If you want to advance in your career both inside and outside of academe, one of the best ways to do that is by appearing online. Research shows that academic article publications are cited more and have more impact when they receive media coverage and visibility. However, if you are an academic without a strong online presence, it might just be the reason why you are missing out on media coverage, visibility, high paid speaking engagements and more.
These days, everyone is looking online – including editors, journalists, producers, book publishers and more. Employers use professional networking sites such as LinkedIn to look for job candidates.
Not only that but building an online presence can help grow your network beyond the geographical region where you work. Online communities and social media allow you to interact with others in your field — regardless of location. The problem is, if you’re like most academics I work with, you’re not posting on social media, don’t “get” Twitter and certainly don’t feel the need to post anything on Instagram. During times of great change, you need to differentiate yourself and today’s academic can easily do this by strengthening his/her online presence.
With a stronger online presence, you open yourself up to more job opportunities, income and visibility both inside and outside of academe.
So why not create an online personal brand to help advance your career, income and opportunities? Creating an online presence can help you stand out from others in your field. Curating an online presence shows creativity and gives academics opportunities to have a larger impact on the world and connect their work to the masses.
The online persona you present online may be someone’s first impression of you and determine whether they want to reach out to extend opportunities to you beyond your wildest dreams.
Here’s how you can create a captivating online presence:
- Introduce yourself, your values, and your skills. Think about what you want to be known for and what values are important to you.
- What communities do you want to impact with your work/ research?
- Why do you enjoy working in your field or area of expertise?
- What motivates you to do what you are doing?
- How can you connect your various interests into one strong brand statement?
- Cater your online presence to the people you want to reach and impact with your work/ research. Find creative ways to display and translate your work/ research and set high expectations around what you can bring to the audiences you want to reach.
- For example, have an understanding of what opportunities you want to come your way and position your personal academic brand towards attracting more of those opportunities.
- Communicate your work/ research into small digestible snippets for the masses – not just academics.
- Showcase your achievements and accomplishments in the online space.
- Join communities or websites related to your field/ area. You can use the Internet to network, too! By joining communities related to your field/ area, you open yourself up to potential job opportunities, such as speaking engagements, workshops, consulting and more.
- Actively participate and network at online seminars in your field/ area.
- Find and interact with others in your field on a social media network such as LinkedIn or Twitter.
- Find an online community, such as a LinkedIn group or Facebook group, where you can network with others, offer support, or ask questions.
- Create content, or personal projects. Displaying content or personal projects shows that you are dedicated to your area of expertise/ field. It might also show unique skills or perspectives you have that set you a part from others in your field.
- Add credibility through testimonials or reviews. Testimonials or reviews give social proof to potential income generating opportunities. For example, if someone send you a nice note or email about a workshop you did or a speaking engagement, share that online (redact the clients name, unless you have permission). If someone tweets you on Twitter something positive about a talk you did or an appearance, retweet it and share it out. Use that same message to repost on all of your other social media platforms. Pro tip: LinkedIn makes it super easy to ask for testimonials to be added right to your profile.
The more you invest in your online presence, the more you will generate potential opportunities beyond what you can even imagine – documentary features, op-ed offers, consulting gigs and more.
Every academic is pretty much doing the same thing but far too many have little to no online presence and they are not only leaving money on the table, but preventing their work/ research from helping the people they write about/ research. To me – that is a tragedy. A basic online presence can display your skills and experience, but actually developing an online presence can also show your personality and values.
By developing an online presence, you have the opportunity to stand out from the rest. The work you do to build an online presence will undoubtedly leave a positive impression on those inside and outside of academe and help you advance in your career tremendously!
Book a free call with Dr. Sheena C.Howard, Founder of Power Your Research, to discuss how to amplify your platform through increasing your visibility, authority and income below …
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