What social media platforms should professors, scientists, and grad students be on? Jennifer van Alstyne breaks down the social media sites academics are using for you.
Social media is a great, free way to network with your academic community
Are you a professor, researcher, or grad student considering where to be on social media for your academic life? In this post, I break down the big social media platforms and what they’re used for. This blog post was updated in September 2025.
What social media platforms are best for professors and scientists? This is the article for you if you’re an academic who wants to be on social media, especially in this changing digital landscape.
What social media platforms are best for academics like me?
Social media has changed significantly over time. But the basics are that people use online platforms to connect with each other and share content.
That content can be text, sound, image, video.
It can be long-form like blogs.
Or short-form like tweets.
You can connect in real time with people through these networks.
With many social media platforms to choose from, where you spend your time is up to you. I wrote this article to help you choose.
General social media platforms
I’ve selected these social media platforms to detail because they are the best for connecting with the public and your scholarly community.
This is not an exhaustive list. Here’s Wikipedia’s list of social networking services.
Academic and research social media
Some social media platforms and tools are more geared towards academics. These are some social networks for scientists and researchers.
Social media is great for academics to connect with each other and the public
With almost 3.1 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network. On Facebook, you can connect with people as friends, or network with them in groups. You can post
- text
- video
- images
- videos
- and links.
You can also share time-limited content through Stories, which last 24 hours.
With your personal Facebook profile, you can
- create a page or start a group
- make events and invite people to them
- save posts to read them later
- host a fundraiser for your favorite nonprofit
- go live on video, to talk about your research or interests
Most academics I interview on The Social Academic Podcast use Facebook to connect with their family and friends.
Facebook can be a good to find your community. Search for the organizations you care about. Do they have a group or page? Are conversations are going on (is it active)? Professors on Facebook have joined groups or liked pages from the associations and societies they are members of. This can help you stay connected to your field in real time.
I used to think Facebook wasn’t my favorite platform. My Digital Well-Being stats tell me otherwise. I spend more time on Facebook than other social media platforms. Between my friends, family, and the groups I’m a member of, I do enjoy my time on Facebook quite a bit.
When faculty and researchers share their work in meaningful ways with their Facebook audience, it can have amazing impact. Not just for your professional life. When your friends and family get what you are up to, and why, it helps your personal relationships too.
Meta also owns Instagram and Threads, which are also on this list, as well as the messaging platforms Messenger and WhatsApp.
Instagram is a visual-based social media platform academics have been using since it started in 2010. While it used to be based around photos, Instagram now allows video too. With over 2 billion monthly active users of the platform, Instagram is highly popular. Over 500 million people view Instagram Stories, their 24 hour time-limited post, every day.
You can share images and video as a post or story. And longer videos can be shared on IGTV, the section of Instagram now dedicated to longer videos. Instagram rolled out Reels, a short video feature often compared to TikTok. Reels are the most effective type of content right now on Instagram. You can hop on camera and record a ‘talking head’ video. Academics share educational content. Some share trendy dance videos or create regular series. You can also go Live on Instagram. Check out my chat with Dr. Sheena Howard about her book, Academic Branding.
On Instagram, you can follow people to see their content regularly in your home feed. You can bookmark or share your favorite posts.
People tell me they’re not on Instagram tell me it’s because their “not good at photography.” Instagram’s trends have moved towards authenticity. Your ‘not good’ photos are totally welcome there. So are your
- screenshots
- selfies
- short unedited videos
I love Stories because I can hop on and say hi to people. I can ask them a question using a poll or quiz. And posts? They’re not just for your photos. Instagram post captions can actually be quite long. Many people are starting to use the platform for micro-blogging.
Instagram is my favorite platform for academics to find people with similar interests. And, it’s a great place for graduate students to connect and find community.
LinkedIn is the most powerful platform academics are on but don’t use well. Because so many of you are on it already, it’s a social network you should be taking advantage of. LinkedIn is a professional networking site. But it’s more social than you might think. With more than 1 billion users, the platform is about more than getting a job. Yes, businesses do recruit and hire talent through LinkedIn. It’s also a great place to learn and connect.
On LinkedIn, you get a professional profile that acts as a CV or resume. But it’s actually a bit better than that. LinkedIn has a dedicated space for your bio, and the ability to add multimedia, links, and recommendations. You can let people know about your publications. And your Awards and Honors. LinkedIn profiles and articles are mapped by Google regularly. So it’s a great alternative for making an impact. Sign up for my free course on setting up your LinkedIn profile for academics.
