LinkedIn for researchers: A place to build community and grow your network
The days of LinkedIn being mainly a place to look for jobs are long gone. With over 1 billion users worldwide, LinkedIn is a powerful platform for researchers to share their work, expand their networks, and grow a visible public presence.
As a researcher, LinkedIn helps build your network
Go to any conference or academic networking event nowadays, and you’ll be sure to swap LinkedIn connections with others in your field.
Many academics and researchers are actively using LinkedIn to build visibility and create a global network of peers and collaborators. They’re using the social media platform to ensure their work reaches diverse audiences, including funders, policymakers, the media, and more.
The platform has become so popular in the research community that it has been profiled in Nature as a way to build your network (‘LinkedIn is like air to me’: the scientists who’ve cracked professional networking) and transform your career (How I put LinkedIn to work for my career as a scientist and entrepreneur).
LinkedIn is about community
While LinkedIn offers a space to share your work and network, it’s ultimately about building community.
Writing in the Times Higher Education, Julian C. Pena-Bermudez, vice-rector for research at Universidad del Caribe, notes that research collaborations are not usually forged through cold messages but rather develop over time. “Use LinkedIn as a space for professional dialogue” and treat it as a “social network,” he advises.
Building community takes time, but it’s worth it. A thoughtful comment on a peer’s post can lead to real-world collaboration further down the line. What started as a conversation on LinkedIn could lead to a research paper, speaking opportunity, or collaborative research project.
And remember, we can all learn from each other. You never know how sharing your journey of overcoming research challenges, whether presentation nerves or failed experiments, might help somebody else in your online community.
Check out our LinkedIn for Researchers workshop
If you’re a researcher who wants to use LinkedIn to build a network and share your work without sounding overly promotional, our LinkedIn for Researchers workshop, available online or in-person, has you covered.
We’ll show you how to make LinkedIn work for you, from refining your profile to writing authentic posts that go beyond “I’m excited to share…” and make people want to keep reading. You’ll leave feeling more confident and equipped with practical tools to use LinkedIn to raise your profile and grow your network.
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Brendon Bosworth is a communications specialist and science communication trainer. He is the principal consultant at Human Element Communications.
Follow Brendon on LinkedIn for more tips on science communication.
