Category: The Social Academic

Get Your Research Funded with Dr. Julia Barzyk
Julia started Wise Investigator to help researchers get funding for their research

I had this picture of what getting research funding looks like in my head. I had sought small grants and travel funding in grad school. But never the big funding proposals my online presence clients write. I know that research funding might be integral to your career. It may also be something you’ve never attempted before, and has recently become a goal for you.

I learned so much about getting your research funded the 1st time I met Dr. Julia Barzyk.

After 10 years at a major United States funding organization, geoscientist Dr. Julia Barzyk left to start Wise Investigator. She helps Principal Investigators (PIs) get funding for their research to grow their careers.

I’m delighted to feature Julia here on The Social Academic. Let’s uncover some of the hidden curriculum together to get your research funded.

Before we get started…

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Meet Julia

Jennifer: Hello, everyone. I am Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to The Social Academic. Today, I’m talking with Dr. Julia Barzyk of the Wise Investigator LLC. We’re gonna be talking about research funding.

Save this for later, because you’re gonna wanna come back to it.

Julia, I’m so glad you joined us today. Would you please introduce yourself?

Julia: Thanks, Jennifer.

I’m Julia Barzyk. I’m speaking to you from my home in Durham, North Carolina. I spent most of my career as a geoscientist.

Right now I’m working full-time helping university researchers get funding for their research, and by doing so, grow their careers more generally.

Jennifer: Why is this something that’s important to you? Why did you decide to do this full-time?

Julia: I’m gonna tell you a little bit about my responsibilities that I had in the position that I was in prior to what I’m doing now, because I think that answers a good bit of the question.

“I’m a geoscientist. I spent many years working at a major United States funding organization managing a portfolio of research in geoscience and civil engineering.”

These are projects that researchers at universities, otherwise known as professors, or principal investigators, or PIs, are performing on university campuses. They’re conducting their research with these funds, they’re supporting students with these funds, and they’re supporting themselves in terms of some salary with these funds.

My duties involved going out into the academic and the scientific community and letting people know about the opportunities through the organization I was with.

I had a lot of interactions with people as part of this outreach. Then we would have conversations that would go to the actual research topics that people were interested in pursuing, discuss and refine those topics.

Some of these people would then submit proposals. I was in charge of managing the proposal evaluation process. I directed that by sending these out for review, getting the comments from those evaluators, synthesizing all of that, and making recommendations on what was gonna be funded.

Some of these proposals were funded, and after that, I followed the work. I managed certain aspects of it. I was also responsible for connecting those university researchers with government scientists and engineers who wanted to collaborate with them. The government only has the capacity that it has in its labs with the staff that it has, and so they can extend that capacity by partnering with extramural researchers, otherwise known as university researchers.

The reason why I went into all of that was because as I was going through this process, year after year…

“I realized that the vast majority of these PIs, or professors, that I was working with were not prepared to know how to engage to their full advantage with this process.”

Generally, the advice that they’re given and the support that they’re given centers around the preparation of the proposal itself. Now, proposal preparation is very important, so I don’t wanna diminish that. This is one of those things where you’ve gotta check all the boxes. So I’m not saying don’t worry about the proposal. Get all of the support that you can on the proposal is my advice to anyone.

But, all those other steps that I described were aspects of the process that principal investigators didn’t even really know existed. By learning about the broader process, they can have a lot more success and not waste time writing proposals for an opportunity that may not even be a great fit because it’s a huge effort to write that proposal. Even if someone is not interested in funding your work, I feel like you would much rather know that before you put in those dozens of hours on writing a proposal. I decided the best way I could fix the situation was to resign from that position to dedicate myself fully to doing what I’m doing now, which is teaching this hidden curriculum to these principal investigators (PIs).

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The hidden curriculum of funding

Jennifer: Tell me a little bit more about this hidden curriculum. It sounds like universities are providing some support for researchers, especially when it comes to preparing that proposal, but there’s a lot of things that researchers don’t know about that process.

Can you give me an example of some part of the hidden curriculum that your work supports?

Julia: Just one example of all of these pieces of information that piece together to form this hidden curriculum is when you’re interacting with someone from one of these organizations, is it a community-driven organization like National Science Foundation, or is it a mission-driven organization like something maybe with the Department of Defense?

Because while they’re both gonna be supporting basic research and they may also be supporting more applied research, that is just one thing that can really help guide somebody’s understanding and decisions and the questions they ask and the way they pursue that opportunity because there may be more that an organization wants to get out of a relationship with an investigator than only supporting the science or the research itself.

These are the kinds of things I talk about with clients so they can kind of wrap their heads around the bigger picture and then know how to use that to their advantage and know where the best places for them to engage are or the best places for them to say, “I’m gonna pass on that.”

Jennifer: Yeah, actually, just the word that you said, “relationship,” like it’s an ongoing relationship. It’s not just a proposal that’s going to be funded or not funded, it’s a longer journey.

That’s something that I did not recognize when I was still applying for research funds. I am so happy that someone like you exists because universities just aren’t providing the kind of support that researchers actually need to launch themselves into the world into this more funded reality. I want that for researchers. And so I’m so glad that we’re talking today.

Now, one thing that I wanted to ask you about specifically was a LinkedIn video that you had posted in the last couple of weeks. And you talked about how important it is to ask open-ended questions when you first connect with someone at a funding agency. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Julia: The short answer is that there are so many opportunities and by that I mean funding opportunities that are available that any one representative will know about. Even if this person at the funding organization is responsible primarily for one program or one opportunity, they are going to know about many, many other opportunities within their organization and even at other organizations.

At the same time, the researcher is going to have many different ideas for research that they would like to pursue. They may go into a conversation thinking, “Oh, I think this topic would be a good fit for this opportunity based on something I read.”

But if you go in with that narrow focus, you could get a “no” or even if you got a “yes,” you could still be missing out on more information.

It’s the open-ended conversation is for both parties to say kind of, here’s an overview of the opportunities and someone to say, here’s an overview of my interests and what I do. And even beyond the research topic, are they engaged with the community? Are there other aspects of what they do that are important and could be relevant to that funder? But with a yes or no question, you may not get to that.

Jennifer: Oh, that’s fascinating. So it really is a conversation starter. And it’s because both of you as the person submitting the proposal and the research funder are able to bring information to that conversation that can help you both get closer to your goals. I really like that. I really have never thought about it this way before.

Can I ask, do you get pushback from people who are coming to work with you? Are they like, wait, this is how it works? Like, I had no idea. Is there a lot of shock?

Julia: Really, their reaction is really one of relief. Because it’s like they know that there’s more to the picture. Because these are very bright people. And they’ve seen aspects of this manifest here and there. But to have somebody put all of those pieces together, it does provide a relief.

It’s not so much that they’re shocked, but that it’s like, “Oh, okay, now I see it.” And then once you see it, it’s one of those things you don’t really unsee it.

And that’s why we talk about a kind of a transformation because once you know this stuff, you know it, you don’t have to relearn it. You just really are getting to that next stage of your career where the relationship building is important and not in a way, sometimes people would have a feeling of, oh, if it’s a relationship, you know, that can go the wrong way.

If you have a closed network and you’re calling on the same people for opportunities all the time, it’s not letting other people into that circle, into those opportunities. And that’s the way we don’t wanna go where people say, “Oh, it’s an old boys club,” or something like that.

At the same time, we all are building relationships with each other. So we wanna take the positive and the good and the productive aspects of building relationships and sharing opportunities, not the kind of relationship building that closes the opportunities for other people.

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Research as a remote-first environment

Jennifer: I like that. When we first met, one of the things that I pointed out was how much I liked your bookcase behind you. I really like all the things that are on your bookcase and it tells me something about you. You actually talked about how that was like a conscious decision, isn’t that right?

Julia: Yeah, I think definitely you want to, if we’re talking about the remote-first environment, you really want to be setting yourself up with the tools that you need, with the environment that makes you feel good.

That way, when you have an opportunity to be on a podcast, or to have a meeting with a potential collaborator or a client that you can just get right to it. Just like if you met in a coffee shop and you were just set. You got your cup of tea or got your cup of coffee and you sat down and you got right to it.

And so that’s something that’s overlooked, especially now. I mean, if we’re talking about the funding environment, where I believe we can consider the funding environment or the funding landscape to be remote-first. I feel like a lot of professors, they definitely had to adapt to a lot with the pandemic and teaching on Zoom. Fortunately, they’ve really restarted the campus life environment and that’s wonderful. But it could be the case that they start thinking, “Oh, I’m back here all in real life again and I have this dynamic environment in my lab, in my building, in my office.”

“But the funding environment, I believe we should think about that as remote first. I think everybody should set themselves up to be able to thrive in that remote environment.”

Jennifer: I love that, remote-first. That’s definitely a new idea for a lot of researchers. I mean, at least when I talk to the professors who I work with on their online presence, a lot of them say, “I don’t network online. I network in person when I’m at conferences. I network at these in-person events,” but when you think about research funding as a remote-first environment, it means that you also need to reconsider how you are able to and want to network. I really love that you brought that insight to us.

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You need an online presence for your research

Jennifer: Now, the professors that I work with at least have anxiety about talking about their work, about talking about their research online. And I really help them with that process and build their confidence.

Why is that helpful for research funders to see? Why is having an online presence helpful for people who are actually funding that research?

Julia: First of all, the most practical reason would be just to be findable. If you have something online that has some ability to show up in a search engine and a LinkedIn page is good for that because search engines like that, website can be optimized to show up in a search engine. And that’s a way that when people at a funding organization are looking for experts…

And of course we think, “Oh, they’re looking at me so I can review proposals. Well, that’s more work.” And that is true. They may be looking for you so that you can hopefully do some work for them, or let’s just say for the community. And that’s something that comes to mind first.

But there are other reasons why people in the government or at funding organizations will be looking for experts:
- to serve on a panel
- to serve on a committee
- to speak at a workshop
- or participate in a workshop
And so you do want to be findable. Then maybe you’re findable and that does lead being fundable.

Then beyond that, you do wanna stay top of mind. That’s a spaced repetition type thing. It’s that if you keep seeing somebody, then when you are in a conversation with a colleague, I need an expert in this, or who could I talk to about that? That’s the person that’s going to pop to mind as well as building this know, like, and trust, which is important for relationships, especially in the virtual environment.

Beyond that, I would say it moves into being supporting inclusivity, because like I was saying before, I definitely know that people at these organizations want to bring out and bring new people into the conversation. They can do that most easily if people are findable.

“Beyond that, moving into can it bring you any kind of advantage to a proposal, to a funding decision? Well, decisions are going to be made based on strict evaluation criteria. And that’s the way that they should be made. That said, I think very much a picture is worth a thousand words in this case.”

Julia: Because when you are writing a proposal, there is either a strict page limit on the project description, or there’s an effective page limit because evaluators don’t want to read, more than a certain number of pages.

But if you can show that you’ve engaged in the community, people know that about you because there’s some information that demonstrates that, be it photos, or a press release, or something like that on the internet they may have seen. Then it’s demonstrating, “Oh, this person has done this community-based work that they’re talking about doing in the proposal.” Or, “Oh, we’re really hoping that these researchers could maybe collaborate with some of our government scientists and engineers. Here is some evidence that they did that in years past with another group of collaborators.”

These are things that anyone can demonstrate about themselves online. It kind of proves the point more than just writing a few sentences saying, “Oh, we’ve got these great ideas. We promise we’re gonna do all this stuff.”

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Where to find research funding

Jennifer: I love that. It’s like more social proof, more engaging places that those research funders can explore about you. Now, I am curious. Let’s say I’m a researcher who’s ready to start finding some research funding. Where do I start? It sounds like it’s not with the proposal. I need to have a conversation. So where do I start?

Julia: The first place to start would be to go to, and now I’m gonna speak mostly about federal government opportunities, but it would be to go to Grants.gov and to search by keyword for funding opportunities that you may be able to submit to. You’re gonna see a lot of stuff come up from all different agencies and organizations. It’s a lot to start working your way through.

If you’re at a university, your institution may have, or probably does have a subscription to commercial tools that will help you do these kinds of searches too. I would say, sure, do that. And that’s something most people think to do because they know that that’s available. That’s kind of what I’m calling like a bottom-up approach.

They should also be doing a top-down, which is to actually go to the websites of these various organizations. It’s time-consuming and it’s cumbersome because many of these websites are not easy to navigate. Some of them may say clearly, oh, “Find funding” or “Grants”, and you can go there. And even if you go there, you may get a little tripped out because it may be kind of a dead end or something. But if you’re persistent, try to find it on the website because then you’re getting the big picture view of what is this organization broadly.

“What you wanna do is when you’re going top-down or going from the bottom up is look for the names of actual people. These are your program officers, or program directors, program managers, technical points of contact that could be called or other points of contact. And you want to reach out to them because there is so much information out there.”

Julia: There is no hope. I mean, I don’t mean to sound too pessimistic, but there’s very little hope of being able to sort through it all on your own. And you don’t wanna find yourself behind your computer, just scrolling PDF after PDF hundreds of pages of this stuff, trying to think where your research could fit when it’s a much better option to
- send the email
- a video call
- an audio call
Get on the phone with someone who works at one of these organizations and ask them “What would be the best opportunity for me?” Have that back and forth conversation. I encourage people to reach out because I worked with many of these folks for many years and they are friendly people.

Their email inboxes do get very full. So if you don’t get a response at first, just write back, but they wanna hear from you and they want to help you. I promise that. So don’t hesitate to reach out.

Jennifer: I love that. They wanna hear from you and they want to help you and follow up if you don’t hear back because they do wanna hear from you. That’s so important for people to know. Thank you for sharing that.

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Wise Investigator, a program for researchers like you

Jennifer: Tell me more about your program. I wanna hear all about it because I think some people listening are gonna wanna join.

Julia: When we start out in this 10-week program, which they’re able to participate in by asynchronously in terms of watching some recorded classes, but then also each week have a one-on-one meeting with me so that we can then talk about how they’re getting their materials and their situation aligned with the material that we’re focusing on that week, if that makes sense. They do have some assignments week to week and we go over that each week so they get that one-on-one feedback and support.

We start off talking about a research vision and getting clear on that. And that aligns with the focus on the online presence and really up-leveling that because your online presence should be guided by your overall career and even life vision.

From there, we break down the mechanics of the funding process. And that’s some of the stuff I was talking about when we started the call about what are actually all of the steps that occur for something to go from a conversation to a funded research project and then after, what happens after it’s funded. By pulling back the curtain on this, then that really helps clients start to see, “Oh, how can I help move this process forward? How can I be a more active participant in these various steps and build these win-win-win relationships?”

“It should be a win for the person performing the research or the Principal Investigator, a win for the individual that you’re working with, that program officer, and a win for the broader organization.”

Julia: By learning what goes on behind the scenes, that helps support achieving these outcomes.

From there, we go into framing research questions effectively. This is something that it’s pretty spotty in terms of, some faculty have had some training in this previously, but many of them have had no training in it whatsoever.

This is very much an iterative process in terms of looking at their ideas. They get ideas out on paper and we iterate on that to get those framed in a way that’s going to be most advantageous for them to be able to present this material to a general audience, to an audience of scientists who are maybe not in their specialty, but just have general technical knowledge. And then of course, they still have to explain it down in the weeds to the technical experts who will eventually do the evaluations on the proposal.

From there, we talk about the approaches of actually getting in contact with these program officers so that they can have the most productive conversations possible. That really provides a lot of relief for clients because that’s something that they hear a lot, kind of like what I was just saying about, just talk to them, just reach out, just talk to them. And they don’t necessarily know, “Well, what should I say in the email? How should I start the conversation?” And so we go over all of that and I provide that information, which is helps people get started on those conversations.

Jennifer: Oh, this feels like such a supportive process. I really like that. What is the thing that you say people are getting most from your work together?

Julia: You know, it’s been interesting that the feedback that I’ve gotten in terms of what has been most valuable has really varied from client to client. Some of them definitely, that framing of the research question where people have said, “No one has ever sat down with me and gone through this before.” And these are people who are Assistant Professor positions at top programs and they’ve accomplished so much in their careers, yet they never had that helping hand to just take the time to work through a one-page document and pull out the parts that are kind of most important and need to be emphasized and reorder them and draw out the impact. That’s an exercise that many of them have never been through before.

Others have appreciated the fact that this provides a broader framework for them to approach the entire process. And many of them have really had a reaction that they weren’t expecting to have about how good they felt about starting that online presence.

In fact, one of my clients, just six weeks into working with me, using what she learned in the program, and it wasn’t even something that I had coached her to do specifically, but she took the information she was learning, she hadn’t finished the program, but she came in and said that she had actually gotten additional funding just by sending an email.

So while you’re not going to get a $300,000 reward by asking for it in an email, and that’s not the way we want things to run, she had a situation where she was able to take some beautiful photos that had been taken of her working with a student in the lab, attach those with the description of the progress that she had made to an internal funding body within her organization, and said, “Hey, look at this, look at this great work.” And they said, “Yeah, just here’s the funding to support this person over the summer,” just like that.