On LinkedIn you can connect with your network. And you can follow people who share content you like. You can join groups. You can send messages to people you’ve connected with. And send inMail to people you haven’t. Faculty tell me LinkedIn is an effective way to keep up with past students.
You can share posts
- text
- image
- and video
For academics who want to blog, but aren’t prepared to host and manage a website, I recommend LinkedIn most. You can share long-form content as articles.
If you haven’t taken a look at your profile in a while, it’s time for an update. My biggest tip for your profile is to use keywords in your headline.
P.S. LinkedIn is highly recommended for graduate students, postdocs, and academics who are career searching too. I emphasize it’s great for academics even when you’re not because many people have shared with me that’s what held them back from joining as a faculty member. If you’re job searching, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for networking.
X (Or, the platform formerly known as Twitter)
I still call it Twitter. Sorry not sorry.
Twitter was, as many academics would have said, best way to share your work. Twitter has about 611 million monthly active users. For a long time, it was the most popular for academics and researchers even though it has a smaller audience than Facebook or Instagram.
While it was a great platform to share your work and find an academic community, I don’t suggest it be your only platform.
If you don’t already have a presence on X, you don’t have to create a profile there unless you want to. For many professors, Elon Musk’s values and overreach in US government have made the decision to leave Twitter easy. Even if you don’t have another platform in mind, if you’re reading this thinking, can I leave now? Yes. Please do, if that’s something you want for yourself. You don’t have to be on X as an academic or researcher.
Universities and institutions around the world are considering sunsetting their X accounts. Not all of them, for sure. But many colleges and universities aren’t posting on X at all. Or, they’ve removed X from their intentional social media goals for the year. If universities are saying, “We don’t want to be here,” and choosing not to share in that space? It’s permission to get out (if you want to).
Want to be on Twitter as an academic? Or, you’re already there and plan on staying? I’m still the @HigherEdPR. Feel free to connect with me. Here’s a bit about Twitter you may find helpful. Tweets are social media posts. They can be tagged with location. You can also tag, mention an account, in tweets using the @ symbol, or in photos. You can use hashtags to mark the content of your tweet, or share it with a specific audience (i.e. #AcademicTwitter). But, hashtags aren’t really used on Twitter anymore for finding conversations like they used to.
In tweets, you can share
- text
- images
- videos
- and links
You can follow people to see their content in your feed. You can reply to tweets. And, bookmark tweets for later.
One useful way academics can keep track of their community on Twitter is by using lists. Lists are great because you can keep track of people’s tweets without seeing them in your home feed. You can see all the tweets from the people on that list in once space. And, lists can be private (just for you), or public (to share with your academic networks).
Twitter is where I’ve heard the most success stories about social media in terms of reaching the public. And when it comes to networking and collaboration
YouTube
Not everyone thinks of YouTube as social media, but it is. And, it’s the fastest growing of the platforms. We’re talking 2.7 billion monthly users, who “every day watch over a billion hours of video…” around the world.
On YouTube, you can search for videos and watch them. You can have a personal channel where you can upload your own videos. YouTube has a social component. You can
- Like
- Comment
- Share
- Post to your channel or community (text, images, videos)
And you can subscribe to channels you like to see their content on your home tab. For most academics, YouTube is a great place to find content for your classroom.
If video is your thing, YouTube is a great place for you to build community. You could record a short informational video. Upload a lecture for your class, and set it to private so just your students can access it once you send them the link. Or, like my professor clients, create a YouTube channel so you have a place to organize talks, lectures, and other appearances that end up on YouTube (even if you don’t create video content for YouTube yourself).
I’m surprised how much I like having a YouTube channel. When I started on YouTube I felt pressure to create a lot of content. But I’ve set my own pace, which has changed over time, so that YouTube fits into my life. Find inspiration from this group of women Academic YouTubers.
If you choose to have your own channel on YouTube (instead of being someone who mostly watches videos on YouTube), know that you control the rights to your content when posting videos you create.
YouTube is a great place to share your video podcast if you’re an academic podcaster too.
Update in September 2025: I’m excited to share that my father-in-law, art history professor and art critic, Bob Pincus started a YouTube channel. I’m just onboarding to run strategy and content management for his channels. Check out Art With Bob Pincus on YouTube!
TikTok
TikTok is not available in all locations. While there was a ban set to be in place in the United States, that is on pause.
TikTok is a social media platform owned by ByteDance where you can share short-form video. There are over 1 billion global active users on TikTok. Videos can be anywhere from 3 seconds to 60 minutes long. TikTok has a built-in video editor with lots of camera tools. You can add music from their library to your video.
