Networking isn’t just about reaching out to others; it’s about making it easy for others to notice and contact you. How will they know that you are the person to go to if they are searching for a particular skill or area of expertise? This section focuses on steps you can take to make it easier for people to find you, and to find you credible.
Top tips for raising your visibility
An obvious starting point is your use of social media. This is a huge topic that do not go into details with here. For ideas on making the most of social media, look at:
- Social media for academics and networking ECRI Pop Ups
- Imperial web and social media guidance
- Engagement toolkit
Many of the worries or barriers to using social media are actually similar to the ones we find for face-to-face networking (see our advice on time and confidence to network and communication). Remember that as an early career researcher, you have the power to make social media a kinder space, and opportunity to connect with others – it’s not just about self-publicising. Just as for real life situations, there’s no reason to pretend to be anything you’re not on social media.
Here is a series of small steps you could take, that add together to make a big impact. Which of these could you start doing?
Top tips
- Be consistent
- Write short lay articles or blogs
- Engage with your knowledge exchange (KE) team
- Review your online profile
- Have keywords
- Attend an event
- Organise an event
- ‘Stratify’ your introductions
- Use your email signature:
- Boost the audience of your research outputs
- Engage in open research
- Share future plans
Review your online presence
When was the last time you put your name in to a search engine? What did you find? Was it a true representation of who you are, what you offer and is it clear why someone would want to engage with you in the future?
How to audit your digital footprint
- If a potential collaborator or employer were to research you online, what would they find
- Ask two or three colleagues (who don’t know you very well) to audit your digital footprint. Offer to do the same for them.
- Ask them to take just five minutes (people won’t look for long!) to ‘google’ you and look at a variety of websites or social media to find out, and form an opinion, about you and your research.
- Ask them feed back to you (perhaps via a short chat, coffee or zoom call) on:
- What do they believe, purely from your online presence, are your key research themes
- What skills do they believe you have?
- What do they think you might offer a potential stakeholder or collaborator who might want to work with you in the future?
- What one piece of advice they would give you to improve your online presence?
- Look at their feedback within the context of what you are trying to achieve with your social media profile. Is this what you expected? Does it reflect the key words, themes or values you want it to? Set some small goals and prioritise the ones you need to change now, then things to do later to improve your online presence.
- In the interest of reciprocity and investing in others, offer to do the same for your colleagues – but ask them first!
Resources
- There are some great suggestions in the University of Edinburgh’s guide to boosting the impact of publication
- Tips on how to use Twitter, Linkedin and open research tools to maximise your findability as an academic: Upping Your Online Presence - Overview
- What does your digital footprint say about you? 15 questions from Fast Track Impact that will tell you if your professional online identity is an asset or a risk
- Managing your digital footprint – an online course from the University of Edinburgh
- More than lucky: a blog by Dr Sara Shinton with some suggestions for how you can maximise your chances at being lucky in getting an opportunity.
- Drafting a short pitch – a useful structure for researchers