Welcome to The Social Academic

Welcome to The Social Academic, a blog for professors and researchers

This blog is all about your online presence in academia, where I talk about personal websites and social media.

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne, owner of The Academic Designer LLC. My company works with faculty, researchers, scientists and organizations strategizing how to communicate your work online.

Here, I share actionable advice for

grad students
professors
researchers
scientists
independent scholars

and anyone looking to communicate how and what you do online.

I also interview people like you for the blog. I chat with awesome educators and researchers about their work, and how they use social media.

Good communication is something we need to talk about. You can advantage of the power of the internet to share their work with the world. The Social Academic is here to help.

What is a social academic?

A social academic is a grad student, professor, scientist, researcher, or independent scholar who wants to communicate their work with a wider audience.

Urban Dictionary defines “social academic” as

“…what every college girl is looking for. He is the perfect balance between social charisma and academic excellence. It is important to note that a social academic cannot be too social or too academic, but rather a perfect balance between the two. This makes the social academic a rare and desirable breed of male specimen.”

Sydney: “I really like Danny, but he’s just not a social academic.”

Taylor: “That sucks, my boy is a commerce major and can do a keg stand for 3 minutes. He’s a perfect social academic.”

See the full entry here.

This is a sexist and limited definition, but the term itself is appropriate for what we’re trying to do with our online presences in academia: balance our research / writing / teaching with the social aspects of the academy and being ourselves.

Academics can be self-centered. Oftentimes we have to be. Research can sometimes feel isolating, esoteric, internal. Much of our identities are based on the research and work that we do, and that makes sharing personal.

So here’s my definition.

A social academic is a grad student, professor, scientist, researcher, or independent scholar who wants to communicate their work with a wider audience.

It’s simple. You’re a social academic if you want more people to understand what you do. And you know it takes some time and energy to do it well.

That’s who this blog is for.

P.S. I was going to add an updated version of this to Urban Dictionary but it wanted me to make an account.

Many academics struggle with sharing their work publicly

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the phrase “shameless self-promotion” on tweets sharing a new publication or award. Imposter syndrome is real, and it effects how we talk about ourselves.

Here’s the thing, people are gonna look you up whether you want them to or not. Dr. Karen Kelsky of The Professor Is In, wrote for Chronicle Vitae, “The fact is, you will be Googled.”

But people aren’t looking for photos of you drunk on your last vacation. Okay, well maybe there is a Google-savvy grad student on the search committee, but really almost no one is searching for this.

People want to get to know you.

When you start talking about your work online, especially in ways that help your audience understand, you make some pretty meaningful connections.

Join our upcoming event for 2025 for academic authors!

Promoting Your Book Online for Academics

with Jennifer van Alstyne and Dr. Sheena Howard

A FREE self-paced course based on our workshop is now live!
No sign up or email is needed, start now.

Free course

Watch on YouTube

Your online identity is all about balance

A social academic is anyone who wants to be better at sharing the work they do. When we’re talking about being a good social academic in these online spaces, that means knowing what people will find.

If someone Googles you, you want them to find

the basics of who you are and what you do
in a language they can understand
in just a few minutes

And that’s hard!

Those of you thinking your online faculty profile is enough, let’s just say the majority I come across are not approachable for a general audience. I mean, when’s the last time that was updated?

You need an online presence beyond the static profile on your university’s faculty page.

The Social Academic blog is all about taking control of your presence online

social media
online portfolios
personal websites

Thanks for checking out this welcome post

I’m Jennifer van Alstye (@HigherEdPR). It’s great to meet you. I’m so excited you found me. Please feel free to reach out to me on social media! I love hearing from readers like you.

Explore The Social Academic blog