This document provides advice on developing an online personal brand as an academic. It suggests that academics are often unbranded or misbranded online and recommends having a consistent look and information across profiles and platforms. It advises linking profiles, marketing yourself and your work, and establishing trust with a professional first impression. The document also recommends choosing purposeful and strategic social networks within your field, considering what you feel comfortable sharing, and using sites like About.me and Academia.edu to brand yourself and curate content to demonstrate thought leadership.

2. Social media is driving us crazy!

4. How to restore the sanity?

5. Your online impact:
not by default but by design

10. Your personal online brand
• Academics often unbranded or misbranded
• A consistent look and info across profiles and
platforms
• Link profiles across platforms
• Market yourself & your work
• Trust at a glance - We don’t get a 2nd chance
to make a first impression
• Time to develop and maintain

11. Where do I start?
• Choice of networks: where does your scholarly
community / network live?
• Be purposeful, selective & strategic
• What and where do you feel comfortable sharing?
• One profile/platform or many?
• Blurring the personal and professional
• NB: There is NO “one size fits all“ approach

12. Brand yourself

13. About.me
Virtual
business card
where you can
add links to all
your profiles
on various
sites

16. Academia.edu

17. To blog or not to blog?

18. The content we publish determines not only how visible we
are online but also shapes other people’s perception of our
interests, our areas of expertise, our skills etc.
Academic professionals can demonstrate thought leadership
through content curation
Branded Curation

24. I am what I tweet…