Today was the beginning of the end of my maternity leave. I’ve had 12 months off work after having my 2nd beautiful baby girl. In two weeks I start a new job. Of course its gone in a blur, but I actually feel better connected now even than when I left work last year.

The difference for me has been social media. And I’m clearly no early adopter – this post is kind of my 3rd attempt in 2 years to get my blog running <blushes>. Apart from the pressing desire/need/expectation to just get on with it, I was also inspired by wonderwebby’s post “Making Connections. Making a difference.” about how she benefits from online social networking.

So what’s different? To be honest I’ve really only paid attention for the last six months and half of that was just toe-dabbling. However I’ve still benefited. To follow Jasmin’s lead I’d say it comes down to:

1. Personal development. Just through reading a quarter of the blogs I should read and listening to about a tenth of the podcasts I’d like to, I’ve kept up to date and broadened my thinking. It doesn’t matter that’s its 6am or 10pm and I’m in my dressing gown, if my brain is up to it I can learn something (although the fact that my baby girl now demands to watch Dr Vaine IS a worry). Podcasts didn’t always win out over Oprah (yes I do watch Oprah), but they usually did.

2. Virtual watercooler. One of the aspects of working life that I missed most while on leave is the old “watercooler” chitchat with work pals. When I gave Twitter a try I found something of that amongst my looser network of peers and a handful of thought leaders already well established in the twitterverse. (There is something to be said for feeling like I had the time and “permission” to experiment with these tools. I was working when I first heard about Twitter, and I dismissed it almost immediately as an unnecessary drain on my already limited time. I can see now how it can be “tamed” and used to benefit my work.) In contrast, an older listserve I am still a member of often proved to be (with a number of exceptions) a cold and unforgiving place, almost completely devoid of human warmth (although you can warm yourself by the searing heat of the flame wars when they periodically flare up)*.

3. Network consciousness – tool transparency. My LinkedIn is (very) slowly growing, I have 17 followers on Twitter (gee whiz), and I am a member of 5 Ning social networks, one of which I started 3 months ago. That’s all nice, but what is more interesting is that I am beginning to get a sense of actually being in the networks, as opposed to using a tool or being on a platform. I’ve caught myself thinking about operating in my networks without thinking about which tool – ie achieving tool/media transparency. Today I contributed a small amount to a Google Document that has been shared with a couple of dozen people who have expressed interest in a collaborative event that was proposed by a friend on his blog, that I was alerted to on twitter. I sense this is becoming the new normal. Which does make the actual networks more important that the tools or platform. More important, more visible (within the network), more powerful and really quite nimble. Wow!

After six years working only 30 minutes from home, I now return to commuting 2 hours each way into Sydney. It will take a very understanding family, a wonderfully flexible employer and lots of planning/effort to make that work. And I suspect social media and my networks will play no small role.

*P.S. You know who you are :-) I have exaggerated for effect of course. And my affection for this community prevents me from removing myself from the list, despite its orneriness.