• People (potential collaborators, employers, employees, etc.) will look you up online.
• If you don’t control your online presence, you are at the mercy of what shows up.

https://on.rt.com/8zyi

• Create and curate an online presence.
• Create and curate content.
• Develop a brand identity, i.e. who you are (professionally).

Seth Godin

• Created “once”, then static: blog posts, videos, …
• Created “once”, then updated: your online CV/profile, teaching materials, …
• Created often, usually not very permanent: Twitter, Instagram, …

• General ready-made platforms
• Academia/Science specific platforms
• Self-built sites

Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

• Depending on the employer, you might have a company entry.
• Usually not directly controlled by you, not very flexible.
• Use it as needed, but if possible, link to your own main web presence.
• Examples:
  • Andreas Handel
  • Hadley Wickham (and others)

From my understanding, Medium can be good for the occasional blogger and to build an audience, but many regular bloggers eventually move exclusively to their own platform or cross-post.

• Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok/etc.
• Often special purpose (e.g. posting images).
• A few academics/scientists use those, but not many.
• I have little experience.
• Examples:
  • Chelsea Parlett on TikTok.
  • Laurel Bristow on Instagram.
  • Kenya Murray on Instagram.

• Very popular these days.
• Seem like a lot of work (though maybe less than Youtube).
• Be clear about goals and committment (e.g. format/posting frequency) before you start.
• Examples:
  • Not so Standard Deviations
  • Casual Inference

• Google Scholar
• ORCID
• ResearchGate
• Academia.edu
• Mendeley
• ImpactStory
• Publons
• …

• Only for publications (broadly speaking).
• Gives citation metrics.
• Is fairly automated, you have to do very little.
• Great way to keep track of your papers.
• Examples:
  • Stephanie Eick
  • Andrew Heiss

If I want to get a quick idea who someone “is” in academia, I check their Google Scholar page. If they don’t have one, I’m annoyed.

• Gives you a unique ID to track your research productivity.
• Used by a lot of journals.
• Very useful if you have a (slightly) common name (but even if not).
• Free and not-for-profit.
• If you plan on staying in academia/research, you should set up ORCID.
• Examples:
  • Stephanie Eick
  • Andrew Heiss

• Types of academic social network sites.
• All are commercial (as far as I know).
• You have various levels of control of how your profile looks like.
• Examples:
  • Stephanie Eick

Personally, I haven’t found those sites useful. I deleted my accounts on those sites since I want to control my web presence and don’t want to keep too many sites up-to-date.

• Sites that try to measure your ‘impact’.

• Maybe fun, but I haven’t found them too useful (yet).

• As metrics beyond grants/papers become more important, sites like these might become more useful.

• Examples:

  • Alison Hill
  • Andreas Handel

• You have complete control.
• You have to build and maintain it yourself.
• Lot’s of ways to do that. Many are free.

• Google Sites, Wordpress, Wix,…
• Some free, some paid, some ads
• Limited flexibility for free versions
• Usually easy to use
• Examples:
  • Emily Ricotta (Wix)
  • Katia Koelle (Wordpress)
  • Micaela Martinez (Wordpress)

• Using some software stack to make your own website
• More flexibility
• Usually a bit more technically challenging
• Simple site using (R)Markdown/Github
• Full-featured site using blogdown/Hugo/Netlify
• Examples:
  • Andrew Heiss
  • Lucy D’Agostino McGowan
  • Simply Statistics blog

• Decide what you want to be known for, create and curate content accordingly.
• Start with an overall goal/idea for your site(s) before you create them.
  • What do you (not) want to put out there?
  • What do you (not) want to be known for?
  • Who is (not) your audience?
  • What is (not) the purpose of your online presence?

• Give some thought to the platforms you want to (not) use.
• Better have fewer online outlets that you keep up-to-date with good quantity/quality content than being on too many platforms.
• You don’t need to duplicate, e.g. you can/should link sites (e.g. link to your Google Scholar publications from LinkedIn).
• Adopt the platforms that work for you (e.g. LinkedIn vs. Youtube vs. Blog vs. TikTok vs…)

• In general, stick to “your” topics. If you are known for topics X and Y, the decision to talk about Z should be planned/deliberate.
• Start simple/easy/slow, then ramp up. Better an update a month than a month long ‘binge’ followed by a year of no updates.
• If you decide to create regular content, One tweet a week for a year is better than 52 tweets in a single week and nothing else.

Occasional changes in overall content/structure/frequency are ok, but try to be deliberate.

• You can spend/waste a lot of time fiddling with the layout (trust me, I’ve done that).
• In the end, good content is what matters most.
• Examples:
  • Live free or dichotomize blog
  • Jeff Leek
  • Seth Godin

• Anything that might be useful to others (or your future self) is worth putting out there.
• Things don’t always need to be polished, but you should have some minimum standard of quality.

Andrew Heiss. Origin (?): Start a blog

• If people don’t find you, your impact is low.
• Figure out how to advertise:
  • Cross-post (e.g. tweet about a blog post)
  • Use platforms to promote your content (e.g. Medium)
  • Link to your own work
• Don’t worry too much about search engine optimization (SEO). If you create good and persistent content, you should soon show up on top.

• Set Google alerts for your name (or other keywords).
• Consider measuring your impact (e.g. Site visits, Software downloads, Twitter followers, GitHub stars).
• Those metrics can be useful for career advancement, but don’t get too hung up about them.
• Examples:
  • DSAIDE R package

• You could have more than one ‘online brand’ (but that’s a lot of work).
• Keep things reasonable updated and working.
• Content (e.g. blog posts, videos) can be any length and level of difficulty.
• If you have the discipline, consider creating content on a regular schedule (scheduled release is an option).

• Anything you put online is there “forever”, even if you delete it later.
• Be professional, even if you decide to post content that’s not directly career related.
• Don’t do anything online without spending some time reflecting on if you should.
• Anything instant (FB/Twitter/Instagram/etc.) can be a HUGE time and attention suck!
• Balance between creating and sharing. If in doubt, create.

You need an online presence that you control

• The A to Z of social media for academia
• A nice blog post giving some tips on Twitter use (as academic).
• Another nice blog post discussing social media use for scientists.
• Similar presentation by Andrew Heiss with additional information
• A neat example how one can get a job based on public work
• Why you should start a blog