Those are those quick wins, which of course it’s great to get that support for the summer. But also just how she was beaming with excitement to say, “Oh yeah, it doesn’t always have to be so hard because now I know I should just ask for it, and I’ve got these great photos, and I know what to say on the email.” And that’s a quick win. So that’s a really great outcome.

Jennifer: Oh, that made me feel so warm, I love that, like an email with photos of her working with the students. That’s great.

Julia, it has been wonderful to talk with you about Wise Investigator and your program and all of the amazing work that you’re doing. How can people keep in touch with you after this call?

Julia: Please go to my website and look for me there. I’d love to connect with anybody and everybody.

I think you understand just how much of a privilege it is to work with the clients that we work with because we work with such talented people. I don’t know if a person can really take credit for a gift of talent, but they can take credit for the hard work and dedication on top of the talent that these folks put in.

We’re so fortunate here in the United States that we have people coming from all over the world to continue their studies here and make lives here, and not only to do the research that they’re doing, which is what I support them with, but the contribution they make in teaching, which is enormous.

I’m just inspired by my clients every day, and just a shout out to them because that’s why I’m doing this. I’m here to serve them. I just wanted to give them the credit they deserve for all of the hard work they’ve done to get to the point that they’re at, and what I’m able to do with them is really a small, give them a small helping hand just to get to this mid-career stage after all of the years and years that they have put in. It’s a privilege to be able to do that.

Jennifer: Thank you so much for joining me on The Social Academic. This has been a conversation with Dr. Julia Barzyk of Wise Investigator. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next interview.

Julia: Thanks, Jennifer!

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Bio for Dr. Julia Barzyk

Julia Barzyk founded Wise Investigator LLC to help U.S.-based university researchers get funded so they can grow their careers with the intention and resources they need to thrive. Prior to starting Wise Investigator, she managed a portfolio of basic research in geoscience and civil engineering at the U.S. Army Research Office. She received her Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago. Julia lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband and two teenagers.

Connect with Julia on LinkedIn.

Guides and Advice Articles Interviews Share Your Research The Social Academic

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May 25, 2023
How To Make A Personal Academic Website
For professors and scientists, a personal website is a big project that’s well worth your time. It’s the best way to manage your online presence long-term. Your personal academic website can include a portfolio of pages that showcase your
- teaching
- research
- publications
- speaking engagements
- service
I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to my my blog, The Social Academic. Now also a podcast and YouTube channel. This article was updated for 2024.

A personal website can be life changing professors, grad students, and researchers like you. In this guide, discover the 7 steps to an academic website:

You can make your own personal academic website. You’ve got this. When you do, your website will help people explore your research, teaching, and the things you care about. I’m excited for you! And this guide is here to help.

P.S. Bookmark this page so you can come back to it.

7 steps to take your website from start to launch

Creating a personal academic website is a long-journey. It’s not a 10-minute project like some articles claim. A website is typically a multi-day project. It may take you months. And that’s ok.

Professors often come to me when they need a stronger online presence. Their reasons are unique and varied. Your website can be a hub that invites people to engage with your research and teaching in meaningful ways.

Some professors reach out to me for an academic website that
- brings it all together for professors who “wear many hats” or feel like it may not be possible to “bring my identities together”
- highlights their new book while helping past publications better reach new readers
- invites aligned partnerships or relationships (i.e. with researchers around the world, community organizations, corporate partners, funders, and the people your research helps most)
- creates a legacy for their work for a retired professor
- celebrates their new position and prepares for their future for professors who transition to a new role
- shares their research so people can engage in meaningful ways
- helps them have a stronger online presence that supports a new goal or achievement
- redesigns the website they made themselves years ago that “doesn’t feel like me anymore”
When you’re intentional about creating space for your online presence, you can help more people. For many of the professors I work with, a stronger online presence helps them move from the spark of “I can have a website” to “I deserve this space.” We deserve this space.

As academics, I want you to know that “we can create this space for ourselves.” You don’t need to work with me to have a stronger online presence. A PhD student scheduled a time to meet with me about designing her website for her. She didn’t need to wait to meet with me, “Have you heard about Owlstown? It’s a free academic website builder from my friend, Dr. Ian Li.” I wanted her to know she didn’t need my support. There was an easy solution for her personal academic website. That Owlstown is a solution I trust for most professors.

I have resources to help you on my website on The Social Academic blog, podcast, and YouTube channel. You don’t need to work with me to make your personal academic website. Here are my website resources for you. I hope this guide in particular helps you move forward efficiently to make your personal academic website a reality. Following it will help you get your academic personal website from start to launch smoothly.

Let’s get started.

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1. Create your website content

The best way to start making your personal academic website is by planning the structure of your website. If you don’t have an idea about what you want to share, you’ll get stuck.

Let’s decide what to include on your professor website.

Planning your website

The structure and organization of your academic personal website determines the written, visual, and video content you’ll want to create. If you plan on sharing a lot of information, you can have more pages on your website.

Your personal academic website might include things like
- About page with your academic bio and headshot
- Research page
  
  Current project
  
  Research outcomes
- Teaching page
  
  Course descriptions
  
  Syllabi
  
  Teaching Statement/Philosophy
- Publications page
  
  Abstracts or descriptions
  
  Publication links
- Speaking Engagements page
- Contact page
- Links to your social media profiles
- Blog
If you want a simpler website, a smaller structure is recommended:
- About page with your academic bio and headshot
  
  Link to your CV
  
  Links to your social media profiles
The simplest website structure is just 1-page. But it isn’t right for everyone. This tends to work well for graduate student websites. And professors who want the easiest website to maintain.

The more you want to share, the more pages your site will need.

Get inspired with the winning websites from the 2023 Best Personal Academic Websites Contest.

If you’re unsure about what to include on your personal website, let’s talk. I help professors think through who they help and the real people who will visit their personal or lab websites with my Website Strategy service. I’m here to help you too if you want support.

Gather written content for your website

Once you’ve decided on a structure and what you want to include, write down all the written content you want to share on your website. If it’s text and you want it on your website, write it down.

Make a list of the pages you need to write content for. A sample for a simple 3-page personal website might include
- About Page
  
  Academic bio: 150-350 words
  
  Research interests
- Research Page
  
  List of current project(s)
  
  Longer description of current research topics
  
  Important outcomes or other research highlights
- Publications Page
  
  Publication details (not in standard citation format), preferably with an abstract or description
Write the content for each page in a document to complete this step. You might decide to hire help from a website designer or developer. It’s helpful to have a document with your written content ready to share with them.

If you can get support with this project, I encourage it! If you know what you want on your website, I’ve got an amazing website development partner who can handle the technical side of launching your website. We can also work together 1-on-1 on your website strategy. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want professional support on your website project.

Edit your content for the web

Most professors don’t write for the web automatically. Academics like you may use
- complicated or dense sentences
- jargon / specialized terms
- long paragraphs
- no headings (or few headings)
Each of these can be found in academic writing, but you should avoid them when writing for your professor website.

I’m going to share with you best practices for writing for your personal website. Take the document you’ve drafted and each time, read through to edit with these changes
- Can you simplify this sentence? For instance, if I make this sentence into 2 sentences, will it be easier for people to understand?
- Is this word jargon? Is it a specialized term people in my field know but other people may not? Is it a term people in my specialization know, but other people may not? That word or term needs a short definition.
- How many sentences is this paragraph? Can I break it into shorter paragraphs to make it easier to read on a mobile phone?
- What heading will help someone find what they’re looking for on this particular page? For instance, if I have longer description of my research, what headings can I add to make this easier for someone skimming this page?
Photography and headshots

What images do you want to include on your website? At a minimum I recommend these
- cover photo (also called a splash image, header photo, etc.)
- a photo of you
If you like taking photos, you may have one already that photos that work for your website.

Many people choose stock images for their cover photo. On my personal website, I have photos I took at the San Francisco Botanic Gardens.

For your headshot, you don’t need to go out and do a professional photo shoot. If you have photos from your work then that’s an option. Selfies are a good option for your headshot too. You just want your photo to be friendly, like of your smiling face. Here are 3 ways to get new photos for your personal website.

Are photos required? No, but it really does help. If you’re uncomfortable with photos, consider making an avatar instead. Whichever photos choose, you need to have the rights or license to share those photos online.

Do you want your academic or scientist website to be super engaging? Try adding a video too!

If you got to the end of this step and you’re like, can you please just do the set-up for me? Yes. Let’s talk about working together on set up of your academic website.

2. Pick a domain name and site title

Once you’ve gathered/written all your content, you want to pick a domain name. Do this before choosing a host because it’s literally going to be the 1st thing most of them ask you to do when you sign-up.

Your domain name is your main website URL, or web address. For instance, the full URL to this page is https://theacademicdesigner.com/2020/how-to-make-an-academic-website

So the domain name for the website is theacademicdesigner.com.

Your site title is what your website is called, in my case, The Academic Designer, which is the name of my company.

For a personal website, my top recommendation for choosing your website domain and title is to use your full name. My personal website is jennifervanalstyne.com (site name: Jennifer van Alstyne).

Using your full name will help your page rank in Google and other search engines. Afterall, the keyword most people will use to find your website when searching, is your name.

An easy way to check if your domain name is in use is by typing it into your internet navigation search bar. If it’s taken a website will show up, and you may need to add a middle initial or keyword (e.g. JenniferSVanAlstyne.com or JenniferVanAlstynePoet.com).

3. Choose a website host

Which website host is best for you will depend on your time, budget and technical skills.

I wrote a full guide to choosing the best website host for your personal website for professors.

4. It’s time to set-up your personal website

It’s time to set up your website. This is an exciting day, because when you have the content written already, your website can come together quickly.

Start by choosing a theme for your website

Most website hosts have themes or looks to choose from for the design of your website. When choosing a theme for your website look for these 3 things. You want a website that is
- mobile responsive, which means your website adapts from desktop to mobile screens well
- a clean design with a top menu and social media menu
- accessibility-ready, which means the theme has built-in features to help people with disabilities explore your website (Accessibility-ready may be an option depending on your website host)
Once you’ve chosen a theme for your website, you can usually choose things like font and color. For font, choose a sans serif font for your body font. A sans serif font means that you want letters without the little feet. So, no Times New Roman for your body font. You can use a serif font (with the little feet) for your headings font though.

In terms of colors on your website, you want something with a high contrast for easy readability. Dark text on a light background is preferred for accessibility.

Place your content

Once you’ve selected a theme, you’re ready to place your content. Depending on how big your website is, you’ll want to know how to do these things
- add a page
- place text
- insert a URL link
- upload a photo
- make a header
You may also need to know how to add and edit these site-level items
- a menu
- social media links
- a contact form (Update for 2024: I no longer recommend using contact forms, as they don’t always work across devices/countries)
Titles, tags, and other metadata

When you upload photos and other media to your website, you need to add in information like the title of the photo. There are also other options to add information about your media like Alt Text, a written description of your photo. Providing Alt Text for your photos helps more people understand the photo you’re sharing. Especially people who use screen readers to interact with your website. Alt Text also helps Google’s website crawlers better understand your website, so that it shows up in relevant search results.

When you upload photos or other media to your website, it’s important to check that the metadata and Alt Text are descriptive.

Write descriptive Alt Text for all of the images on your website.

For my splash image of succulents the metadata includes
- title of the photo (Succulents)
- name of the photo (succulents.jpg)
- description of the photo (‘Website header photo of many green echeveria succulents’)
Here are great tips for writing Alt Text from Accessible Social.

5. Preview your site

After you’ve placed the writing and photos on your website, preview your website. Check your website for
- spelling
- formatting
- readability
Preview your website on different screen types if you have the option

Try your website on different browsers
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Microsoft Edge
- Safari
Ask your friends and family to read over your personal website for you. We often miss our own simple errors. You may learn if something is confusing. For instance, if your family notices a bit of jargon, a term they don’t understand about your research, how would you explain it to them in a phrase or sentence?

You may also learn that something is hard to find. You’d be surprised how many personal websites I’ve come across where it’s difficult to find the name of the person who it’s about. Seriously. I even wrote an article about it for The Social Academic.

6. Is it time to take your website live?

If you sell anything on your website including consulting or editing services, you may be required by law to have a Privacy Policy and a Terms and Conditions page. Look to your country’s regulations about this. You will also need a Privacy Policy and Terms page if you are using Google Analytics or other tracking pixels or tools on your website. Do not take your website live until you have those things.

If that is not the case for you, or if you’ve added those policies…

It’s time to take your website live!

Go ahead and Publish your website.

Congratulations! You have a personal academic website ready to be shared with the world.

7. Share your website

Once your website is live, you need to share it with people.

In the next few weeks, Google will crawl your website (unless you tell it not to, but don’t do that). Then your website will start showing up when people Google your name. But Google and search engines shouldn’t be the only way people find your website.
- Announce your website on social media. Invite people to check it out.
- Update your social media profiles to include your website address.
- Add your new website address to your email signature.
- Share your website as a way for people to keep in touch with you after a talk or presentation.
- Update your bio to include your website.
And, please share your website with me! Send me a direct message on social media, I’d love to congratulate you on your website personally.

Good luck with your website project!

Well that’s the whole process, step-by-step. Good luck setting up your personal website. Be sure to bookmark this page so you can come back and check the steps.

Please share this guide to making your personal academic website with your friends and colleagues. Ask your university library or faculty development office to share it as a resource. This guide has helped professors and grad students around the world make their website a reality.

I hope it helps you too. You’ve got this! Make 2024 your year to launch your personal academic website. You’ll be happy you did.

I’m wishing you the best of luck with your personal academic website. Watch the replay of my Setting Up Your Personal Academic Website live event where me, Brittany Trinh, and Dr. Ian Li answer the most frequently asked questions about websites for you.

Feel like you don’t want to do this alone? Get support for your personal academic website

Professors, would you like 1-on-1 support on your personal academic website or their research lab website? Let’s work together on a done-for-you website customized to meet your long-term needs. My most loved website service typically takes 4+ months.

Some professors choose my VIP Days service, a day(s) where 100% of my focus is creating a website for you that can adapt with you over time. Since I’ve been teaming up with my amazing friend, Brittany Trinh, the personalization we can do in a Team VIP Day is exciting.

Websites with me are capacity building. When we do it together, you get to “a website ready to take live” with ease. And, you’ll feel confident to make simple changes so you can keep your website updated.

If you want your academic website done for you in 2024-2025, let’s meet on Zoom. I promise to help you in the right direction even when it isn’t working with me. Schedule a no pressure Zoom call to chat about working together on your website

My name is Jennifer van Alstyne. I’ve been helping professors make your personal website since 2018. I’m here to help you too.

Let’s chat about your personal website and online presence on a no pressure Zoom call. I’m happy to help you in the right direction, even if it isn’t working with me.

Guides and Advice Articles Personal Website How To’s Resources for Grad Students Share Your Research The Social Academic

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April 13, 2023
Writing Your Book for Minoritized Women Academics with Jane Jones, PhD
When you write a book, it’s lasting. It’s sharable. Your book is findable online which for professors that means you can help more people with your research, teaching, and the things you care about most. I’m delighted to share this featured interview with you.

Dr. Jane Joann Jones is a book coach for minoritized women professors. She left the tenure track 8 years ago to help you confidently write your book.

Jane says, “You’ve done this research. It’s really meaningful to you. And you wanna see it out in the world.” If you want a book, I want you to have a book! I hope this interview resonates with you.

Welcome to The Social Academic blog and podcast. We’re also on YouTube! I’m Jennifer van Alstyne (@HigherEdPR). Here we talk about managing your online presence as a professor. You can build skills to have a strong digital footprint to share your research and teaching online. And I’m here to help you.

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In this interview, Dr. Jane Jones and I talk about
Meet Dr. Jane Jones

What are universities not teaching you about book writing?

Minoritized women in the academy do more service and mentoring

Have more conversations about your book

Anxieties about writing your book are normal

Elevate, a group editing and coaching program

Instagram Live about finding your book audience on social media

Bio for Dr. Jane Jones
Meet Dr. Jane Jones

Jennifer: Welcome to The Social Academic. Today I’m talking with Dr. Jane Jones of Up In Consulting.

We’re gonna be talking about books. So, authors, please listen up. This one is for you. Dr. Jane Jones, would you please introduce yourself?

Jane: Sure. My name is Jane Jones. I am a New Yorker and I am a book writing coach. I came to book writing after I left my tenure track job. I was an Assistant Professor of Sociology. That’s where I have my PhD, in sociology.

I started out as a developmental editor and then transitioned into coaching. The business I have now is a book coaching business where I work with women in academia who are writing books in humanities and social sciences. I help them get those books done through a combination of developmental editing, coaching, and project management support.

Jennifer: I love that. Now, can I ask, what do you like most about coaching? Why do you like working with people on their books?

Jane: Oh my goodness, there are a lot of reasons actually. I really do love coaching.

One thing that stands out with the coaching side is how much academics already know, but have been socialized to believe they don’t know. Especially women.

Jennifer: Ooh. Especially women. Okay.

Jane: Especially women. Especially Black women, other women of color, They’ve been taught not to trust their own knowledge.

Jennifer: Mm.

Jane: And through coaching, a lot of what I focus on, is helping people realize that you already know a lot about your topic. You already have a lot of expertise. You don’t always have to defer to other scholars, to your dissertation advisor, especially when you’re writing your book. You no longer have to answer to your dissertation advisor. And that you have a lot of the skills already.

