Academic Branding Your Online Presence, by Design

by Sidneyeve Matrix

We don’t get a first chance to make a first impression.

in the age of the social web

digital footprint by default

many educators have a

not everyone’s department homepage is an optimized e-portfolio (like this one is)

• PDF CV • keywords • speaker’s profile

• research abstracts • news mentions

• social proof

value-added elements:

social capital

new transparencies The best way to control what kinds of information others will find about us online is to provide quality content and create well-designed profiles ourselves.

~ Bertalan Meskó author of Social Media in Clinical Practice

““

in the age of social media

your digital footprint not by default, but

by design

the challenge? to create

faculty use social media for self-promotion or professional networking

Source: 2014 survey of 8,000 higher ed faculty by Babson Research Group and Pearson

55%today

insignificant ◘ frivolous ◘ egocentric ◘ narcissisticSource: research by Andy Coverdale

2012 The University of Nottingham UK

“personal branding” often gets a bad rap

that percentage might be higher except

underbranded or misbrandedas a result, academics are often

Source: Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2011 study by Prof Lauren Labrecque, Marketing Dept. Loyola University

a discoverability dilemma

this results in

missed opportunities for collaboration

which means

& data sharing & speaking invites

Source: survey of 116 science faculty by Emily Darling (et al) of Simon Fraser University 2013

median Twitter following !

median department size

these researchers found the

of profs in this study was 730x larger than their

biggest barrier to tech adoption? time

Source: Internet and Higher Education, “Faculty instructional attitudes” 2011 study by J. Ulrich & M. Karvonen, Western Carolina University

another hurdle:social media activities unrecognized as

legitimate scholarly output / impact

we need a strategic approach toprofessional online publishing & networkingfor maximum ROI in time online

Your profile. Publishing. Your PLN.

3 step strategy:what to do? try this

improve your personal SEO

Get your Google+

instead of sending searchers to Facebook...

landing page design a personal

your internet home base

for better SEO

yourname.com

buy your domains (all of them)

blogging“a living resume”

consider taking up

Academic blogs are proven to increase dissemination of

economic research and improve impact.

!

Source: 2011 research by David MacKenzie and Berk Ozler, published by The London School of Economics

We know that

~ World Bank Report

free platform great themes SEO-ready

free platform great themes open source

instead of a full website... a minimalist nameplate site

2 extraideas for digital assets

your landing page

!

oh, and here’s

to add to

speaker’s pagehelp event planners

find you online

1

testimonials

bio

sample talks

anatomy of a speaker’s page

headshot

add CV, slides, video, tweets, sample talks

free online speaker’s page !

design templates start at $5

conduct a personal content auditnext step:

experiment with

your work, optimized for the web

social publishing

image: Shereen M from flickr

revise, recycle, repurposeaudit existing information assets

status updates

photosslides

articleslesson plans

rubrics

your work into mobile-optimized

social-ready infosnacks !

morselizing

convert this...to visually communicate morsels of your workso for example,

to this(thesis postcards designed by my students)

a free tool to make digital postcards:

convert this...find the stories in your research data, and

to this

visual storytelling

with research

narratives

a visual research article

opening up data sets

design tools

freeinfographic

extend the life & reach of your presentation

publish your slides

iPad-ready

free slide design tool in the cloud

easy to read to download

to share to embed

research posters

research posters

First thing people do after they get a connection request? Look at your profile.

personal learning network

expand your action step:

& increase ROI in social media

#1 site for academic

professional networking

3 upgradesfor your linkedin profile

!

oh, and here’s

Interact with at least five groups per day. Share an industry article you found interesting. Read other group members’ posts and give good advice. Then it won’t be awkward to send requests to connect -- they’ll remember you.

groups

”

”

~ Yasheaka Oakley PR Pro

3how about those

“Being organized enables reciprocity and allows you to strengthen and

leverage relationships.” ~ Soumitra Dutta

I share over 20 other bloggers

content on Twitter every day.

reciprocity

roundup

reciprocity

Step 1. create roundup. Step 2:

PLN a great

makes all the difference