Thanks everyone for a great meeting on the role of online presence and social media in science. At this meeting we learned that job search committees will look at your online presence, for better or for worse, so here are some tips about maintaining a positive online presence:
Blogs/ Twitter
-Can be a great way to connect with public and communicate science in an approachable way
-Unfortunately could be safest to hold off on promoting controversial issues until after a job is secured (or after tenure!)
-Even non-controversial issues on blogs can get picked up by extremists who can cause damage through email bombing and phone calls; you have to pick your battles
-Keep blogs positive and focus on exciting research or professional activities
-At conferences Twitter can be especially good for tracking what's going on and making connections
-If you want to have a "secret" page where you can be honest and open about anything, set up a special e-mail adress for it and don't put your name on it
Emails
-At Berkeley (and other federally funded/public email accounts) they have a record of all of your emails, even deleted ones...
Facebook/Social Sites
more after the break!
Blogs/ Twitter
-Can be a great way to connect with public and communicate science in an approachable way
-Unfortunately could be safest to hold off on promoting controversial issues until after a job is secured (or after tenure!)
-Even non-controversial issues on blogs can get picked up by extremists who can cause damage through email bombing and phone calls; you have to pick your battles
-Keep blogs positive and focus on exciting research or professional activities
-At conferences Twitter can be especially good for tracking what's going on and making connections
-If you want to have a "secret" page where you can be honest and open about anything, set up a special e-mail adress for it and don't put your name on it
Emails
-At Berkeley (and other federally funded/public email accounts) they have a record of all of your emails, even deleted ones...
Facebook/Social Sites
more after the break!
