledo Business Link.
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