Academics use Instagram to share their research. Some prefer talking-based videos. Others join in with trending dances, exploring creative ways to share their interests and academic life. Here’s a help article on how to create your first video on TikTok. You can also Stitch, to respond to or combine another video on TikTok with the one you’re creating.
Most professors I talk to who use TikTok don’t share videos themselves. They enjoy watching videos though on their “For You” page where the algorithm show them recommended videos. There’s even a feed just for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) videos.
TikTok is banned on some public university campuses in the United States because of privacy concerns, mainly because ByteDance is a Chinese-owned company. TikTok was banned from government-issued devices and some universities block TikTok from campus WiFi networks according to the New York Times. There are TikTok bans on government devices in countries around the world (full list on Wikipedia).
Threads
Professors have sent me direct messages and emails asking, do I need to be on the social media platform, Threads now too? You don’t have to be on any social media platform you don’t want to be. Many academics are happy with just 1 social media platform. Let’s talk about Threads to help you see if it’s right for you. If you join, let’s connect @HigherEdPR.
Threads is a social media platform launched by Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) in July 2023. It now has over 400 million active users, which according to TechCrunch is more than “one-fifth of the weekly active user base of Twitter worldwide and 86 times the weekly active user base of the largest Twitter rival in the U.S.”
On Threads, you can post
- Text
- Images
- Videos
And engage with other people on the platform by replying to what they share, reposting, and likes.
To have an account on Threads, you must have an Instagram account.
Threads will eventually connect to the Fediverse, which you may have heard of if you’re an academic user of Mastodon. Threads is “working to soon make Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet,” (Meta).
But not everyone’s excited for greater connection between Meta’s Threads and other platforms. I went to a Threads training early on. Overall the sentiment was that Threads is around for the long haul. But that right now it’s hard to “be discovered” on Threads by people you’re not already connected with on Instagram. A few people said that Threads feels more conversational to them, “kind of like old Twitter.” Use the hashtag ‘Academic Threads’ and ‘Science Threads’ to help find your community on Threads as a professor, researcher, or graduate student.
September 2025 update: Folks are liking the Threads algorithm for ‘finding their people.’ A trend of ‘Please connect me with like minded folks on Threads who care about…’ posts are helping academics and non-academics find the people and conversations they want to connect with.
Bluesky
Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform, like Threads. It’s a small, but growing social media platform people compare to “old Twitter.” That’s probably because it started as a project at Twitter with Jack Dorsey, now its own separate platform. Bluesky now has over 38 million users.
Academics find getting connected with people when you join Bluesky is easier with Starter Packs, curated lists that help you consider who to follow. Professors who may have had small followings on other platforms, have found themselves with a surprisingly engaged audience on Bluesky because more people have been able to find them by interest/topic on a Starter Pack.
On Bluesky, you can post
- Text
- Images
- Videos
- GIFs
You can create public lists.
People like to follow the Feed, #AcademicSky.
You can make your own Feed. I used SkyFeed as a tool to make a custom Blusky Feed for a research center during their VIP Day. We selected hashtags and keywords to populate the feed related to their research.
Have you joined Bluesky? My friend, Dr. Anna Clemens likes Bluesky so far, comparing it to old Twitter. People have also shared that there’s less conversation than they’d hoped. I’ve been sharing resources from The Social Academic blog there. Some people might say I’m “late to the game” but it’s never too early or too late to try something out for your online presence. Are you on Bluesky already? How are you finding it so far?
Sky Follower Bridge helped me connect with people I was following on X.
If you’re just getting started, you may find this article from Buffer about how to use Bluesky helpful.
A Starter Pack I made for you on people who help academics.
September 2025 update: Science research is for sure getting more engagement on Bluesky than on X these days, according to The Guardian. “‘substantially higher levels of interaction’ – likes, reposts, replies and quotes – and greater ‘textual originality’” too. Old Twitter is caput. Bluesky is the new X.
Here are guests from The Social Academic interview series who are on Bluesky.
I like this guide Bluesky put together about advanced search tips and tricks.
Mastodon
Many academic communities are still trying to make Mastodon work. It’s an open source social networking service. When people first started leaving Twitter, there was a lot of hope for Mastodon to be the next social media platform for researchers and scientists. Communities formed, but not to the extent people hoped most. Mastodon has almost 10 million users.
That’s not to say that Mastodon isn’t a great platform for academics to consider. Mastodon is a preferred platform for having personalized control over moderation. And, for creating a timeline you want to see. There are about 9.35 million people on Mastodon. It’s the smallest social media platform of the ones listed here.
On Mastodon, you can share
- Text
- Photos
- GIFs
- Videos
- Audio
- Polls
You can mention people in your post, use hashtags, and emojis.