To be sure, there are a lot of things that we aren’t taught about publishing. There is a big hidden curriculum around book writing. And exposing that hidden curriculum is very important, while also reinforcing people’s trust in their own knowledge. Being able to do both of those two things at the same time, I think is the most important part of the coaching relationship for me.

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What are universities not teaching you about book writing?

Jennifer: I love that because my next question was what are universities kind of not teaching you, right? What are universities not teaching, especially minoritized faculty, about writing books?

It sounds like people do have more knowledge than they’re able to process, maybe admit, or accept of themselves. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Where is that difference between how much we know and how much we really need support?

Jane: I always joke that there’s no Publishing 101. There’s no Book Writing 101.That course is not taught in grad school. I mean, for that matter, Article Writing 101 isn’t either. Those aren’t taught in grad school.

Where people have a lot of knowledge is in their subject matter. In the data you have collected, all of the literature, you’ve read, how you make sense of the literature. People are experts there. You’ve spent your whole graduate career…Because I work with people at all stages of their career from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. You’ve accumulated so much data, number one. And you have so much knowledge. Right? So that is there.

But in terms of questions like, “Well, how is a book different than a dissertation?”

You know, “Structurally, what do I put in my book that wasn’t in the dissertation?”

Or, you know, “How do I create the through line in my book?”

You know, these really, kind of tactical questions about how do I actually do the writing of this type of manuscript? Which is different than an article, and is different than a grant proposal. They’ve never been taught that.

Even though they have all of the information, they don’t know how to get it on paper in a way that is going to be legible for our reader. That’s where the work happens. That’s what we do, and that’s what universities don’t teach people how to do.

Sometimes it’s because people just don’t know how to teach it. It’s kind of like, you write your book for yourself. For many people who write their first book, and if you’re a first book author watching this, if someone comes and asks you what you did, you might be like, “I don’t remember. I just got that done. I was on a tenure timeline, and I put my head down, and I wrote.” And maybe I had a book manuscript workshop. Or, you know, like, I had good friends, or a supportive mentor who read it and gave me feedback. And I wrote, got feedback, wrote, got feedback, and that was it. And then the book was done, right? That doesn’t mean you can then teach that process to somebody else.

So being able to be a little bit on the outside of the process as developmental editor, and with the other developmental editors, you know, who work in the program with me, being on the outside of that process and saying, you know, there are some common things. There are some things that all books have in common. And we’re gonna teach you how to implement and how to learn that craft, the things that are common about the craft of book writing.

We work with people across disciplines. We’re ‘discipline agnostic’ as we like to say. You know, from art historians to people who are more on the side of doing quantitative, big survey research, but writing books. We run the gamut. But even within that, there are things people have in common in their books and in their trials of writing, you know? The experiences they’re having, trying to make enough time to write the book, feeling imposter syndrome, not knowing what to do with feedback, being worried about approaching an acquisitions editor. You know, going back to the hidden curriculum, not knowing how to talk to an acquisitions editor and feeling very intimidated. Those are all things that we help them with that I think aren’t really being talked to them in other places.

People might be exchanging information informally. They’re like, “Oh, my friend published here. They said the editor is really nice.” Or, “They said the editor is really hands-on or not hands-on. So I have this informal knowledge, but I don’t know how to craft an email to an acquisitions editor. Or, strike up a conversation with them at a conference. And I feel very worried to do that.” You know, “I don’t know how to describe my book in one or two sentences so that I could talk to somebody about it at a conference and not spend 10 minutes talking about my book. Which, ultimately I will be, but I don’t have that sharp, quick summary.” Those are things that we help them with, because it could feel very disempowering when you don’t know how to do that.

Again, you have all this great information, but, if you don’t know how to talk to an acquisitions editor, how are you gonna have a book? If you don’t know how to craft a chapter, how are you gonna have a book.

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Minoritized women in the academy do more service and mentoring

Jennifer: These are skills that professors can learn. These are skills that are learnable and that you can develop, but because they’re not taught by universities and the people who have experience in them maybe don’t know how to teach these skills, it is amazing that you and your team are there to support them. I’m so happy about that.

And I’m also happy that you work with minoritized faculty, with women. Why is that important to you?

Jane: It’s really important! I just want to go back to one thing, the people who have written books and don’t necessarily know how to teach it. I would add additionally, and kind of looping this into working with women and minoritized faculty is, like, they don’t often have the time to teach somebody elsehow to write a book.

It’s a time consuming process. A book is a multi-year process and people add mentoring like, “I’ll read a chapter for you and give you feedback.” But for someone to give them that structured support over time, faculty are having to publish themselves. They have to do their own service committees, they have their own families. Again, that doesn’t mean that they don’t offer help, but it means that they may not have the time or capacity to give that systematic type of help we do.

I think that’s especially pronounced for women and minoritized faculty because they often have an extra service load. They do more service. We know that statistically. They do more service. They’re doing more care-taking outside of work. Right?

There isn’t always that easy transmission of knowledge from a senior faculty member to a junior faculty member because they’re just as pressed as anybody else. And so are the junior faculty! And we don’t only work with junior faculty, but the majority of our clients are.

They have the same issues like extra service, students who want their mentorship because they’re the only Black person in the department. They’re only person who studies race. They’re the only person who does X research. So they have students who want their mentoring. And all of this creates extra commitments for them.

One thing that we focus on in coaching is helping people prioritize their books when there’s a lot of other things going on. Teaching that craft of writing, but also saying, like, “Hey, this book is really important to you for a lot of reasons. Like, professionally take a tenure promotion. But also because you’ve done this research, it’s really meaningful to you, and you wanna see it out in the world. How do we help you make sure that it stays top of mind?” What do we do to support people so that the book can stay top of mind.

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Have more conversations about your book

Jennifer: I love that. I feel like my work is really aligned with that actually, because I’m really helping professors and researchers talk about the research and the teaching that they do on online. That way more people can have conversations, so that they can have more collaboration, so that they can get more research funding.

But most of the people that I work with have a lot of anxiety talking about themselves. Do you find that your authors have anxiety talking about their books?

Jane: Yeah. (laughs) Yeah. Definitely. And I think that the work you’re doing is so important, ’cause, in my opinion, if you write a book, don’t you want people to read it?

Like, you want it out in the world. Like, you wanna be in conversation with other people. You want people to read it, but you also want to talk to people about it.

Jennifer: Right, yeah. Yeah. Even, the ability to have someone on your team, be that kind of support, not just when you start writing the book, but through the whole process. That’s such an amazing idea that we can’t necessarily get through a mentorship position at your university. Especially if no one is in your field. I love that that support system is there.

It also gives authors an opportunity to have someone that they can talk with about their book. Some of the authors that I work with, I ask, “Who do you talk about your book with?”

And their answer is, “No one. Once I stopped working with my editor, I don’t talk with my colleagues. I don’t talk with my family. I don’t talk with my friends. My book came out seven years ago and I never talk about it.”

That really strikes me as something that I think that, people who work with you, they’re talking about their book. And thinking about it in much larger ways. Because it’s really introspective, and being introspective is hard. I love that you help people with that process and actually understand their motivations for why they’re doing it, who they’re helping. It’s amazing.

Jane: Yeah. Thank you. I think that another part that’s really important is that my programs are group programs.

Jennifer: Ooh.

Jane: And that’s on purpose. Because like you said, it is very introspective. For some people, the solitude, the solitary work, they like it. They’re like, “I like writing solitary. I like being alone with my thoughts.” And that’s great.

Some people are like, “It’s isolating, and I don’t like it, and I feel very alone in the process.” Being with people who are at a similar stage as them, and when I say stage, I don’t mean career-wise, I mean stage of the book. Because people come in, and they’re all at a similar stage of writing, so they’re all kind of going through it together.

“I’m trying to figure out the overarching argument of this book,” or, “I’m writing two of my empirical chapters, the two of my body chapters.” There’s a feeling of, “We’re in it together.”

I spoke to a former client the other day, and she was in Elevate a year ago maybe, and she said, “Our Elevate group still meets on Mondays and Thursdays on Zoom, and we still write together.”

Jennifer: I love that.

Jane: I was like, “Oh, my goodness.” I didn’t even know that they did that. And she’s like, “We kept the time and whoever can make it comes on Mondays and Thursdays and we meet.” Just having that community of people who are in it with you and are like, “I’ve seen you from when you started this book and you weren’t sure what it was about. And now you’re here and we’re just seeing each other’s process and giving each other support that way.”

It’s just awesome because we don’t get a lot of that in academia. We have to be very intentional about cultivating it. It doesn’t just show up for us.

Being able to provide that space where you have peers so you can be like, “I tried that too, and this is what happened when I tried it. “You know, or, “I went through that experience and I came out and I was, like, ‘I did it, and you could do it too.’”

Jennifer: I did it and you can do it too. Just hearing those two sentences, they’re so short. But, it just makes such a difference, especially to the women and minoritized faculty that you most want to help.

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Anxieties about writing your book are normal

Jane: Yeah. I mean just seeing that. ‘Cause you get into it and you’re like, “I don’t know if I’m ever gonna be done with this book.” (Jane laughs). People definitely have that thought,
- “I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to finish this.”
- “I’ve been avoiding it.”
- “I haven’t been working on my book, because I’ve been scared.”
- “I got some feedback that put me into a tailspin.”
- “I became overwhelmed with other commitments and I feel some shame about it.
- “I feel so embarrassed.”
Jennifer: Hmm.

Jane: And reminding them that it happens. It’s disappointing that it happens, but it doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you. I was normalizing it and seeing when I did one-on-one, one thing that always happened was people would tell me something, I’d be like, “Oh, that’s really common.”

And they’d be like, “It is?”

And I’d be like, “Yeah, I have other clients who have experienced that.”

And they’re like, “They have?”

Jennifer: (Laughs). Yeah

Jane: So being able to put everyone in the group and be like, “Look, you’re all having this experience.” You are not uniquely incompetent in some way. This is something that happens to a lot of people. Just because we aren’t talking about it on Twitter, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Jennifer: You know, I like when it is talked about on Twitter. I like when people talk about their struggles with writing on Twitter. Because I cheer them on. I’m like, “If you struggle with your writing, you get back to it, even if it’s a year later, two years later, 10 years later, I don’t care. Because I will remember that you were vulnerable and open about something you were going through. And I wanna cheer you on and I wanna hear about things when they’re not so good too.” So I really like vulnerability.

I love that people have a safe space to do that in your program. But I also encourage people, if you’re struggling with something, being open about it on social media can help spark new ideas, tools, and resources that you can use. But also new collaborations and ideas that could help spurn your research in another way. I mean, there’s just so much possibility besides hearing from other people, “Yes. I went through that too.” So yeah, I like that idea of being open about it.

Jane: Yeah, to be open about it! You know, it’s interesting. We gravitate to what is other people’s achievements and our failures, right? So, you finish a chapter and you’re like, “Yeah, but it’s not as good as I thought it would be.” Or, “Yeah, but it took me two months longer than I thought it would.” There’s always a diminishing.

Jennifer: Mm.

Jane: And convert on the flip side, they talk about other people who are like, “Well, that person finished their chapter so much faster than I did.” Or, “That person, you know, did this.” And it’s like, well, maybe they did. Maybe you don’t know the whole story. But it’s interesting, in our brains we kind of put everyone else as, “Well, they did it better or faster than I did. And when I did it, it was a mess.” And to coach around that and be like what is the story you are telling about your progress? And, is that story serving you? Because often it’s not. Saying, “I wrote my chapter, but…” And then using some type of diminishing, diminishing it in some way, how is that helping you?

Jennifer: Hmm.

Jane: Why would we emphasize that part of the story? What does it accomplish? It doesn’t accomplish anything besides making you feel like crap. It doesn’t accomplish anything. It doesn’t make you write faster. You can’t go back in time.(Jennifer laughs) You can’t go back in time and write the chapter faster.

Jennifer: Yeah, yeah.

Jane: So why would we talk about it so much? But we do, because sometimes we’re like, “Well, I don’t wanna seem arrogant.” Or, “It’s because I don’t believe that this is worthy of celebrating because it didn’t happen the exact way I wanted it to.” So where are the opportunities to kind of neutralize some of that language, so that people aren’t…

Jennifer: But you can find positives in it, right? Like, maybe that extra time gave you opportunity to realize something new. Maybe it was good that you didn’t write it as fast as you thought you might have been able to. There’s so much self-talk that can be negative that can be harmful for ourselves.

Jane: Yeah, there’s a lot of negative self-talk. Yeah.

Jennifer: Yeah. – I’ve definitely done that. I’m a creative writer and I’ve totally done that to my own. I didn’t write that fast enough or I didn’t write as much as so-and-so, yeah. It’s never helpful. It’s never helpful.

Jane: Yeah. Yeah. It’s like our running critic. And sometimes, it’s something my coach always says, “We can’t always get the critic to completely go away. We can put them in the backseat of the car, and be like, ‘You go back there. You’re not driving this car anymore. You’re not even in the back seat, but, like, the third row.’” (Jennifer laughs) You know, “We’re putting you back there. Like, I recognize that I may not be at a point where I can get rid of you, but I’m not going to give you authority over this ride. You don’t have the wheel. You’re back there.”

Jennifer: Still in the car, right? Can’t kick it out entirely. I mean, sometimes we can’t get control over it.

Jane: Still in the car. Like, you realize, you’re not wrong for having these thoughts. Like, they’re natural. And we’ve also been socialized to believe it’s not rigorous enough. It’s not fast enough. Publish or perish. There’s a lot of socialization at hand that is part of the reason why people have these thoughts.

As a coach it would be irresponsible for me to go in and just be like, “Oh no, you shouldn’t think any of this ever again.” Because as a sociologist, I know how strong the socialization is. As a coach I know that just makes you feel bad about having the thought. Then you feel bad because you didn’t write fast enough according to your standard. Then you feel bad that you’re judging yourself. And then you just feel doubly bad. So it’s like, “Okay, let’s just, like, take it back.”

Jennifer: Get out of that spiral.

Jane: Yeah. Let’s get out of the spiral. And, it’s okay that you had that thought. It’s okay that you feel bad. We don’t want you to feel bad indefinitely.

Jennifer: Hmm. I like that. We don’t want you to feel bad indefinitely.

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Elevate, a group editing and coaching program

Jennifer: Tell me more about Elevate. Who should join?

Jane: Everyone. I’m just kidding. (Jane and Jennifer laugh).

Jennifer: You said that people in the cohort are all in a similar place writing their book. When is it right to join your program Elevate?

Jane: Okay, so Elevate is a group editing and coaching program. We have a curriculum that we walk you through the
- craft of writing a book
- project management behind writing a book
- mindset issues behind writing a book.
So much of what slows us down is our own thoughts. Like, “I’m not ready to write this.” “I don’t know what decision to make.” “So and so said this about my chapter, so I’m going to feel bad about it and just ignore it.” “I’m gonna avoid. I don’t wanna look at the feedback, so I’m just gonna avoid it.”

Those are the three domains we work in the craft of writing, project management, and mindset. We do that through a curriculum. We have lessons the same way you would in any course. We have editorial feedback, so you submit your writing for feedback twice a month.

And we have a lot of mindset coaching that I coach people hard, (Jennifer laughs) which I think is what most Elevate alumni would say. Like, “Jane really coaches us. Like, she really pushes us.”

Jennifer: Right.

Jane: I push you in a way that not like, “Write your book faster, write your book faster,” but rather, “Let’s get to the bottom of why you’re having these feelings about your book. Let’s get to it and figure it out,” type of coaching.

Because we’re academics, we’re in our brains so much. When it gets into having emotions, we’re, like, “Oh, no, we’re rational. We can’t really think about that.”

I used to be that person too. Oh, no.(Jennifer laughs) I hate that, all that emotion stuff. That’s not gonna work for me. Well, I kind of need to confront it, because you and your book are gonna be together for a very long time.

Like you were saying, like, as you write it and then after you write it, it’s not going anywhere. You should figure out how to enjoy it. To find pleasure in the process of writing it and be excited about it.

It’s just like any other thing. You’re not gonna be excited about your book 24 hours a day, but you wanna get to a point where you’re more excited and motivated than you are demoralized and stressed.

Jennifer: Hmm, mm-hm.

Jane: In the program, we go 24 weeks. We go through those three themes one by one. People who join, all women, they’re normally at a stage in their book where they are figuring out the big overarching picture of the book and the structure of the book.

Some people come in and they haven’t written a lot yet. They have all of their data collected, most of their literature read. You might need to go back and collect a little bit more data, but, we want you to really be past that stage. Some people come in and they haven’t written a lot.

Some people come in and they’ve written a lot and they’re just like, “I’ve been writing and writing, but I still don’t have a really clear through line,” or, “I still don’t know my argument.” And that’s fine, because people’s processes are different. Some people like to get a lot of words on paper and then go back and kind of orient themselves.

We advocate you creating the foundation first and then building your house. (Jennifer laughs) So people normally come in when they want that support. What we do first is teach people how to write your book overview, how to write your book’s framework and then create an outline for the entire book. And then they start writing chapters.

