Do you want to develop a social media presence to build your authority, personal brand and/or network, but overwhelmed with the options?
Social media can quickly become a full-time job, so it is important not to spread yourself too thin. Start with one network and build from there over time. It’s better to have a good presence on one platform than a half-arsed one of many.
How to choose a platform
A platform needs to be right for you so that you don’t have to force yourself to create content. You should choose a platform that suits your personality and comfort with sharing.
A platform also needs to have the people you want to connect with on it. In the breakdown
The right platform also depends on your goals. Do you want to strengthen your brand as a professor? Network? Connect with students? Develop a speaking or consulting business?
The first step is to consider what you aim to achieve from developing a social media presence. There are five main reasons PhDs want to develop a social media presence.
- Build your research network
- Connect with students
- Become a public scholar
- Dissemination of your research to a wider audience
- Create side income or a full-time business
Scroll down to the reason that best fits your aim of developing your online presence for some platform recommendations.
1. Best social media platforms if you want to build your research network
The most popular network for academics is Twitter. Twitter is a fantastic platform to get started on because it allows you to access up-to-date information in your field, stay in contact with past colleagues and fellow doctoral students, and build your network. Twitter is also a great medium to build yourself as an industry expert. Use Twitter to draw attention to your work and interact with the research and/or industry community.
Facebook Groups
While Facebook has gone out of style over the last few years Meta has pushed groups and it is where the action is now is on the platform. Facebook groups are a good way to network with your peers.
Search for Facebook groups in your interest, for example, when I was TT I was part of a Facebook group for professors of marketing. It will take a little while to find the groups with the right vibe. Some are more promotional, some are too spammy and some aren’t active. If you can’t find a good group, you can always start your own.
The original professional network. LinkedIn was a strange place for a long time where people would only go when looking for a job, but now it is a thriving social network in its own right. Start by connecting with your colleagues and those you meet at conferences. As you build your confidence and presence, you can connect with the authors of your favourite (or least favourite) articles.
Academic Networks/Websites
Academia.edu and ResearchGate can also be good places to network but it is highly varied depending on your discipline. There are some thriving clusters around specific research areas so jump on and check out a few of the researchers in your area to see if your specialisation is active on the academic only networks.
Personal Academic Website
While not social media, I recommend a personal academic website for those who are serious about building their research profile beyond the walls of academia. I have a free article here on how to develop your own personal academic website easily and cheaply.
2. Best social media platforms for professors wanting to connect with their students
This one is easy. Just ask your students where they are hanging out. At the time of writing it’s TikTok, but the trendy platforms change up quickly.
LinkedIn is also a great platform to connect with your students on if the industry of your teaching area is active there as it encourages them to start building their profile.
3. Best social media platforms for PhDs wanting to become public scholars
There are certainly some academia bubbles on Twitter, but it’s also the place journalists hang out and are easy to connect with. Twitter is also a fantastic medium to build yourself as an expert. Use Twitter to draw attention to your work and interact with the community.
LinkedIn today is a professional version of what Facebook was ten years ago. It’s the place to boast about your research, share your opinions, and build yourself as the go-to expert in your field.
Personal Website
While not social media, I’m adding this as it complements your social media and I recommend a personal website for those who are serious about becoming a public scholar. I have a free article here on how to develop your own personal academic website easily and cheaply.
4. Best social media platforms to disseminate your research to a wider audience
Instagram is my
- Build your following on Instagram in 10 minutes a day
- Academic Hashtags for Instagram
- Scheduling tools for Instagram to save you time
- Should I have a personal or business Instagram profile?
TikTok
It’s not all viral dance trends! TikTok can be used to disseminate serious and important science too. If you want to get your research out to a younger cohort, check out TikTok.
If you want to reach an older demographic, then check out Twitter.
YouTube
Technically not social media, but we’ll add it here as most people consider it social media. Video is the golden child of social media content right now. You can share your YouTube content across social media platforms for more reach.
Blog
And while we are talking about non-social media. Consider blogging to complement your social media presence.
Many academics believe that blogging is about writing frivolous ‘lifestyle’ or ‘influencer’ content, but if you want to, you can write your blogs like academic journal articles. Most researchers find a writing style somewhere in between the two. Academic rigour plus a dash of personality usually works well for disseminating research to the general public.
I have an article here on how to create a personal academic website that your blog can sit on.
5. Best social media platforms for PhDs wanting to create side income or a full-time business
Social media is a fantastic way to gain visibility to promote your services. The right platform depends highly on your business and lifestyle goals, your personality, and your target audience. I’ll share some advice here to get you started but if you are ready to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey, then check out my Boss Your PhD™ program, the academic to entrepreneur launchpad.
Increasingly popular with early career researchers and PhDs developing their side hustles and businesses. Instagram is my favourite network right now for a number of reasons. It is easy to consume the highly visual content. It is restrictive in what you post therefore, there are fewer spammy posts. It is easy to find relevant content through hashtags. Most importantly, it has the highest organic (aka free) engagement of any platform. Instagram has over 1 billion active users! Therefore, chances are your audience is on Instagram.
- Build your following on Instagram in 10 minutes a day
- Academic Hashtags for Instagram
- Scheduling tools for Instagram to save you time
- Should I have a personal or business Instagram profile?
Facebook Pages/Groups
While Facebook has gone out of style over the last few years, Facebook Pages still have a place. If you are developing
If you want to have an Instagram Business account (which I recommend for start-ups and bloggers so that you can add that clickable link), you will need a Facebook page. One advantage of a Facebook page is that you can invite your friends to like the page to get you started with your first 50 or so likes.
A Facebook group attached to your Facebook Page is an option if you would like to provide a community forum and/or share VIP content with a selective group of people. Facebook has shifted its focus recently to groups, so they are currently having a resurgence.
Join my FREE Facebook group, PhD Entrepreneurs.
The original professional network. It has become much more social in the last few years and can be a great platform to build your brand.
Snapchat
I do not recommend Snapchat unless you have a lot of time to dedicate to creating content and your target audience is young. Snapchat requires a large amount of content creation and can be overwhelming when you are just starting out to develop your personal brand. Instagram Stories (which, like Snapchat, has pictures and videos that disappear) now has over 400 million active daily users. So if you want the style of Snapchat with more features and an easier-to-use platform then Instagram is a great choice.
Google +
Google + was shut down due to a data breach.
While this platform is not technically social media, I include it here because it is a way to develop your brand and direct traffic to your website. Pinterest is great if you have a blog. Pinterest is actually a search engine – it is just visual rather than a traditional text-based search engine. This is fantastic as it means you can drive potential buyers straight to your website from Pinterest.
The biggest advantage of Pinterest is that the ‘life’ of content is much, much longer than any of the above-mentioned social networks. A ‘pin’ on Pinterest lasts for months and sometimes years. I use Tailwind loops to automatically re-pin my content for me.
