Published: Ma​rch 22, 2019 | By Sydney Valentino
Kara Aaserud, a communications professional for more than 15 years, and now the Communications Coordinator for MIRA, delivered a talk on her work entitled:
“Using Social Media for Knowledge Translation and Branding in research and science”
Key take-home message from Kara: “It’s not about you at all. It’s about delivering value to others”
Kara gave us some awesome “questions to consider” that I’d like you to think about…
- Do you use social media? What social media do you use?
- Have you ever wondered why certain individuals in your field rise out of nowhere to national prominence?
- Have you ever wondered how some researchers gain traction in the media (both traditional and digital) after publishing a paper?
Well, now that you’re thinking… what is personal branding?
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Visibility – although this is NOT the most important part…
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Demonstrate value – emphasis on “what information can I offer for my followers?”, not “what does posting this do for me?”
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Making influential connections – for example: interest from industry partners, influential researchers in the same area of research, interdisciplinary collaborations, etc.
Modes of personal branding platforms? Researchgate, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Reddit. Any or all? Anything else? It depends on your personal brand.
As part of the MIRA Trainee Network, what hashtags should you use for cataloguing?
#MIRATraineeNetwork
#MIRATrainee
#MIRATrainees
#AgingReimagined
Want to keep learning? Here are some other resources Kara to get started:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02747-y
Please feel free to contact Kara Aaserud (aaserudk@mcmaster.ca) if you have any questions about MIRA and using social media to market your work and brand.