Normally within the program you can come out with a couple of chapter drafts if you have the time to commit, and you will know what your book is about, how you’re going to write it. You know how it’s going to unfold over time. And then you get to work.

Jennifer: You have a plan in place. You have the mindset that you need to make that plan actually done, like, to get your book done. I love that.

Jane: Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer: Oh, if people want more support, you help them with that too. Like, beyond writing their book, is that correct?

Jane: We focus on books, but we have an alumni program for Elevate. We don’t expect anyone to write a book in six months. (Jennifer and Jane laugh). That is not what we do. We do not make pie in the sky promises.

We have an alumni program and people often come back and do the alumni program, which is another six months. There we really focus on more now you’ve done a lot of the deep work, the deep thinking in Elevate. Now we are helping you get a lot of words on paper. People are doing the writing and getting the body chapters, I call them ‘the empirical chapters.’ But I know people also have ‘theory chapters,’ so I don’t want anyone to be like, “What about the theory chapter?”

We focus on getting chapters done or revising because some people will take Elevate, go off for a little while and work independently, and then come back and be like, “I have a couple of chapters done.” And we’re like, “Great, let’s start revising them.”

Jennifer: I’m glad I asked you about that because I felt like there might be some people who are like, “Oh, I need a little bit more help than that. Is there an option?” I’m glad that there’s an alumni program that supports you with continuing that process. That’s amazing.

What else should people know or consider about Elevate? Because your new cohort is opening up again soon.

Jane: Yeah, so we accept people who are writing first, second, third books. I think initially when we ran the program, it was very much for people who were transforming dissertations into books. And we have gotten a substantial number of people who are writing second books, which are a different challenge because you don’t have that scaffolding of the dissertation. Even if your first book is dramatically different from the dissertation, which many are, the book is not a revised dissertation. It is like a caterpillar to butterfly.

But the second book just poses different challenges, and we support people who are writing their second book, their third book, because that foundational work of creating the overview, the framework, the outline, you need to do that every time. It’s not like you write the first book and you’re like, “Well I’m an expert on book writing now, so I don’t need any help.” That’s not how it works. (Jennifer laughs). And even experts get support.

So it’s not a matter that it’s a remedial type of program. That’s not what it is. It’s not, for, “Oh the people who don’t know how to write books.” No, it’s for people who wanna write books with supportive community, expert editorial feedback and coaching to help them write the book with less stress, a better support system, a clear foundation for the book. So that they can make progress with more ease.

Writing a book is a complicated thing. It should be because you’re dealing with complicated ideas and all sorts of interesting data. And it’s not easy. But there can be more clarity and momentum in the process than what there currently is for a lot of people.

Jennifer: I think that this is such a wonderful gift that you can give to yourself, especially if this is, like, your second, third, or fourth book. Like, why not make this time easier and better?

Jane: The majority of the people who work with us pay through their universities. We have a significant number of people, and some people pay out of pocket. We have people who are like, “I wanna make this investment because my book’s important to me and I don’t wanna twiddle my thumbs…”

Jennifer: (Laughs). Good. So if you are listening to this, if you’re watching us on YouTube or reading the blog, know that this is a program that’s there to support you and that you can pay for it out of pocket or you can request funds from your university. I hope that you sign up for the wait list.

Jane: You can apply for Elevate. The application is just an application. It’s not a commitment to join the program. We look at your application, because one thing about the program is that we wanna make sure that you’re a good fit for the program.

We also wanna make sure the program’s a good fit for you. If we think that you’re not at the right stage, if there’s something about your research that we feel that we can’t support you…For instance, we had someone who’s writing a memoir and we’re like, “We don’t really edit a lot of memoirs.” If we feel like the program is not a good fit for you, we will tell you because we only want people in it who can commit and who we can help.

That is the point of going in and applying and possibly talking to me about the process if you have a lot of questions, that we wanna make sure that it works for everyone. Because it’s a big commitment. And also, a book is a big deal. If you’re gonna get support, you wanna make sure you’re getting the right support at the right time.

Instagram Live about finding your book audience on social media

Jennifer: I love that. Thank you so much for joining me for this interview, and for everyone listening, I do wanna let you know that Jane and I did an Instagram Live where we talked about your book audience versus platform.

Thank you so much for watching this episode of The Social Academic! And thank you so much, Dr. Jane Jones, for joining me.

Jane: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

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Bio for Dr. Jane Jones

Jane Joann Jones is an academic book coach who helps minoritized scholars get the feedback & support they need to confidently write their books. Jane strives to be the coach she wished for when she was on the tenure track.

In her eight years as an editor and coach, Jane has successfully helped dozens of academic authors create and execute a writing plan and ultimately write their books, confidently. Her clients have published with presses including Oxford, Princeton, Bloomsbury, University of Chicago, Stanford, Duke, and UNC. Through her work, Jane has restored minoritized academics’ faith in their writing abilities and their place in the academic world.

When she’s not challenging the status quo in academia, you can find Jane sipping a craft bourbon, on the rocks, while experimenting with a new cooking recipe. She also enjoys visiting museums for only one hour, devouring cooking shows, and impromptu dance parties to the tunes of Lizzo and Queen Bey. If you happen to be strolling through her New York neighborhood, you might see her at Lucille’s, her local café, drinking an oat milk latté with a raspberry donut and a good book.

Interviews Share Your Research The Social Academic

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March 23, 2023
How I Got Started Helping Professors With Their Online Presence

I’m sitting in my office with a cup of tea thinking about how many of the academics I work with experience anxiety when it comes to talking about themselves. When I sat down to write this episode, I realized I was having some of that anxiety myself.

Today’s episode of The Social Academic is all about me, Jennifer van Alstyne. But, it almost didn’t get recorded.

I thought talking about myself and why I started my business, The Academic Designer LLC, was something you wouldn’t want to hear. I don’t know why I felt that way. I’m always asked about my origin story when I go on podcasts as a guest. I tell most of my clients how I got started.

I had a lot of hesitancy when it came publishing on The Social Academic about myself.

You probably noticed that most of my content is focused on educational how-to’s about how to have an online presence as a professor. When I went back to my very 1st blog post, called Welcome to The Social Academic, I realized that I don’t share a lot about myself with you.

When I told a friend I was going to record this episode, she said, “I’ve always been curious about you!” Getting that kind of response made me feel warm, and helped me get ready to record my story for you. My friend is probably excited that this episode will finally come out. Thank you for encouraging me!

Have you ever worried about bragging or self promotion? Professors tell me that it brings them anxiety to talk about themselves. They don’t want other people to feel like they’re bragging. They don’t want to come across as narcissistic.

But telling your story, sharing why you do the research you do, will make a difference to the people in your life. And the people who care about your research. The people you want to help most.

It’s been 5 years since I started my business The Academic Designer LLC working with professors to build personal websites and social media so you have a strong online presence you can feel confident about.

5 years into my business, I realize I am personally struggling with the same thing that stops my clients from talking about themselves online.

It’s a great reminder that our feelings about what we share, how we share it, and why change over time. I knew that it was time for me to push past my comfort zone and share this episode, my story, with you.

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to The Social Academic blog, podcast, and YouTube channel. Before we dive into today’s episode please subscribe to The Social Academic. Stick around for the whole episode because I’m going to share about my online presence program for professors where we work together 1:1 to create the digital footprint you need. Get support from me on your personal website, social media, and a new bio that shares who you are with the world.

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Origin story, finding the spark

I remember the moment I had the idea for my business so clearly. I was sitting in my professor’s office at the university, her desk with an old desktop computer and even older books. My bag on the floor was leaning against my leg. My professor and I finished up a meeting about the online course we designed together. I packed up my things, placing the cap back on my pen. I slipped it into my bag and stood to leave.

My professor asked me, “Do you know anyone who would be great for this role? We really want someone who wants to grow and learn for their future career.”

You see, my academic department was hiring a graduate student assistant to do professional writing and communication. They were putting together a team to handle things like the website and social media.

I sat back down. “You want me for this job. I’m perfect.”

I already knew I wasn’t interested in moving on to a PhD, despite all the encouragement of my mentors and peers. This? This role would give me an opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience. But I only had one semester left before I was done. My professor was looking for a person on behalf of the supervisor of this role. And they had discussed someone who could stay on for a year or more.

So I argued for myself. And told her why I was the best. It was the first time I felt so sure I was the right person for a project.

I pitched myself then because I knew I was the best person to help. My professor’s disappointment that I didn’t want to continue in academia didn’t deter me from sticking up for myself. It didn’t lessen the excitement I felt when talking because I knew in that moment I had a path forward perfect for me.

I didn’t know at the time that my business, The Academic Designer LLC would help professors increase their confidence talking about themselves. That I would love empowering academics to build an online presence so they can help more people with their research and teaching. That specificity about my business came later.

It was in my professor’s office that I discovered that spark, and knew that I would own my own business after graduate school.

Thinking back on it, my professor impacted my feelings about working with academics. You see, she didn’t have a strong online presence. The 1st thing that came up when you Googled my professor’s name was her faculty profile. But her faculty profile hadn’t been updated in years! It didn’t reflect her promotion or current research interests.

You may have noticed that your faculty profile on your university website doesn’t really reflect who you are now. Maybe it hasn’t been updated in a while. Oftentimes it’s limited. Many faculty members, just like my professor, weren’t sure what information made the most sense to include on their faculty profile.

Universities often put the responsibility on professors to write their own faculty profiles. Universities don’t offer the kind of support professors need to keep your profile updated as your research and teaching interests change over time. Universities also don’t offer the kind of staff that is needed to support the technical side of updates, actually making those changes on the website. And if your university does provide staff support, they’re likely overworked and might not get to update your faculty profile because of the many responsibilities they have.

Writing a new faculty profile for my professor was the most impactful thing I could do. Before I graduated, my professor had a new faculty profile that reflected who she was and the research and teaching that were important to her.

I knew then that even small changes to your online presence could make a big impact for professors. A new faculty profile can bring you new opportunities.

Imagine what a personal website could do. A space online that you control. Something separate from the university. A website of your own where you can share your research in creative ways. Where you can invite people around the world at any time to explore what you care about.

A couple weeks after graduating with my 2nd master’s degree, I became a small business owner.

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Meet Jennifer van Alstyne

I’ve been interviewing people here on The Social Academic and talking with them about their online presence. It’s fun because we get to talk about their research and also about social media.

Today I’m going to tell you a bit about my experience with social media. I’m going to talk about some of the things I like to ask my guests.

My name is Jennifer van Alstyne. I am a Latina woman. I’m an immigrant. I’m the owner of The Academic Designer LLC.

I’m also a poet. One of my very 1st interview guests here on The Social Academic asked me how poetry impacted my work today, and I said, “It’s so much like social media.” I told him that I love form and constraint, the kind of rules that help you be more creative. That gives you a box to focus your energy.

Social media is the same way for me. Each platform whether it’s Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube which I’ve been experimenting more with recently, has its own rules. Its own constraints. I love that!

In grad school, my research focused on representations of nature in poetry. When I think about it now…Looking back, I dedicated a lot of my time studying the writing of old white men. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my research. It just didn’t help people the way I wanted. I knew I couldn’t make the kind of impact I wanted for professors if I stayed in the academy. Especially as a woman of color.

I feel much more aligned with the work I do in my company, The Academic Designer LLC, helping professors around the world share their research online. As a latina woman, I love that I get to work with professors who are making massive impact in their respective fields. And that I get to work with professors at all types of universities whether you’re at an ivy league school or a community college. I’m not limited to any single campus, which means I get to help you too!

There is one story about grad school I want to share with you. I wanted to share it with you because it’s about an award I got, one that made me feel seen. It’s something I’m so proud of. The award was from the grad student association for my academic department. 6 years ago they got together and organized personalized awards for each grad student in the program.

What was my award you ask?

I got the award for Person You Most Want To Stick Up For You In A Meeting.

I love that. That’s so meaningful to me. My graduate student association saw me as someone who will support you, stand up for you, protect you if I am able. It makes me smile, because that’s how I see myself too.

Being named Person You Most Want To Stick Up For You In A Meeting by my fellow grad students is more meaningful to me than academic and research awards. It matters more to me now than my publications. My peers saw me as someone who will stick up for you. Someone you want to stick up for you.

I feel like that’s what I do for my clients when we work together 1:1. I know we can build an amazing online presence for you together.

Actually, this was a good story to share with you because some of that anxiety when it comes to talking about yourself? I experienced that then too. And it stopped me from saying anything on social media.

I should have posted about my award then, because it made me smile.

But I was too anxious to post about myself all the time on social media. I didn’t want to come across as narcissistic. I didn’t want to make anyone feel bad.

I remember writing a post and then feeling like I had to apologize, and be like “Don’t worry – EVERYONE got an award.” Which was true. Yes.

But what mattered was how much being a Person You Most Want To Stick Up For You In A Meeting mattered to me. How warm it made me feel to be seen. To want my voice in support of yours. I counted the posts I shared that semester that might seem like bragging…I decided to delete my post.

Don’t do that. If you’re in academia, celebrate the things you care about. Share what you’ve worked hard for. Don’t hit delete like I did.

Be open to sharing on social media.

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Talking about my past over dinner

Being open to sharing your accomplishments can be easier than being open about your struggles. Or about the things in your life that aren’t so positive. I’ve definitely dealt with that before.

I was sitting in a farm-to-table Italian restaurant in Cold Spring, New York over Thanksgiving with one of my mom’s best friends Barbara and her husband Peter. We spoke about the death of my mom, when I was 13, and her struggle with prescription pill addiction and bi-polar disorder. It had been almost 15 years since I had seen Barbara and Peter.

In that time, my father had died of pneumonia after a long battle with cancer. I had escaped a physically abusive ex-husband. I found myself a young undergraduate student alone in the world struggling to find a reason to live.

Barbara was totally engrossed as I talked about my life over an endive and pomegranate salad. She had questions about what I went through, about how I survived.

She was so curious without judgment, I even told her a dark secret about my mom, Kitty, her close friend. Kitty adopted me from Peru as an infant, told me, “I never should have adopted you. It was a horrible mistake.” Twice. I was 13 when she died.

Barbara leaned in to talk more, but Peter had a solemn look on his face, now well wrinkled in his 80s. He said, “Let’s change the subject. This is the saddest story I’ve ever heard.”

The saddest story he ever heard.

He actually repeated it because Barbara asked, “What?” in surprise. The saddest story he ever heard.

That was a whole new level of seen for me. I’ve heard sadder stories than mine, now. I mean it’s never a competition. But I did often feel like I was carrying around a heavy tapestry of sad. This weight I got used to, that’s become a part of me.

I’m grateful for the therapy that got me to a place where I can talk openly about my past, without overwhelm.

But I don’t want to overwhelm anyone else. It’s probably why I’ve given you a whole lot of sad in just a few sentences. When people ask me why don’t I talk about my past, I often say because it’s too sad. I don’t want to upset people. And that has kept me from opening up with the people I care about.

Yes, there was anxiety about what people would think. Fear of judgment. Fear of what you might say about me.

But that doesn’t change that it happened to me. That it’s my life. And I can’t change it. No amount of “not telling you” will make my sad history disappear.

Not telling you relieves my anxiety. But it doesn’t help me, or you.

What I went through helps me help you better. I’ve had fear about being online. Paralyzing fear. I deleted my social media accounts after leaving a physically abusive marriage. The idea of being seen by the person I feared most kept me awake each night. I was scared to sleep. I jumped every time the phone rang. Eventually, I moved on campus where I could feel safer.

As I began to heal, I started to recognize how small I’d let my world get. I missed the friendships and larger network I’d stopped communicating with. Staying off social media altogether was no longer right for me. So I started a new Facebook account and sent out friend requests one at a time. Baby steps.

I kept being surprised when people connected. I looked deeper into my past, reaching out to childhood friends. Having so many people connect in a short timeframe made me feel good about myself because they were real people that I knew.

I started connecting with my professors, visiting writers, or people I met at events. When I presented at my 1st conference in undergrad, I connected with my fellow panelists. I moved past my fear and allowed myself to be more connected with the world.

Now I help professors build deeper connections with people online in ways that impact their research. I help them feel less isolated in the academy.

Telling my story is powerful. It may help you, or others feel seen too. Even if you judge it. Even if you judge me.

I was adopted by people who regretted adopting me.

I am a survivor of domestic violence.

I am an orphan, who had no family.

Except that I did have family. And social media became so important in connecting with them. That’s what I want to share with you next.

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Having an online presence has impacted my life in many ways. I’ve been invited to speak, publish, lead workshops. My poetry has been read by more people than I’d ever imagined. My blog The Social Academic has reached you in over 191 countries around the world so far in 2023.

What’s the weirdest thing to happen to me? I was invited to audition for a reality tv show!

But the most impactful thing that has happened to me since taking my social media profiles public was being found.

Both my adoptive parents died before I went to college. It was so easy to fall out of touch with friends when you moved around like I had.

I couldn’t even afford a phone in college. Seriously. I signed up for Google Voice because I felt like I was missing out. Each person who said, “Oh, I would have texted you to meet at the dining hall, I didn’t have your number,” weighed on me.

