BOL

Why have so many researchers embraced Facebook or Instagram pages? They understand the importance of social media and how it adds value. Now that consumers often experience interactions with companies that are not face-to-face, shifting to social media has become an ideal way to actively engage with researchers.

With social media, you have the opportunity to highlight all the best aspects of your research with one click. What information would be most useful for your potential and current research lab to have easy access to?

Don’t leave this vital question unanswered! Social media’s importance is seen when you realize your social pages become a hub for users to easily find out more about your research and what you care about, without clicking away from the app or website they’re already browsing.

You can use social media as a platform to distinguish your research from competing labs, too. Showing researchers that your research personality is clearly defined and consistent is valuable, but you also want to make sure you are also wrapping your research identity in with common trends on the internet (as appropriate) to show your alike researchers that you are up-to-date on the world around you.

Remember, you don’t want to sound inauthentic! Understanding the importance of social media and investing in it gives you the ability to show that you can connect on a personal level with your alike researchers.

The importance of social media is seen in that it provides value while also creating a low-cost way to market your research. Plus, social media allows you to have direct control over the messages you share with the world.

Although increasing and maintaining your presence effectively on social media is important, it is essential to be realistic about the amount of energy and time you might need to invest in reaching larger audiences.

These days, if you don’t have an online presence it affects which opportunities will come your way. I showed an example of someone looking for ECR conference speakers on Twitter and all suggestions in response to this were for ECRs who were on Twitter.

When someone Googles your name, what do they get? What do you want them to see? I gave my opinion on some profiles:

• Google Scholar – essential. Sign up, and once you have a publication, make your profile public. Website – essential. As a minimum we add each person to the lab website with links to their professional profiles.
  
  
• ORCiD – required. All lab members need an ORCiD for our publications. Easy to set up a profile and link to services that will auto-update it for you, e.g. when you publish a paper.
  
  
• Twitter – important. Possibly essential these days. Many scientists are on Twitter and there are a lot of benefits to joining. It is somehow more professional than other social networks. Twitter handles can even be included on papers. Great for networking with other scientists and for following meetings. This a great guide to getting started.
  
  
• LinkedIn – important outside of academia. I personally dislike LinkedIn, but it is essential if you are job-hunting outside of academic circles.
  
  
• ImpactStory – not essential but fun. You can make a profile based on your ORCiD. It’s a good way to keep track of the attention that your work gets online.
  
  
• Publons – might become important. This is a way to log your review activity.

Many places to set up an author profile, e.g. researcherid. Most are not worth bothering with if you have ORCiD and/or Google Scholar page.

• ResearchGate – not important. It’s incredibly popular but I have never needed it and dislike it for similar reasons to LinkedIn.

How active you are on these platforms determines what you will get out of them, but as a minimum, try and keep them active and up-to-date.

I left it to the people in the lab to setup whatever accounts they like. A possibility is to get people to sign up right there in the session, but I think it’s important for everyone to make a choice about what profile(s) they want to create. The only one I require people in the lab to setup is ORCiD.