Do you run a server on Mastodon? How have you found the community there since you joined?
P.S. If you’re wanting to join Mastodon, Buffer has a beginner’s for you too.
September 2025 update: Folks are still on Mastodon, and it’s a thriving conversational community, albeit a smaller one than other platforms. If you’re reading this and loving Mastodon, please reach out. I’d love to hear your story.
Learn about academic and research-based social networks
Academia.edu
Academia.edu is the biggest of the academic social networks, with over 294 million accounts. Their website says their platform is “for academics to share research papers.” The website allows you to share your papers, and see their impact.
You should know the company is making money off your research. Don’t let the .edu fool you, it’s a for-profit company. All of these are (except ORCID).
With Academia.edu, you can create an academic profile which shares your bio and affiliation. You can connect with scholars in your field, and follow their work. You can do limited searches for your research interests. Advanced searches are available with a premium subscription.
You can download public papers, and request private ones. And when you share your research, you can track it’s impact in views and downloads. Note that you may not have legal permission to share your work. Read your publication contract and terms.
While I do have an Academia.edu account, I find there are better ways to share your research, like on a personal academic website.
Altmetric
Altmetric is a tool that tracks research impact. While it’s not a social media network, it’s generally included in discussions of academic social media.
Why? Because Altmetric monitors
- Public policy documents
- Mainstream media
- Online reference managers
- Post-publication peer-review platforms
- Wikipedia
- Open Syllabus Project
- Patents
- Blogs
- Citations
- Research highlights
- Social Media, and other online platforms
For anyone publishing articles, this can be a valuable tool for showing the impact of your work (including on social media).
This free bookmarklet helps you see the metrics of published articles with a DOI. You can drag it to your bookmarks bar, and use it when you have an article open to see measured impact.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a search engine for “scholarly literature” including
- articles
- theses
- books
- abstracts
- court opinions
It helps you find the publications you need, but not necessarily access them depending on permissions.
If you are an author of a scholarly publication, it can be helpful to have a Google Scholar profile. It’s sometimes called Google Scholar Citations. Get started here.
You can add your publications. Add keywords that relate to your research interests. You can make it personal with a profile photo and link to your website. The metrics Google Scholar provides can help you see things like where your article has been cited. Learn more about Google Scholar metrics.
Some academics use Google Scholar to search for articles. Google Scholar has more search capability than some people realize. Did you know you can star a paper to save it to your library for later?
You can create alerts for a topic of interest. And alerts for specific events (i.e. when your paper is cited). You can even follow your colleagues to be notified when they have new articles.
ORCID
An ORCID iD is a “digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher.” Run by the non-profit ORCID, their vision is to connect research and innovation to its creators. “We enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and affiliations by providing an identifier…” There are more than 14.7 million ORCID iD’s.
When you register for an ORCID iD, you can create a profile and update your record. Not just for publications, but for awards and your affiliations. For some fields, it’s common to include your ORCID iD on grant applications. Some journals require it for manuscript submission. This can be helpful for researchers. But you should also note this isn’t a social a platform. Learn more about how to register for an ORCID identifier.
ORCID celebrated 2025 right, with a major update to its profile platforms perfect for academics in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. They added 13 new work types you can add to your profile.
ResearchGate
ResearchGate is another networking site that focuses on sharing papers. A lot like Academia.edu, it’s free to join. And it allows you to share your publications, and see stats and metrics about your work.
With over 25 million members, it’s a place you can create a profile and share your research. ResearchGate is “built for scientists.” You can share your research, background, and CV. Learn more about setting up your ResearchGate profile.
You can follow other researchers. And you can endorse skills. Kind of like on LinkedIn. Hiring managers can find candidates. And you can promote a conference here. You can do a lot of things with ResearchGate.
There are many types of social media profiles
People ask me all the time: “What social media platform should I be on?” Your scholarly network is already on each of the major general social media networks
- LinkedIn (free course for your LinkedIn profile!)
- YouTube
You’ve got this! Social media is definitely a skill you can develop as an academic or researcher. You can build skills to use social media more effectively with ease. You can find practices that work for your schedule in life. There are resources about social media to help you on The Social Academic blog, podcast, and YouTube channel.
It’s also okay to want support along the way. To have an expert partner who cares, to build your social media capacity together. While we can work together during a 1 hour online presence consultation, many of my professor clients love the transformation they experience during our Social Media VIP Day.
If you’re a research lab, group, or center, you may want support on Social Media and Communications Strategy for your team. Let’s work together to find the processes and practices aligned with your goals and resources.
You can have support with your social media and online presence as a professor, if you want it. I’m happy to help you.