I often feel like people forget about me. Like if I’m not there talking with you, if we haven’t seen each other in a while, I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. Like I don’t exist to you anymore.

Social media was the easiest solution for me to communicate with my friends. To keep in touch with people so they wouldn’t forget about me. So as a person alone in the world, I could still have connection.

I’m someone who needs to remind myself that “people care more about you than you think.”

It was actually through social media that my birth sister, Patssy reached out to me. I have a sister. One who has been missing me and thinking about me much of her life.

I have lots of siblings: Patssy, Veronica, Andrea, Isabella, and Leonardo.

When my sister Patssy found me, I was scared. I was still in that space of fear, with anxiety about being seen. I remember literally saying, “How did you find me?” And not knowing what to say.

Sometimes Patssy sends me videos on Facebook of her with my nieces. I get to see my little brother Leonardo on Instagram stories. And my sister Andrea and I share a love for singing. I got to hear her perform at a concert at her college in Peru when the video was posted online.

What a gift it was to connect with my family. Imagine if I hadn’t had the strength to build my online presence. Imagine if I hadn’t taken the chance to be public again on social media. My family in Peru might not have found me. The feeling Patssy had, the timing of her search for me. I had moved 11 times across 3 states since I’d been adopted as an infant. But Patssy reached out through social media and found me 27 years later.

Social media has changed my life. I know it can change yours too.

OK so maybe a long lost sister isn’t going to reach out to you from across the world. But more people are going to care about you.

When you’re more open about yourself, you invite people to engage with what you care about too (like your teaching and research).

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Having an online presence can help you connect with people around the world. More people care about you and your research than you think.

Help them by having an online presence that invites them to connect with you. When people Google your name, you want them to find a bit about you. Things like your bio, a photo of you. Can they learn about your research? Do you have a website that helps them explore it further?

I’m here to help you with your online presence. I have lots of free resources on The Social Academic blog to help you get started.

For professors who want more support, I offer done-for-you services like VIP Days, website design, and social media training.

Read testimonials from some of my amazing clients.

I’m here to help you, so don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected] or on social media @HigherEdPR.

If this episode touched you, send me a direct message. Share The Social Academic on social media with your friends. Getting an email or DM from you just makes my day, so I would absolutely love a message. I’d love to hear from you.

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When you’re a professor, you may feel unsure what path to take for your online presence.

Do you need a website? A LinkedIn profile (even when you’re not job searching)? A new bio for your faculty profile? Maybe you’ve been wanting to build your social media skills. But is that where you should start?

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. I work with professors on websites, social media, and bio writing. I’m here to support your path to your online presence with done for you services.

Let’s chat on Zoom if a stronger online presence is a goal you in 2024. I’m happy to see how we might work together. Professors, you deserve an online presence you’re confident in.

Schedule a no pressure Zoom call with me to chat about working together.

The Social Academic

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February 10, 2023
7 Lessons for Academics Wanting to Use Social Media
What can we learn from watching reality tv? Well, quite a bit. Today I’m going to talk about 7 things you can learn from The Circle, a reality television show about social media on Netflix.

Hi there, I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. I help professors feel confident when showing up online. I empower them to build an online presence so they can help more people with their research and teaching. Welcome to The Social Academic, my podcast about your digital footprint as a professor in Higher Education.

Now, if you’re on my mailing list you may have seen my email about my application to be on The Circle Netflix. If you’re watching the new season, you already know that I did not make the cut. But I love this show, and learn so much from watching it. So, I’m excited to talk with you about The Circle today. I still have my fingers crossed that I’ll appear on a future season. Seriously, my goal is to be on a Netflix show in my lifetime.

What is your online presence? It’s what people can find about you when searching your name online. It’s what people can discover about your research and the work you most care about. I’d love to help you have the online presence you deserve in 2024. Let’s talk about working together on your website, social media, or bio writing.

First, let me tell you a little bit about The Circle because I know some of you may not have watched this show before. By the end of this episode of The Social Academic podcast, you’re going to go and watch The Circle. This is one of my favorite shows, and I hope you love it too.

The Circle Netflix is a competition reality show where strangers move into an apartment building where they can only communicate with each other through a closed social media network called The Circle. Each person gets their own Circle profile where they can share a bio and a profile photo. Here’s the thing, if you’re in The Circle there’s no way to tell if the other contestants you see there are real, or if they’re catfish. Some people enter The Circle as themselves. Other people enter The Circle with a fake profile they think will advance them further in the game. The winner of The Circle gets a cash prize and bragging rights.

I love reality television. I especially enjoy watching The Circle because contestants build real relationships through chat, interactive games, and virtual parties. Because contestants interact with The Circle by speaking their messages out loud (it’s a voice-activated social media network), we get to see their reaction to the Circle Chat when a new post is shared. They also verbalize their thinking before sharing their own messages in the chat.

This will be a fun episode of The Social Academic, so pop some popcorn, take a seat, and listen up. We’re about to dive into 7 things you can learn about social media and building relationships from watching The Circle on Netflix.

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1. People don’t know anything about you when they come across your profile for the 1st time. Have photos on your profile that show your personality.

When you enter The Circle you don’t know anything about the other contestants. If you’re coming on the show, you’re aware that there are other people in the same apartment building you are. But, each of you walk into your own uniquely designed apartment. You get a few minutes to explore before The Circle sends you an Alert.

The 1st Alert invites contestants to set up their profile on The Circle. That way, other contestants in the building can learn a little bit about them when they engage in conversations in the Circle Chat.

Choosing what to include on your profile is so important. The people who are visiting your profile don’t know anything about you. The first thing that you can learn from watching The Circle on Netflix is that having photos on your profile that show your personality makes a big difference. Your photo is the first thing that people see about you on social media.

I love getting to hear contestants talk about which profile photo they’re choosing. When you’re looking at your photos trying to decide which one to use as your profile photo, think about which shows your personality best. What are you trying to communicate with your profile? Think about the outfit that you’re wearing, what kind of expression is on your face, and what’s in the background.

When you have a profile photo that shares your personality, people learn a little bit more about you instantly. Your profile photo leaves a lasting impression on social media.

For academics, sharing a photo of yourself on social media helps people recognize you. If you’re headed to a conference and tweet about your talk, you want your fellow conference attendees to be able to learn a bit about you. And it’s great if they can see a photo of your smiling face.

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2. Remember things about the people you talk with to help you have deeper conversations.

The Circle on Netflix is a closed social media platform. You might compare it to Slack or MightyNetworks. You can only engage in conversations with people through the general Circle Chat and through direct messages, messages which can be with one or more people.

Having conversations with people in The Circle is the only way to build your relationships. And yes, this does advance you in the game. But it also deepens your relationships in real life. Whether these people, the other contestants in The Circle, are catfish or not, the conversations you have with them are real.

The only way that you can learn about the people in The Circle is by having conversations with them. My second tip is that remembering things about the people you talk with helps you have deeper conversations. What do I mean by deeper? Well, more meaningful, lasting, and relationship-building conversations.

For the competition in The Circle on Netflix, this makes a lot of sense. When people give you more information, they might slip up and let you know that they’re a catfish. They might let you know about who their friends are and who they are most loyal to. They also might share a story that you can relate to, something that tells you about who they are, what they care about, and why they are here. What you share with people in The Circle, can help the influencers each week decide if you should stay or be voted out of The Circle.

Whether you’re on a closed social media platform like Slack, or a public network like LinkedIn, Remembering the conversations you have will help you have deeper, more meaningful relationships. Networking is all in the details.

Academics, you have so much to remember, I get it. I’m not saying memorize what people tell you. One way to help you remember the details about the people you meet is to see if you can find 1 way you connect with them. One thing you have in common. Maybe it’s a shared research interest. Maybe you both like dogs. You’re more likely to remember something you share, something you have in common, so that’s my tip for you!

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3. People can tell when you’re not being yourself online.

I realize I just mentioned catfish in The Circle and I didn’t quite explain what that is. A catfish is someone on social media who is pretending to be not themselves. Someone is “catfishing” when they have a profile on social media that does not reflect who they are in real life.

This is different from an anonymous account, where a person chooses not to share their real name. “Catfishing” is intentionally appearing as a different person. The term grew in popularity after the MTV show Catfish Began in 2008. The show is now on its 8th season where the show’s hosts uncover fake profiles of people in romantic relationships where one person is catfishing the other online. One thing I find notable about the show Catfish, is that many of the people who have fake profiles have real feelings. Even though the person is fake, oftentimes the relationship is based in real emotion.

On The Circle Netflix, being a catfish might help you make a lot of money if you make it to the end of the game. However, it can also hurt you to be a catfish. This is because of tip number 3. People can tell when you’re not being yourself online.

And yeah, okay, in real life this is a little bit easier now that we have video chat. But in The Circle on Netflix, you don’t have this option. You can’t see if someone’s real. You can’t even hear their voice. You can only go by what they share with you in the chat and on their profile.

At some point on every season of The Circle, some contestants hunt catfish. They’re looking for fake profiles. It’s an easy reason to vote someone off of the game. And may help you determine if you can trust someone to be loyal to you (or not). So if you are thinking about applying to be on The Circle you can totally be a catfish. You’ll probably have a fun time playing. Just know that it’s hard to convince people you’re someone you’re not. Authenticity shines through. People want to see you. And they get suspicious if they can’t tell who you are.

One of my professor clients wanted to know if they should have an anonymous account on social media. When I asked why, she said, “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to have a social media account. But I don’t want to miss out.” It’s not the 1st time I’ve heard this from an academic, so I said, “That’s probably not the case, but since you’re worried, let’s figure out who to ask.” Luckily her university had a great social media manager who had contact information accessible on the university website. When they got back to the professor, she learned that the university would love for her to be on social media. I was delighted! Of course I wanted her to be on social media. But I don’t recommend anonymous social media profiles if you can help it because people just aren’t sure who you are. They want you to be yourself.

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4. Nothing builds loyalty and friendship like opening up about yourself.

What really sets the good catfish apart from the catfish who get caught on The Circle is how they open up about themselves. Tip number 4 is that nothing builds loyalty and friendship like opening up about who you are and what you care about.

The season finale aired today. Yes! I watched it before recording this episode. I won’t tell you who won. At the end of the show everyone from the season, including eliminated players, return to meet in person in a luxurious lounge with host of The Circle, Michelle Buteau. Two of the players take a quick moment for an aside. Tom Haughton, a British comedian, thanks his fellow player, Chaz Lawry, a Los Angeles entrepreneur, by saying: “You were the 1st person to show me that being open is key to forming relationships.”

People get pretty deep on The Circle on Netflix. People have conversations about life defining moments, loss, trauma, family, and the values that matter most to them. The friendships that you make in The Circle determine how well you do in the game. The deeper your friendships are, the more likely you are to stay in the game.

When academics open up about their research, they can only help more people. When you share your story, you invite people to engage deeper. You invite people to care.

When you open up about yourself, and tell your friends and colleagues about yourself, it makes a big difference for your real life. This is because people will better know what you care about, how to help you, and how you can help others.

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5. Your friends will stick up for you and go to bat to protect you.

That loyalty brings us to tip number 5. Your friends will stick up for you. They’ll go to bat to protect you. The deeper your relationship is with your friend, the more likely they are to protect you with everything they can. Spoiler alert.

On The Circle Netflix, contestants build alliances with each other to help their friends stay in the game. Sometimes, the game forces you to do something you might not otherwise. For instance on this season an O.G. player, Shubham Goel, AKA “Shooby,” who was a fan favorite from season 1, returned. Pretending to be a sexy young woman named Sasha, Shooby made the mistake of trying to start a “rebellion” of the newer players in The Circle.

His reasoning was that the players on The Circle who arrived on day one, had more opportunity to build loyalty with each other, over the newer players. So, the new players should bad together to ensure their spot at the final table.

Why did this backfire? When Shooby was first on The Circle, he was loved by all the players. He was so nice, open, and thoughtful, that people loved who he was. Even though he didn’t win his season of The Circle, Shooby is one of the most well-known personalities because of his authenticity. When Shooby asked to return to The Circle this season, the producers said yes, but he had to be a catfish. Not being able to be his authentic self hurt Shooby in the game. He didn’t have the social capital it takes, the loyalty needed for a rebellion.

You see, other people in the Rebellion Chat had already built up loyalty with their other friends in The Circle. People they met before Shooby’s fake profile, “Sasha” entered the game. This meant that by the time Shooby approached them for the rebellion these Circle contestants were no longer interested in turning on their friends.

Shooby thought that his Rebellion would create new loyalties based on shared goals to do everything it takes to win. But doing what would have worked best for these players in the game, joining the Rebellion of new players, didn’t happen because people felt loyal to their original alliances. Your friends will stick up for you and go to bat to protect you when given the opportunity.

This is true in real life too. You may have seen on Twitter that one of my tweets at the end of 2022 went viral. Let me tell you, people had a lot of opinions. And they shared their opinions with me. Many of their feelings were negative. People didn’t like what I had to say.

There’s a cute coffee mug from Social Media Tea that reads,” you can’t handle going viral, I promise.” That’s me. I couldn’t handle going viral. At least, I felt that way at the time. I was getting dozens of notifications every minute with people angry at me for speaking the truth. For sharing something that was important to me because of equity, which I value highly.

Here’s the thing, I could handle going viral. I could handle it because of my friends. I got more messages of support from people who care about me, from friends, from people who read The Social Academic, and clients whose lives I’ve transformed. In 2 days, I got more messages of support than I’ve ever gotten in my life. Even from strangers who saw my viral tweet and felt empowered to ask for equity in pay for their speaking engagements for the 1st time. The outpouring of love and support made going viral bearable. And, people were open that they were reporting some of the disgusting, racist tweets people said to me. Friends told me that what I do matters. That I’m helping the world. I could handle going viral, because of them. The support of people you care about means so much more than the anger of people you don’t know. At least, that’s how it was for me.

In the weeks following my viral tweet, I saw not one but five friends and former clients, people I truly admire, go viral in a negative way for something they shared. If this happens to you mute that conversation. Take care of yourself. And, ask your friends for help. People can only help if you open up to them.

On The Circle Netflix, your friends want to stick up for you and help however they can. If you ask for help, they’ll be better aware and will help if they are able.

For academics, making friends can help your career. For many of my featured interview guests here on The Social Academic, the people they’ve met through social media and having an online presence has quite literally been life changing.

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6. Seeing what you create is fun (even when it’s not very good) – Think “Nailed it!”

There are fun games on The Circle. Some games are meant to help you learn more about your contestants, so you can make more informed decisions when ranking your fellow players. You see, the ranking determines who is an influencer that week. And it’s the influencers who decide who goes home.

I love that on The Circle one of the activities they get to do is crafting! In past years, contestants have decorated a cake and drawn portraits of each other. This year they got to design their own outfit on a mannequin. Their outfit was meant to express their personality. The judge for this design activity was Tan France from Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. And people had fun with it! During the judging the contestants had big smiles, thinking about the friends they’ve grown close to wearing some of the over-the-top outfits that fit their personalities to a T.

What you share about yourself doesn’t have to be a text-only post on social media. When you add a photo or video of something that you’re up to, especially something you create, people get really engaged.

People love seeing what you make, even if it’s not very good. You might have heard of another popular Netflix show called Nailed It! where contestants try and fail in incredibly hilarious ways to make impossible desert creations from Jacque Torres.

Seeing what you create is fun, especially when it’s not very good. I want you to apply this thought to social media. Stop trying to get the perfect selfie. Your video is never going to be perfect. People want to see your messy desk, your haphazard office bookshelf, not a picture perfect ‘magazine’ shot of your space. They want to see your struggles and failures if you’re willing to share them. They’ll relate to any post that is authentically you.

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7. More people know about you / care about you than you might think.

On this new season of The Circle Netflix, Shooby returned as a catfish. And after the rebellion, it was no surprise that Shooby was voted out of The Circle. The influencers saw through him and felt that he didn’t make a convincing woman teacher named Sasha. They thought he was a catfish. And they were right.

When you’re eliminated from The Circle on Netflix, you get the opportunity to visit one other contestant in The Circle. You get to see the person behind the profile and have a candid conversation about the competition. Shooby thought hard about who he should visit before leaving The Circle. He chose to visit another player called Jennifer.

I’m telling you about this episode because I thought it was really cute. Shooby expected Jennifer to be a middle-aged blonde woman. Much to his surprise, Jennifer turned out to be not one, but two players staying in the same apartment and sharing the Jennifer profile. Shooby discovered that the two players pretending to be Jennifer had been the first to be eliminated from this season of The Circle, on Day 1. They were subject of a double elimination, and given the opportunity from The Circle to come back as a catfish, named Jennifer. Their real names behind the Jennifer profile are Brett and Xanthi.

You might know Brett Robinson if you’re a fan of the reality competition show, Big Brother. Earlier in this season of The Circle, Brett was talking with Xanthi about Shooby. He said, “Shooby can’t possibly be as nice as he seems in real life.”

If you haven’t watched Season 1 of The Circle, Shooby comes across as the sweetest person. He doesn’t like social media. If you look at his Instagram profile, he shares low resolution selfies and photos of his family. Even though he came in last in the rankings on Day 1, he made it to the end of the game being himself. So this season when Brett said, “Shooby can’t possibly be as nice as he seems,” it was because Shooby seemed SO NICE. Maybe even too nice. Like it was maybe too good to be true?

