Be visible or vanish: building a professional online profile

As you progress in your career, it’s vital you have a professional online presence because it will bring new opportunities, connections and visibility. But it can be hard to know where and how to best invest your time and energy when it comes to social media and other visibility opportunities. In this session, we’ll go through five steps to ensure you develop your professional profile strategically and we’ll specifically consider the value of LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram for scientists. We’ll also consider the challenges of being more visible.

Associate Professor Jen Martin (@scidocmartin) spent many years working as a field ecologist until she decided the most useful thing she could contribute as a scientist was to teach other scientists how to be effective and engaging communicators. Jen founded and leads the University of Melbourne’s acclaimed Science Communication Teaching Program and is deeply committed to helping scientists develop the skills they need to be visible, make connections and have impact. She also practises what she preaches: for 18 years she’s been talking about science each week on 3RRR radio, she writes for a variety of publications, hosts the Let’s Talk SciComm podcast and MCs events. Jen was named the 2019 Unsung Hero of Australian Science Communication and is Ambassador for The Wilderness Society’s Nature Book Week. Jen’s first popular science book, ‘Why am I like this? The science behind your weirdest thoughts and habits’ was published in 2022.