A Professional Academic’s Guide to Using Social Media

Featured image for blog post by Cori Faklaris: What Works in Social Media (For Academics)

Academics can follow these tips on how to use social media to reach a wider audience for their research and for their careers.

Learn how to promote yourself and your research to a global audience with these best practices for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Odds are that, if you are reading this, you use some form of social networking app. According to Statista, Facebook’s flagship app alone had 2.2 billion monthly active users as of April 2018. YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat round out the top 5 in their global ranking – with a very long tail of other social media platforms following below, such as Instagram, Sina Weibo and Reddit.

However, using social media to promote yourself and your work for your professional life in academia and for a job search can be different from using social media for connecting with friends and family, for entertainment purposes or to fill up your spare time. In this post, I will introduce you to the best practices for social media branding and promotion that I have learned in my previous career as a social media producer and consultant. I use these best practices also in my new life as a researcher and academic, and I think you should too!

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