Well, they came face to face when Shooby chose to visit Jennifer before his exit from season 5 of The Circle. It was an interaction full of excitement and open admiration. Brett and Xanthi got super excited to see a player they were fans of. They enthusiastically shared their own journey in The Circle with Shooby.

Tip number 7 is that more people know about you and care about you than you think. When Shooby entered the apartment to meet Jennifer, he recognized the man standing in front of him and said, “Brett! I’m a fan.”

Brett’s face when he realized Shooby knew who he was – it was adorable! The recognition and admiration was real between the two. And when Shooby finally made his departure from The Circle, Brett jumped up and down and said, “He knew who I was! Shooby knew who I was, did you see that?” Brett and Shooby were reality stars on separate shows. And, they were fans of each other without knowing it.

More people know who you are than you might think. More people care about you, and your research, and what you share on social media than you know.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to the people you admire most. Tell them why you care about them. Tell them how they touched your life. Nothing bad can come from telling someone they matter to you.

One of my clients, an amazing professor, was catching up with me on Zoom. He said he’d just come home from an academic conference and more than one person introduced themselves to him. And they had read his bio, explored his website, and even read his research. He was literally recruited for a job at the conference because someone was able to learn about him and his research. They were excited to meet him. Your online presence invites more people to know about you, and to care about your research.

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Wrap up

I could talk about The Circle all day. It was hard to narrow my list down to just 7 tips to share with you. I’m going to run through the full list for of tips for you now:
1. People don’t know anything about you when they come across your profile for the 1st time. Have photos on your profile that show your personality.
2. Remember things about the people you talk with to help you have deeper conversations.
3. People can tell when you’re not being yourself online.
4. Nothing builds loyalty and friendship like opening up about yourself.
5. Your friends will stick up for you and go to bat to protect you.
6. Seeing what you create is fun (even when it’s not very good) – Think “Nailed it!”
7. More people know about you / care about you than you might think.
The conversations you have online build real relationships with real people, people that can impact your life. People that can help you, people who you can help. The Circle is just a reality show on Netflix, but it can teach us so many things about creating deeper relationships on social media. And, in real life.

I hope that you watch an episode of The Circle. Or, binge watch the whole series! If you do, let me know. Maybe you’re a super fan like me! If you’ve watched The Circle before, but you didn’t pay close attention, go back and watch an episode to see what people say about the posts they read. I love seeing their reactions to what they see in the Circle Chat, and hearing what they think about what they’ll say in the chat, before they say it. What I noticed each season is that you can’t control what other people think about what you say. You can control what you say, when you say it, and how open you are with what you share.

I hope you love The Circle as much as me. Thanks for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to take control of your social media life, I would love to talk with you. My online presence services for professors are here to help you make greater impact with your research and teaching in efficient ways that fit into your busy life. I want you to feel confident when talking about yourself online. I want you to feel your authentic self is enough, that you are who people want to see.

We can work together one-on-one to build you the digital footprint you deserve. 2024 is your year for more people to know your name. For more people to know how they can connect and engage with you and your research in authentic ways. My name is Jennifer van Alstyne, and I’m here to help you. Let’s find a time to meet virtually on Zoom. I can’t wait to talk with you about your online presence.

I have so many amazing Ideas to share with you on The Social Academic podcast this year. So, please subscribe to the podcast, blog, or YouTube channel. If what I’m sharing resonates with you, please share it with a friend. And do reach out to me! I would love to hear from you. You can find me on social media @HigherEdPR.

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January 20, 2023
LinkedIn for PhDs with Dr. Gertrude Nonterah of The Bold PhD
I’m anxious about how to start posting on LinkedIn. Or, I’ve never posted on LinkedIn before. Is this you?

Meet my featured interview guest, Dr. Gertrude Nonterah. She’s a LinkedIn expert, and host of The Bold PhD YouTube channel. This interview focuses on LinkedIn for PhDs and how opening up about Gertrude’s struggle finding a job with a PhD invited opportunity.

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to The Social Academic blog, podcast, and YouTube channel. I empower professors to feel confident when showing up online. Help more people know your name and your research when you build an online presence that works for you.

In this interview:
Meet Dr. Gertrude Nonterah

A conversation that needs to be talked about: leaving academia

At first, I wasn’t a LinkedIn person

80% of Dr. Gertrude Nonterah’s content comes from questions people ask her

Being on video adds a personal touch to your content

The Bold PhD Bootcamp course

You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from

Bio for Gertrude Nonterah, PhD
Meet Dr. Gertrude Nonterah

Jennifer: Hello, everyone. I am Jennifer van Alstyne and welcome to The Social Academic. I’m so excited to talk with you today about LinkedIn because my special featured interview guest, Dr. Gertrude Nonterah is amazing at LinkedIn. I mean literally the person that I recommend if you’re new to LinkedIn and you need to go follow someone to figure out what they’re doing and what’s working well. She’s the person.

Gertrude, Gee, I’m so excited for you to be here with me today. Would you mind introducing yourself to everyone?

Gertrude: Absolutely. Thank you. First of all, I want to say thank you, Jennifer, for inviting me for this show. I’ve known about your show for about two years now. And so just being here is such a privilege. I’m Gertrude Nonterah. You can call me Gee, because sometimes people would struggle to say Gertrude.

Let me start with The Bold PhD. Essentially, I finished my PhD in 2015. When I finished, I went straight into a postdoc. During this postdoc, I realized that income was low. I live in California. I started a side business. I started doing that and then somewhere along the line I lost my job as a postdoc.

When I lost my job as a postdoc, I thought it would take me a couple of months and then I’d find a new job. But instead it took a year and a half to find a new job because nothing I was doing was working. I was applying to jobs within academia, jobs outside academia. I was even applying for second postdocs. And nothing was opening up.

The job ended in May of 2018 because of funding cuts or funding running out. I didn’t get another role until I was offered the role in December of 2019. So I wouldn’t start another role until 2020. That 18-month period was such a growing time, a difficult time. When I landed that faculty position, and later when I moved on into medical communications, I really wanted to chat about the emotions around you know being a jobless PhD.

Right? You’ve been told to go to school. You’ve been told to get all this education. And yet you’re applying for jobs and nothing is working, right? How do you navigate that?

Once I began to talk about that, and especially on LinkedIn, people began to resonate. And people would reach out to me and say, “I’m going through the exact same thing.” Like, “I can’t believe that this is happening to me.”

Gertrude: That’s how The Bold PhD was then born. I realized that there was a need for people to kind of talk about that. It’s sort of like a shameful topic to say that you have all this education and you don’t have a job. Right? I mean what did you do wrong? And so as I began to talk about I began to build that community. And it’s just taken off from there.

Jennifer: Oh, I love that so much. What I love the most is that you said that you really wanted to talk about the emotions that you had experienced, that other people might be going through now. My fiancé went through that. Many of my friends went through that same experience of joblessness as a PhD. And really struggling to communicate what you need and also your emotions about everything. Because certainly they felt embarrassed. They felt alone. They felt isolated.

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A conversation that needs to be talked about: leaving academia

Jennifer: I love that emotions was something that really inspired you to start talking about that. What was it like to be open about that and have so many people resonate with it and respond?

Gertrude: Yes. When I started talking about this and especially when I started talking about transitioning from academia into industry, and also the emotional side of it…People have been transitioning from academia to industry for a really long time. Right? That’s not the new thing.

The thing that I brought to it was actually talking about the mental state. Your mental state, and the emotions, and the financials. What people don’t usually talk about: the kind of difficulty they go through when they have financial stress.

People began to direct message [DM] me. People left comments. At first it was a little overwhelming because I didn’t know it was going to open the floodgates of like people…Literally, I would receive maybe a hundred comments on a post. Or, maybe one day I would get like 20 different DMs of people asking me questions: “Well how did you do this?” “How did you navigate that?”

In the beginning it was kind of overwhelming. But now I’ve realized that this was something that needed to be talked about. I’m glad that I started that conversation. Maybe I didn’t start the conversation, but I was bold enough, hence the name The Bold PhD, to begin actually talking about it. And putting myself out there.

The thing is, when you do that you’re also vulnerable. Right? I am quite a private person. I’m an introvert. There are lots of things I keep to myself. But I think that there are certain things that if nobody ever talks about, it never gets talked about, and people continue to suffer in silence. I didn’t want that to continue.

Gertrude: I wanted people to realize there are people that will finish a PhD and will not find a job. And yes, you will go through some days where you’re crying, and you’re weepy, and you’re upset. And yes, I went through this. It’s not fun to put yourself out there and say you were good. Because there are also people like I know from my childhood and from my days back in school who follow me, and you know they’re gonna see that. Like you don’t always want people from home to see that, but they’re people that see that.

But I realize that 1. a lot of people don’t care as much as you think they care. Right?

Jennifer and Gertrude laugh.

And 2. the people that care actually resonate with that message. And they need your help. And they will seek out your help.

So that’s how it’s been. I was afraid at first, but you know, I realized there was something that needed to be talked about.

Jennifer: That’s so powerful. And you did start that conversation for all those people who are reaching out to you for the first time. It’s probably the first time anyone invited a conversation for them. I really am so impressed with your ability not just to be open about yourself, but to respond and actually engage with people who have questions about it.

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At first, I wasn’t a LinkedIn person

Jennifer: LinkedIn sounds like it was so important for you. LinkedIn sounds like where you really built your platform in terms of your personal brand. Why did you get on LinkedIn? And, why should others be on LinkedIn too?

Gertrude: That’s right. Great question, Jennifer. At first, I wasn’t a LinkedIn person. Like, I would have jumped on Instagram. I was on Instagram and Facebook when Facebook was like a big thing. And I was on YouTube for a little while. The Bold PhD is actually on YouTube too.

I think the reason why I jumped on LinkedIn, and the reason I still write on LinkedIn is because currently LinkedIn has unbeatable reach when you compare it to all the other platforms.

It’s kind of slowed down a little bit. I do see changes with the algorithm. But for the most part, I think that LinkedIn is quite fair with putting your content in front of the right eyes, especially if you already have people interacting with your content.

The way that LinkedIn is different from other platforms is: For instance, me and Jennifer are connected. If she posts something and I go and I like it and I comment on it, there’s a likelihood that people in my network that are not connected with Jennifer are going to see that comment. They’re going to see that.

Gertrude: Or, even, I could share that piece of content. Sharing, you can do anywhere, but specifically liking and commenting on a post. And by doing so my community, or the people that are connected to me, could find out about Jennifer and be like, “Oh, that’s somebody I really want to connect with. Let me connect with her.”

And no other social media platform is doing this currently. All the platforms are really based on, ‘we’re going to show your content to a few people and if they like it then we’ll show it to more people.’ And that’s how YouTube, and TikTok, and Instagram all work. But LinkedIn is kind of like that, but you also have the added benefit of you could discover people just from people in your network interacting with other people. That was the 1st thing.

The 2nd thing was, I had gone to a conference and somebody had mentioned that doing video on LinkedIn was like a big thing. I tried to do video on LinkedIn. I didn’t like it very much because still in my mind, LinkedIn wasn’t a video platform. I didn’t ever stick with that. But I did notice that people were writing on LinkedIn and doing well. And I’m a writer. I do this. I work in medical communications. I was like, “Okay, let me just pull my strength and do that.”

I’m still a little self-conscious of doing video on LinkedIn even though I do video on YouTube.

Jennifer: That’s so funny.

Gertrude: I don’t know why. I don’t know why there’s a disconnect.

Jennifer: Yeah, that’s so interesting. It’s like, you could even use the same video on LinkedIn. But it still feels like separate platforms. That’s okay! That’s really interesting to hear.

Gertrude: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I would say that those two things.

When I noticed that people were also getting attention on LinkedIn with their writing, I said, “Okay, let me try this.” And I tried. And it’s worked. And I’m really grateful.

Another thing about LinkedIn that I want to fill in there before your next question, Jennifer. There is a stat out there that only about 1-2% of people on LinkedIn actually create any content on a weekly basis. Not even on a daily basis.

When you intentionally create content 5 times a week, 3 times a week, you are actually part of a percentage of 1% that is producing regular content. That can really put your personal brand, if you’re trying to build that for your career, on steroids. Really. I mean I don’t know everything. But it really can skyrockets who you reach.

Jennifer: Yeah, people even just like a couple of years ago were often surprised when they asked me, “What’s your biggest platform?”

And I was like, “Oh, it’s LinkedIn.

They’d be like, “Wait, what? Do you post on LinkedIn?”

And I didn’t. I actually wasn’t really posting all that much. But I was connecting with a lot of people and having conversations over messages.

So there are different ways to interact with the platform, but a lot of people just aren’t even sure if LinkedIn is for academics. For people who are leaving grad school and looking for their next job, yeah, they’re like, “Okay, I need it for a job.” But it’s not the same as needing it for networking, personal growth, for personal connections, which all can also be found on LinkedIn.

One of the things that I really love about LinkedIn is that your LinkedIn post lasts for a long time. If you send a tweet, if you share an Instagram post, it’s gonna last for a day. Maybe even less, especially on Twitter. But with LinkedIn, people can log in a week, two weeks later, and if they don’t have a lot of connections, your post is still probably going to show up at the top of their feed. So you can reach people, not only more people, but reach those people for a longer period of time than your other social media posts.

I really love Gertrude’s suggestion of posting regularly. Even if it’s just once a week you’re doing more than what 99% LinkedIn users? That would be amazing and really life-changing for people.

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80% of Dr. Gertrude Nonterah’s content comes from questions people ask her

Jennifer: You said you liked writing on LinkedIn. You didn’t really like playing around with the video content on there. But you have YouTube.

How do you decide what kind of content to create? And how do you make that decision? Are there things that you’re just like I really don’t like that and I’ve put it aside?

Gertrude: Yeah. I think most of my content has come from questions people ask me. I’m very, very conscious of that. Of course you can create content that’s popular and stuff. But I truly do try to focus about 80% of my content on questions people ask me.

Jennifer: 80%? That’s a lot.

Gertrude: I would say that.

Jennifer: I love how audience driven that is. When someone has a question, you’re like, “What kind of content can I create from this?” That’s amazing.

Gertrude: Yes. Anytime anybody asks me a question on YouTube, on LinkedIn, even on TikTok, I take that question and I create content out of it. Just this morning on TikTok…The Bold PhD is on TikTok, we just hit 1,000 followers.

Jennifer: Yay! Jennifer claps.

Gertrude: On TikTok, I just answered some of these questions because they were asking me about how did I get into medical communications. On TikTok, you can just click on the question and you can answer it with another TikTok. Essentially, that became a post I put on TikTok. And also on my Instagram Reels. Two things with just one piece of content. But most of the time I’m just really looking at that.

I always love the questions. When somebody sends me a DM and asks me a question, I usually will tell them, “You know what, I’ll answer your question. I’m going to answer it as a post because if you have this question at least 100 other people have the same question. So I’m going to create a piece of content out of it. And you will benefit from it and other people are also going to benefit from it.” I’ve done that both with LinkedIn and YouTube and it has served me very, very well.

Gertrude: There is something to be said for audience driven content where, yes, you can definitely do your own. You can, for those of you if you’re like me and you’re writing out like pretty old school, well not old school. But you would do SEO research for content ideas from other content creators that are working. Or, you could even do that on any platform really. If content is working for somebody, then you try to copy it in some way or mimic it. And I think that the reason why sometimes my content does well, not all the time, but it generally it does well is that I’m taking specific questions people ask. I’m posing the question. And I’m giving an answer.

Sometimes I don’t know the answer to the question, and I may invite others to say, you know, this is how I feel about it. But how do others feel about it? And that then generates a lot of conversation on a post. And then it becomes another you know somebody who will leave a comment and that triggers another idea.

It’s really like a machine of, “I’m gonna look, I’m gonna read.” I read every comment. I read every question. I mean, sometimes I don’t react. Or, I may not respond to it. But I read everything. And usually those are my inspiration for creating content.

Jennifer: Wow. That is honestly inspiring for me. I feel like I get asked a lot of questions. And, I do occasionally create content around it. But the content that I’m creating, I feel like sometimes it takes too long to actually stop the other things that I had planned and focus on that. I love that you’re just gonna get on TikTok, you’re going to get on Instagram Reels, and you’re gonna answer those questions.

And you collect questions to answer again later. I’m gonna start doing some of that because I think it’s such a wonderful idea.

Especially for academics, professors and grad students who are leaving academia. They want to still be able to have conversations about the things that they care about, the research that they care about. And also, what they’re doing next. I think that that is an amazing way for them to generate those ideas. Having people ask them questions and like actually answering them.

Gertrude: Yeah! If you want to take that even further, especially for people that maybe you offer a service and so you create contents around this one niche subject. Well, you could go find your colleagues within that same space and look at the questions people are asking them also. Because likely people in your audience have those questions. It’s not something I’ve actively done, but that’s also another idea I always give to people if you don’t have the audience yet to start commenting or asking you questions.

