Take your social media strategies into your own hands, get a refresher course on using photos in your work and discover a commenting manifesto in today’s Lunchtime Links:

It takes work and it takes time to up your savvy.

Become Your Own Social Expert

With a million ninjas, gurus, and experts running around, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? SocialFish contributor Ryan Crowe suggests the key lies in educating yourself, not solely listening to others.

“You don’t one day decide to be a financial analyst and read a few blog posts and start looking for a job. You don’t become a product manager by asking a few people their personal philosophies on product management. It takes work and it takes time to up your savvy,” he advises.

Read his full breakdown on understanding social media here.

Dress Up Your Content

What better way to feed your social media channels than with interesting, informative infographics and compelling photo assets? The problem is, there’s a lot of improper attribution out on the web. How can you tell if a photo is free for you to use?

Luckily, Velvet Chainsaw’s Jeff Hurt brought our attention to a Foter Blog infographic that breaks down the fundamentals of using Creative Commons photos.

Show Your Comments Some Love

While social networks like Facebook and Twitter take much of the spotlight, remember that the oft-maligned comments sections on your site can offer fertile ground for valuable conversations and reader insight. Or they can fall prey to profanity, trolling, and spam. To help push comments in the right direction, Derek Powazek has proposed a “Commenters’ Bill of Rights.”

“People misbehave when they feel abandoned or insulted, and the experience design of most comment systems creates exactly that feeling. If comment systems treated commenters better, their comments would be better,” Powazek writes.

Read his full proposal right here.

(iStock/Thinkstock)