Social Networking for Scientists

Antony Williams shared some great thoughts on how it’s super easy for scientists to engage online, through social channels, to promote both themselves and their science. The advice is excellent, although I would tweak in two ways:

1. Yes, your signature is too long :P Use a social aggregator like about.me, or unhub.com (if it’s still working)
2. Don’t ask for recommendations on LinkedIn. If you have to ask it’s meaningless. Kerry Boehner and I wrote about this a couple of years ago now and I still think it’s useful. People with lots of recommendations typically have a lot of symmetric recommendations (Alice recommends Bob, Bob recommends Alice), and while they maybe genuine, they often don’t say anything substantive/useful. This is just a fundamental problem with the LinkedIn recommendation system.
3. Don’t just focus on the Science. We’re all much more than scientists. Something like twitter (extraordinarily low barrier to entry) is an excellent way to explore your other passions/interests through following people who are outside of your (current) field of expertise.

Thank you again for sharing Dr. Williams; rocking stuff.