Like I said earlier on how I started, it was that I wanted to talk about some of the things that I had gone through because I was jobless. So I started from my personal experiences and then that led to people beginning to follow me. Then as they began to follow me, they began to ask questions. I began to answer their questions. And a lot of the time when I’m answering the questions I’m still pulling a lot from my personal experiences and from things I’ve read. And for experiences I’ve had or something somebody told me. You do end up still serving them based on whatever your niche is. But I always find that the better content creators in any industry are always very queued into what their audience, or the people listening to them, are asking them. Then they give them back content that meets that need.

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Being on video adds a personal touch to your content

Jennifer: I love that. You do a lot of different forms of content. But you definitely talked about how video felt comfortable for you on YouTube, and not on LinkedIn.

Why do you like creating YouTube content? What is it about YouTube, I mean you have The Bold PhD channel, I think you also have a personal channel if I’m correct. So what is it about YouTube and video that you enjoy?

Gertrude: Yeah, I literally wrote to my channel this morning: “I do too much.” I need to like curb that, right?

Jennifer: Yeah.

Gertrude: I was applying for a job and somebody said, “Wow, you’re doing a lot of things at once. Are you sure you want a job?”

Jennifer laughs.

Gertrude: That was hilarious.

The reason I like video content is because of the personal touch it adds to responding to people’s questions. When you write, we get to read what you’ve written but we don’t get your facial expressions. We don’t get to know you.

I feel both video and podcasting are a great way for people to get to know you. They hear your voice. They see your face.

Gertrude: I met somebody once who had started watching me, watching my videos. And we met at a coffee shop here in San Diego. And they’re like, “You’re just like you are on video.”

And I’m like, “I’m not any different.”

Jennifer laughs and nods.

Gertrude: For me, authenticity is important. Connecting is important.

Another thing that’s important with YouTube, is that YouTube is a search engine. If you do very well with number one, responding to what your audience wants, and number two making sure that it’s optimized for the search engine.

That content could live for a long time. There are videos I created 5, 6 years ago that I get comments on. And I’m like, “I don’t know what I said in that video.” This is like on my personal channel. I don’t even know what I said in that video. I don’t even care about that subject anymore.

Jennifer and Gertrude laugh.

Gertrude: But somebody just left me a comment on it.

Jennifer: Because they’re finding it for the first time. Because they’ve searched for it in Google and your video shows up.

Gertrude: And the video showed up, exactly. It’s taking advantage of that.

Because of that, I’ve had people that have
1. They followed me for years
2. They bought my products
3. They’ve invited me to speak because they see me and they hear me and they’re like I would love to interact with this person.
For me, it’s that authenticity connection and also taking advantage of an already built and very robust search engine.

Jennifer: I love it. People don’t always realize that social media platforms are search engines. Twitter is a search engine. YouTube is a search engine. LinkedIn is my favorite search engine, to be honest. Especially for academics who are looking for other people in your field.

You can literally search the keyword for whatever your research topic is, and find other people around the world who are doing similar work. If it’s on their profile, you can find them. And that’s something so many people don’t realize.

Jennifer: When I say get on LinkedIn, I really mean it because you can find real people like you.

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The Bold PhD Bootcamp course

Jennifer: I want to hear a little bit about your LinkedIn course, because you do have a product to help people be on LinkedIn.

This is something that’s so important especially as Twitter for many people feels really uncertain right now. They’re not sure if they want to stay for political reasons. They’re not sure if they want to stay for security reasons. And they’re trying to figure out where to go next.

I know LinkedIn is an excellent answer for them, but some people need help. So please tell me about your LinkedIn course.

Gertrude: Absolutely. When I started seeing success with LinkedIn, and this year I spoke at 16 events. And those 16 events, each and every one of them have come from people saying, “Oh, I connected with you on LinkedIn.” I think about 90% was like, “I connected with you on LinkedIn.” “Oh. I watched your YouTube video.” Usually it’s like one or the other. And I was like, wow, that’s powerful.

And not just that, but I’ve had opportunities to coach other people. I don’t do a lot of that, but I’ve had opportunity. People reach out to say, “Hey, can you coach me?”

People have reached out to me with jobs. Let me tell you why that’s significant. Earlier on, I mentioned how I struggled for a year and a half. And I still get emotional about it because like that time was a really difficult time in my life. And finances were not so great. I have a child who needed health insurance, and I didn’t have health insurance. So it really is an emotional topic for me.

I remember somebody reaching out to me and saying, “I want to give you a job.” To go from struggling to find a job for a year and a half to somebody reaching out to me: not to interview me. I was confused. I’m like, “Oh, you want to interview me?”

“No, no, we want to give you a job.”

Gertrude: Then I had a friend of mine who I connected with on LinkedIn later on, I would find out that we went to the same PhD program but he had graduated a few years ahead of me. A recruiter reached out to me about a job that was not even being advertised yet, and they said, “You know, this person raved about you.” And so through my connections, I got this opportunity to interview for a great job at a great academic institution. No way would these people look at me if somebody hadn’t talked about me and raved about me. I ended up turning down that job, but I was really sorry to turn down that job because I had just been offered another one.

But those two things: like having somebody go ahead of me and recommend me for such an amazing role at a great institution. Having somebody want to offer me a job. That sold me on the platform. That sold me.

You know, the speaking, everything else was great. But building my personal brand has been a life change that took me from struggling to find health insurance for my child who severely needed it, to people offering me jobs.

Because of that, I built this course on how people can build a personal brand and leverage their personal brand to open up opportunities for them, The Branded Scholar Bootcamp.

A lot of us don’t use LinkedIn unless we’re looking for a job. I noticed that when a lot of the layoffs started happening, people would post, “I’ve been laid off.” I would go and try to support that comment and all that, but before that happens to you, you could be building a personal brand so that when something like that happens to you, you could immediately have people who are clamoring to say, “I want you.”

Because of that I built the course called The Branded Scholar Bootcamp, teaching you step-by-step how to set up and build a personal brand on LinkedIn. And how to create content in a systematic way. How to be consistent. How to build your speaker page if you want to speak and have people invite you to speak for them. I laid out step-by-step how I’ve used LinkedIn and how others can use LinkedIn to build a personal brand that attracts opportunities to them.

Jennifer: Oh, I love that so much. And for some of you listening right now, you’re like, “Jennifer, don’t you have a LinkedIn course?” Let me tell you it is nothing like this one. My LinkedIn course is really for professors who just want a LinkedIn profile. They want to know how to put their academic life on their LinkedIn profile. And they really aren’t looking to post. They’re not necessarily looking to network on LinkedIn. So that’s what my course helps with. And you can see it’s wildly different from this one.

The Branded Scholar Bootcamp is all about making connections and making real relationships that can help you, not just with your job search but with other areas of your life. I mean this sounds like it’s really world opening and that’s why I wanted you to know about it.

Gertrude: Thank you so much, Jennifer. I really appreciate that. People can check that out.

Jennifer: Yeah! Be sure to check it out.

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You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from

Jennifer: It has been so amazing to talk with you about LinkedIn, to talk with you about YouTube, and all of the amazing things you’re doing to help people. I mean you’re changing the world. And I love it.

Do you have anything else you’d like to add before we wrap up? This has been such a fun conversation for me.

Gertrude: Absolutely. It’s been such a great conversation. I just wanted to say that if you’re not building a personal brand, it all started on LinkedIn for me. And I know that people may have their feelings about LinkedIn. And definitely you can use LinkedIn.

But even if you don’t use LinkedIn, there are other platforms out there where you can build a personal brand.

I’m very, very pro building a personal brand for your academic career because nothing is certain in the world that we live in today. You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from.

Building a personal brand is literally currency you can cash out at some point in your career.

Gertrude: Don’t hesitate to build a personal brand even if all you do is post once a week on Instagram, or post once a week on LinkedIn about your academic career, or about you know maybe you’re transitioning out of academia and you want to talk about that, or you know you’re talking about your research, or teaching in the classroom.

Whatever it is, build a personal brand before you need it. Because trust me, at some point you may need it.

Even if you never need it, the opportunities it opens up for you are just unmatched. And I highly recommend that you do build your personal brand. Thank you, Jennifer, for giving me the opportunity to talk about that.

Jennifer: This has been so inspiring. I really think that people are gonna go make their LinkedIn profile after talking to you because this has been eye-opening. I hope that lots of people find your interview helpful. Thanks so much for coming on The Social Academic!

Gertrude: Thank you so much, Jennifer. Thank you.

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Bio for Gertrude Nonterah, PhD

Dr. Gertrude Nonterah is a medical communications professional. She graduated from Lewis Katz Temple University School of Medicine with a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 2015.

She is the host of The Bold PhD YouTube channel which helps graduate students and PhDs prepare for and navigate the career market outside academia.

Connect with Gee on LinkedIn.

Visit The Bold PhD website.

Join The Branded Scholar Bootcamp.

Interviews LinkedIn Social Media How To’s The Social Academic

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January 5, 2023
Author Linda Moore on Attribution, a Novel about a PhD Student

When PhD student, Cate Adamson finds an unknown painting in her university’s basement, she journeys to Spain to uncover the mystery. An impoverished duke, misogynist advisor, and intrigue in the archives. Attribution is the perfect gift for the academic in your life!

Linda Moore, author of Attribution, joins me in this featured interview. We talk about her book and how to get comfortable talking about your book too.

I’ve you’ve ever felt anxious about talking about your book, this is a great interview for you!

Start with this short video, that goes behind-the-scenes on women’s experiences in the academy. This video is fire, please share it with your friends.

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Meet Linda Moore

Listen to How to Talk About Your Book with Author of Attribution Linda Moore:

Watch the full video interview, recorded live, on YouTube.

Jennifer: Hello everyone, my name is Jennifer van Alstyne. And welcome to The Social Academic on YouTube. I’m here today with author Linda Moore we’re talking about her amazing book, Attribution, which is about a PhD student named Cate.

Linda, would you mind introducing yourself?

Linda: Hi, everyone. I’m Linda Moore. I spent more than a few years collecting degrees from various universities and I’m so excited to talk to people in the academic community.

Jennifer: Today we’re talking about your book, Attribution, which is on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics. And I’ve put it on the Gift Guide because it is such a fun story. I think that you’re really going to relate to the protagonist Cate who is a PhD student in art history. Can you tell us a little bit about Cate?

Linda: Cate Adamson is a complex character, young, 23. She’s suffering from the challenges of the drowning death of her younger brother, only sibling, and her blue-collar parents who are back in Michigan. She had to drop out of her program at University of Michigan to do a lot of help around her family’s home. And then finally decided the only way that she could really help them was to move forward and prove to them that a daughter could have a future as well.

She goes off to New York and there she meets her nemesis faculty advisor who won’t approve any of her dissertation topics. And she is assigned to do the ugly job of inventorying the art in the basement of the university. She has found a hidden painting in an old chest that isn’t on the inventory list and decides that it could be a Golden Age masterpiece from about 400 years ago in the era of Philip IV in Spain.

During the holidays, she takes the canvas to Spain and looks for experts. And I’ll leave it there because I don’t want to give off any spoilers about where the book goes.

Jennifer: Cate’s journey is so much fun and her struggles as a graduate student I think are so relatable for the people that are on my blog who are going to read Attribution.

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Women in Art

Watch the video interview on YouTube.

Jennifer: When it comes to Cate’s journey and her struggle as a grad student, she’s up against an advisor who isn’t appreciating the research that she is bringing to the table. And she wants to study women.

What is it about women artists that makes Cate’s journey so difficult?

Linda: Well, it’s interesting and shocking actually how little women have been highlighted in the history of art.

The famous Janson History of Art book that we were all assigned in history of Art 101 or even in High School AP History of Art it is still the go-to book. The initial edition had no women artist, none.

I mean we’re talking from cave art days of the Neanderthals to Contemporary Art. It didn’t have Georgia O’Keefe. It didn’t have Mary Cassatt. It didn’t have Frida Kahlo. It took until the 70s when the Women’s Movement was really coming more alive for Janson’s son, who did a rewrite of one of the editions, to begin adding women.

I thought, ‘Okay well that was 50 years ago.’ However, if you look at the collections…

The piece on the cover which is a nude by Velázquez held in The National Gallery of London. And I read that The National Gallery of London only had 15% of its collection was women artists.

Read about the response to The National Gallery’s recent announcement celebrating the ‘towering achievements’ of male artists in their 2023 summer exhibition (The Conversation).

Jennifer: Wow.

Linda: And I’m shocked. And I thought, oh well, the Brits. You know, but honestly, The Met in New York has…are you ready? 7% of its collection are women artists.

Jennifer gasps: That’s even worse!

Read this open-access article on Diversity of artists in major U.S. museums.

Linda: Yes. And that’s with a lot of distinguished women being on the board and being in the curatorial staff. So I think there is now a resurgence of a movement to correct these things. And with that is coming a lot of women who are extraordinary like Artemisia Gentileschi who was the artist that we know a lot about because she was raped by her painting tutor in the 1500s in Italy. And that is all that trial was documented in the courts. So we have a lot of information. Many paintings of hers are now being reattributed to her because of the fact that you know people didn’t believe such good works could have been done by a woman so they would attribute them to some contemporary man. She has had numerous exhibitions there’s a lot of exciting work going on to try to rewrite the history of women in art.

Jennifer: I love that it sounds like it really inspired some of the circumstances in your book.

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Linda’s love of art

Jennifer: One thing that I really love is that I can tell your passion for art. Tell me a little bit about your background in art.

Linda: Well I am a political science major as an undergraduate with a minor in Spanish and anthropology. I really became excited about art when I went to Madrid with the education abroad program of the University of California. A wonderful program that has grown so much since I was in it and I continue to be a big supporter of that program.

I discovered art. My grandmother was a painter, but the kind of art I was able to see in Europe. To be able to study Spanish art in the Prado, Italian art in the Prado, and see the real paintings, not slides in the darkened lecture hall. I was just blown away, very excited.

I never stopped loving art. I spent some time in other careers, became a hospital administrator, did different things. And then decided that I really wanted to open an art gallery. I focused my art gallery on the art of the southern cone of South America, not something we see very much in California, or even in the United States.

I was inspired by that because I’d gotten my master’s degree from Stanford and Latin American studies with a specialization in politics. But I realized I could teach a lot more about Latin America and what was going on through the artist’s eyes from that part of the world. I can remember even the days where I had to bring a map of South America to the gallery and share with the staff where was Uruguay, even Argentina. I mean our knowledge of the geography of South America is quite bad.

Jennifer: I understand. I’m from Peru and people ask me where that is all the time.

Linda: Oh yeah, and politics of Peru right now…we could have a whole conversation about that.

Jennifer: Yes, absolutely.

Linda: But in any case I really enjoyed the way that art, and being involved with the artists, and understanding their world, their history, their current challenges…that art embodies all of it. And I enjoy that so much. I was always learning. Still, always learning all the time in so many areas.

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Getting comfortable talking about your book

Jennifer: Well, the first time we met was at an art show. You told me pretty immediately about Attribution. It was maybe the first time that an author had been so open and so generous with the creation that they had made. I loved it and I was so excited to read it.

I heard about Cate’s journey and I was like I’m gonna read that book. And Attribution really did touch me. You’re so comfortable talking about your book that when I saw you again at Warwick’s for your reading I was like ‘Oh my gosh, not only is she comfortable talking about her book in person, she’s letting people know that she’s sharing it on Instagram in Reels, on social media.’ That is difficult for so many people. It’s scary and anxiety provoking.

What’s it like to talk about your book?

Linda: Having been an art gallery owner, it was quite easy for me to talk about other people’s art. I’m for the first time talking about my own art, right? So there it is [Linda holds up the book]. I have it, you know, all over the place here. That’s marketing 101. Let people remember the name of the book, Attribution.

I finally had a talk with myself and I said, “Okay, if you were making the most fabulous chocolate chip cookies in the world. And people raved about them and told you how good they were, you would have no trouble at all saying, ‘Jen have some of my chocolate chip cookies they’re really really good.’ And that feels quite natural to say right?”

I convinced myself I worked really hard on this book for a long time, and I worked to make sure that backs were correct, that every single word was spelled right. I’m sure there are still a few errors but we sure made an effort. And the cover, everything about it. I felt it was a competent quality book, just like my chocolate chip cookies.

And I would say, “Please try my book, I think I’m offering you something you’ll enjoy, something I’m proud of.” And I always end with saying, “Let me know what you think, because I am interested to hear from readers.” And hopefully the next book will be even better.

But I can’t say that there aren’t moments when I think the other person must be thinking, “Oh my god, there she goes about that book again.”

[Jennifer laughs.]

Linda: So I try to at least moderate a bit who my audience is and hold back so I don’t end up losing all my invitations.

[Jennifer laughs:] Oh, thank you for saying that too. Because you know, I think people are anxious about having that reaction. And you’re someone who’s doing this quite often. You are talking about your book. You are being open about it. And people aren’t snubbing you. People aren’t like, “Oh my gosh, there’s Linda, let me run the other way.” No.

They’re talking about your book. They’re at your readings. They’re helping share it with their friends. And I think that that is something that the power of connection can really create.

I just want to share some comments with you from the live chat: “Have some of my chocolate chip cookies, yes, I love it.”

Attribution is on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics. We do recommend that you buy it for yourself, buy another copy for a friend. Honestly, I loved reading this book. So I highly recommend it.

Linda: Well it is easy to talk about something that you personally enjoyed.

Inviting conversation about your book

Linda: I love really to hear other people talk about [the book], which you can only make that happen by first talking about it yourself.

I went to quite a few little presentations about marketing books. And you know this whole world was all new learning for me. I learned that in spite of all the social media, and all the things, which I know Jen you’re very dedicated to it. And I too am. Is that still, word of mouth is that big source of how people find their way to a book.

But how do you get word of mouth going? I mean you can only know the hundred people on my Christmas card list, right? That’s easy to get to. All that you know my relatives, and their neighbors. And you know but ultimately your circle kind of starts to slow down because we can only all know so many people personally. To begin to reach beyond that does mean to keep the conversation going.

I do think of it like a conversation instead of a sales pitch, because you know for some people my book is not right. It’s not their thing. And I’ve spent more than a few sessions in Barnes and Nobles and other bookstores, and the first question I ask people is, “Do you read novels?”

And if they say, “No, actually I read biographies of sports figures,” I go okay. And then I might convert to a conversation of who their favorite team of this or that is, because I don’t think they’re probably going to be a reader for my book. But sometimes, and I used to say this in the gallery, “If you can’t make a sale, make a friend.” So, I try to make a friend. Then I might find out that his sister would really enjoy the book, but maybe he wouldn’t.

Jennifer: Exactly.

Linda: Word of mouth is ultimately there, but it all begins with putting yourself out there in a variety of ways, including social media. And physically showing up, and being willing to to raise your flag and say, “Hey, I’m an author.”

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Talking about your book on social media

Jennifer: Tell me a little bit more about social media. I know that you’re on Instagram and Facebook. Tell me about why you decided to join social media.

Linda: I was already on social media, mostly Facebook, a little bit Instagram. I had a Twitter account which now…

No one look for me on Twitter because, “I’m sorry Elon, I am not a friend or a fan in any way.”

I don’t want to be part of something that, I don’t know if I even have a word for it but it certainly isn’t a dialogue with people. And it’s not it’s not my world.

I will say Facebook we love to love it and hate it all at the same time. I know a lot of people have left, but I initially got on there and was traveling a lot before COVID over the last 10 years.

Facebook is such a great way to share with people: here’s where I am, here’s you know what I’m looking at this morning in some beautiful place. And a reminder of all these people’s birthdays and things I would never in a million years remember that. Just to reach out to friends. It takes so little effort to do it, that I really do appreciate it.

I have found great joy and looking at my friend’s grandkids photos and where they’re traveling. And learning about what they’re reading, sometimes I find my way to really interesting stories.

Since I’ve been writing stories on my Linda Moore Author page, and Facebook, and Instagram, about these women artists who’ve been forgotten. I post pictures of paintings that are in the book. And also photos of places in the book. But it leads to a lot of interesting conversations. Especially during COVID, when we were also isolated. It was really nice to connect with people in a safe way. And that continues.

I have met just such amazing people. It blows me away when I get a note from New Zealand or somewhere that someone’s read the book. Now how could that happen any other way?

Instagram, the Reels, was not my world. But I will tell you, my daughter-in-law, who had 25,000 followers for, are you ready? For the dog. His name is Ravioli, if you want to be his friend. My daughter-in-law encouraged me to do Reels. And I have had some fun with it. I mean the ones of me doing exercise, which you know gets a lot of attention mostly because I’m so not fit it seems to be a hit.

Linda: It gets attention because they’re so sweet. I went home immediately after your reading when you mentioned your Reel to Eye of the Tiger. I watched it and I was like this should be viral! Everyone should see this Reel, it’s amazing. I loved it.

Linda: Oh good, put it out there, Jen. But it does allow you to share a different dimension of yourself. And it could be you hitting a golf ball and missing five times, I don’t know. But it’s just a way to show that you have many layers.

People suffer from stereotypes of lawyers, and doctors, and professors. And I think that an opportunity to show you with that pet that you love, or with the house you’re trying to renovate, or you know whatever else is going on in your life. Because it makes you relatable as a person, as a human being. Even if you’re teaching students, to share that dimension of yourself I think is a really wonderful way to connect with the world.

Jennifer: Thank you for sharing that. Just from the live comments, Dr. Jennifer Polk says, “I appreciate Linda sharing about having fun taking risks on social media. I’ve not done that so much. Reels scare me.” I think that’s true for so many people.

What was it like asking for some help with Instagram? Your daughter-in-law is helping you with those Reels. Most people are anxious to ask for help or guidance in any way. What was that experience like for you?

Linda: Well, I would say in general about everything in your life, nobody knows everything. So asking for help is a very human quality whether it’s you know making those chocolate chip cookies, or ending up trying to figure out how the heck do I do a Reel? And my daughter-in-law will tell you that I am not a good student of Instagram.

I’m still trying to figure it out. I had not wanted to ask her because I knew she was really good at it. And just like you were saying, I was reluctant because it seems like an imposition. But she came to me. We struck a deal where she wanted some of my airline miles that had piled up when I went nowhere during COVID, to go to a friend’s wedding. I traded her miles for making me Reels.

Jennifer: I love it.

Linda: Then she decided she wanted to go with me on some of these book tours to Seattle, and other places. It was really fun to have her along, and be partners in this. She was doing some of the filming so I learned more of her artistic approach to production of these things.

Now I do a few little videos of my own and I’ll send them to her. You can take a look at those. I don’t think they’re Academy Award-quality, frankly. She does a great job especially. The ones I do are not nearly as good…She’s taught me a lot.

But you know what? There’s a lot out there where you can learn. You can just Google it. You don’t have to necessarily put yourself in front of people. But for people who are close to young people, to make a friend and maybe offer something in order to get some help. I think that young people are very happy to help.

The guy who cuts my hair taught me how to do the first Reel I ever did.

Jennifer: Really?

Linda: Yeah, it’s on there. You can see him, he’s trying to do my hair and he says behind me, I’m filming right? And he says behind me, “Oh, we’re gonna need a miracle here.”

And I go, “Oh no!” It’s so simple really. All I had to do was hold the camera.

I think that it’s also great to connect with young people. I envy faculty and others who have the opportunity to be around young people as they get older. And to understand their world and make yourself vulnerable to be the one that’s the student and they’re the teacher and change roles. I think that’s healthy. If that’s a motivator of why you might want to do this to understand their world better. I think that’s maybe an easy call.

Jennifer: Attribution is such a fun read. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Attribution by author Linda Moore. It’s on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics because it’s about a PhD student named Cate who really has a journey to find herself, to find her power, to find what she wants for the world. I just loved this book and I know that you are going to love it too.

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Podcast and radio interviews made Linda anxious

Jennifer: Linda, tell me have you had any struggles or anxieties yourself about marketing the book? I mean it sounds like Instagram was something that was new to you but it sounds like you really approached it with some fun. Was there something that you did struggle with though?

Linda: Well I think like this kind of thing, Jennifer, doing podcasts and radio interviews are even more difficult. Because I’m a visual person. An interview is kind of almost more anxiety.

Jennifer: Oh, that’s interesting.

Linda: Now I’ve sort of been through the trial by fire learning method. I have learned a few things. Number one, don’t be boring. That goes for Instagram and Facebook and all of that.

Try to find something interesting. If you’re not educating, then entertain, or both. Both is best, where people can learn something but it’s also extremely entertaining and enjoyable. Because no one goes there because they have to. I think that most important to just be yourself. Like you’re sitting with a conversation and try to just like we’re having coffee, Jen. And not worry.

I was on a panel recently at a bookstore Book Passage in the Bay Area. The moderator had sent us some questions ahead, like we might have questions like this. But I’ve done enough of these to know that nothing ever goes like the plan, right? So you have to be flexible.

There was another panelist, this is a super Highly Educated person, and she had written out all the answers to her questions. She was ready to read them like it was a lecture or presentation. I explained to her that I thought it would not necessarily go that way. She couldn’t depend on her answers. I could see that was a real change in her thinking. Because in the moment, she would be frustrated that she wasn’t getting through the assignment, right? But there is no assignment. It’s a conversation that needs to be very flexible if it’s going to be real and authentic.

Jennifer: So being adaptable. And it sounds like you can prepare, but you can’t prepare for everything. And being able to have that conversation and be interested in the spontaneity that the conversation might go in is really important.

Linda: Absolutely.

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Attribution by Linda Moore

Jennifer: Well thank you Linda, so much for coming on and telling us more about what your approach to book marketing is. And how you really are connecting with people, individual people, to help share your book. I think that it makes such a difference.

I could see the passion of the people who were in your audience at Warwick’s book shop here in Southern California. They were really interested not only in what you were saying, but why you were saying it. I think that your story and Cate’s story in Attribution, which is again on the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics, pick up a copy…is so interesting. It’s something that people find memorable.

Linda: Thank you, Jen. Also let me say to those reading, you can reach me on my website. And please, email me. I answer all the emails. If you have a particular question or something that we didn’t touch on that would interest you, I’m very happy to hear from you by email.

Jennifer: Thank you so much for reading! Linda, thank you so much for joining me.

Our last interview of the year goes live next week. Don’t miss it.

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Bio for Linda Moore

Linda Moore is an author, traveler, and a recovering gallery owner. She studied art history at the Prado while a student at the University of Madrid and earned degrees from the University of California and Stanford. Her gallery featured contemporary artists and she has published award-winning exhibition catalogs. Her writing has appeared in art journals and anthologies. She has looked at art on all continents and visited over 100 countries She resides with her book-collecting husband in California. Her debut novel Attribution about an art historian who finds a hidden masterpiece, is available wherever books are sold.

Check out the 2022 Gift Guide for Academics.

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December 22, 2022
10 Keys to Building an Incredible Brand for Academics LIVE EVENT
I’m teaming up with Dr. Sheena Howard to bring you a live VIP event for academics. You’re invited!

EVENT: 10 Keys to Building an Incredible Brand as an Academic
- Increase your confidence
- Make 5x your investment
- Waste far less time because you have an actionable plan
- 5+ free tools to help you implement what you learn
- 3+ downloadable PDFs
- Grow your following by at least 25%
Date: December 10 or December 11

Time: 2-4pm Eastern Time

Where: Virtual (on Zoom)

Can’t make it live? A replay will be sent to you.

This event is complete. Thank you for coming!

A dream team collaboration event

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. When I started building my brand, I wanted to create the academic life that I wanted. Not the life my advisors or mentors wanted for me. My online presence helped me take that step. Now I help professors build an online presence their research deserves. So that they feel more confident, help more people, and build their scholarly community online.

I’m so excited to team up with the incredible Dr. Sheena Howard. She’s an expert at helping professors get the media attention they deserve. She’s all about building your visibility, authority, and income with Power Your Research.

This event has ended. It was on December 10 and December 11, 2022.

We can’t wait to see you at 10 Keys to Building an Incredible Brand for Academics, our live virtual event.

This event is for all people with an advanced degree (like a master’s or doctorate). This event is for you whether you’re in or out of the academy.

Topics covered will include but are not limited to
- Best free resources to get high-level media coverage right away.
- Getting clarity on what building your brand looks like for you.
- Building an incredible website that stands out.
- Social media plan and strategy for the busy academic.
- Building a 6-figure brand by leveraging your academic credentials, whether you are in or out of academe.
This event only happens once a year. You don’t want to miss it.

Get tickets for 10 Keys to Build an Incredible Brand for Academics today. Limited seats are available.

This event is complete. It was on December 10 and December 11, 2022. Thank you for attending, we were so happy to help inspire you. This event only happens once a year. If you’re interested in attending next year, email me at [email protected]

Gifts and Holiday Guides and Advice Articles The Social Academic

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December 3, 2022
A Common Mistake Academics Make With Their Personal Websites

How often is your name mentioned on your website? For some academics, the answer is 0. I’ve looked at hundreds of personal faculty and scientist websites. A common mistake people make is forgetting to include your name.

Hi, I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to The Social Academic, a blog about your digital presence in HigherEd.

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Does your website show up when someone Googles your name?

When you type your full name into Google, does your website show up on the 1st page of results? A personal website should show up high in Google Search results because it often has the information people are most looking for.

But your website won’t appear in search results if you’ve forgotten to include your name. This is a common mistake for academics who make their own website.

Why do academics make this mistake? They work hard to create a website to better share their research. Self-promotion often feels strange for professors and researchers. It might feel wrong or unnatural. Because of this, you might have forgotten to include your own name on your website.

The people who make this mistake often include their name in their

But they then forget to include it on other pages of their website like in their bio, and on their Research or Publications pages. Have you forgotten to include your name?

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Scavenger Hunt! Find your name on your website

A good way to see if your name appears on your website is by searching your site in Google.

To do this, type this into the search bar: site:YourDomainName.com Your Name

For example: site:JenniferVanAlstyne.com Jennifer van Alstyne

When I perform this search, it shows that my name appears on most pages of my personal website. Try a search like this to see how often your name appears.

If you find your name doesn’t appear much on your website, this is an easy change you can make to your website to improve how people find it. Any small change to improve your personal website is a good thing!

Best of luck with your website project. Want professional help with your website project? I’d love to help.

Including your name on your website is a best practice for SEO

Search engine optimization is a method for improving, or optimizing your website to rank better in search results. In this case, the keyword people are searching for online is your name when they want to find information about you.

Discover how search engine optimization (SEO) can help your website in my YouTube live with Patrick Wareing.

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November 16, 2022
3 Ways To Take New Photos For Your Website
You want a new photo of yourself for your personal website. What’s the best way to take new photos? Here are 3 ways for you to get beautiful photos for your website.

Hi! I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to my blog about understanding your digital footprint in research and Higher Education. I help professors have an amazing online presence through my company The Academic Designer LLC. I empower academics to feel confident when showing up online.

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Listen to the podcast

Take a selfie

A selfie is a photo that you take of yourself. You can use selfies on your personal website! The most popular way to take a selfie is with your phone camera. You can use the front camera of your phone, but you’ll take higher quality photos if you use the rear camera.

Look for a space with good lighting. You may find great natural lighting outside in the last hour before sunset. Or, if you’re an early riser (unlike me), try just before sunrise. Photographers call these periods the ‘golden hour’ because the light can be perfect.

Avoid a distracting background in your photo. When in doubt, you can take a photo against a neutral background like a wall. Then you can edit the photo to remove the background like I did for the selfie above.

Use a cleaning cloth to gently wipe the camera lens clean before you start your photo shoot.

Try holding the phone at different angles (slightly higher, slightly lower). You can also hold the phone out to your side and turn your head towards it. Don’t forget to smile.

Your phone camera may have settings to help you take a better selfie. For instance, there may be a portrait mode. Or, an option to take a wide selfie.

You can use your phone’s self-timer setting to take hands-free and full body selfies. You may want to prop up your phone using books. You could also invest in an inexpensive tripod or selfie stick.
Devices For Taking Selfies

Mobile phone

Camera

High resolution web cam

Other Tools To Help

Selfie stick

Tripod

Remote

Ring light

Books, a box, or other items to prop up your phone
Ask a friend or family member

One of the best ways to get a new photo of yourself for your website is to ask a friend or family member to help.

If you have a friend who is good at taking photos, great! You may not. That’s OK. What’s more important is that you have someone with you that you feel comfortable with.

Set expectations by letting them know it may take a bit of time. That you want to try out different poses (or locations). Ask them to try taking photos at different angles. Try watching a YouTube video together about creative portrait photos with a phone.

My best tip is to ask your friend to take photos holding the phone vertically and horizontally. That gives you flexibility with what you use the photos for.

It’s possible that this photo shoot may not result in the photos you want. So don’t put too much pressure on your friend. Do encourage them to take lots of photos so you can choose the best ones. If you find photos you like in the set, ask your friend if they’d like to be credited as photographer when you share the photo online.

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Hire a professional photographer

Hiring a professional portrait photographer is the best option. The mistake you want to avoid is asking for a headshot when booking your photo shoot.

Professional photographers have the gear, skills, and experience to take your new website photos. If you can afford a professional photo shoot, it’s your best option. You want to hire an experienced local photographer.

You may have a place to take your photos in mind. Professionals often include 1 location in your package, or shoot in their studio. Be sure to ask for their recommendations.

Photographs are the intellectual property of the photographer. You’ll need to sign a contract or licensing agreement for permission to use the photos. Help ensure you get the right license by sharing how you want to use your photos when booking your shoot. Most photographers have professional liability insurance.

You’re looking for a portrait photographer, not a headshot photographer. Be clear about how many photos you’re looking for, as your photographer may offer a ‘brand photo shoot’ or a ‘website photo package.’

Portrait photographers can ranges from $100-$400/hour in the United States. Local Facebook groups are often an effective way to find recommendations for photographers in your area.

Here are 3 ways to get new photos for your personal website

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My name is Jennifer van Alstyne. I’ve been helping professors make beautiful personal websites to share their research since 2018. I’d love to help you!

Let’s talk on a no pressure Zoom call about working with me on your online presence and website.

Personal Website How To’s The Social Academic

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November 9, 2022