Social media for Scientists and Engineers

We’ll focus on LinkedIn because it’s generally considered the B2B platform of choice, but much of this can apply to other social platforms as well.

Why would I want to do anything with social media in the first place?

Here are the two main reasons you might want to utilize social media as an engineer or scientist:

  1. To help your company sell it’s services and products.
  2. To grow your career / find your next job.

You’ll want to project ~1-3 years into the future, as it will take time to utilize social media to accomplish your goals.

Once you’re clear on your motivational goals, it’s much easier to determine:

  • who you should be engaging with (your audience),
  • how you should position yourself (your profile),
  • and what content you should create.

There’s certainly overlap with your audience, profile, and content for both helping your company, and growing your career, but there’s enough unique aspects that we’ll cover them separately.

Using LinkedIn to help your company sell it’s products/services

What are some of the best ways I can help my company?

  1. Work with your marketing team to create useful articles, case studies, and videos.
  2. Share content that you truly like with your network. Do not share content that you don’t like or don’t agree with. In the long run you want your network to trust that when you share something it’s because you believe in it. That is very important.
  3. Connect with people in your professional sphere. Whether you meet them at a conference, a soccer game, or through a shared interest, if the connection is authentic in real life, connect with them on LinkedIn.

I don’t want to sound like a sales or marketing person. How do I minimize that?

This one will be easy for you, as long as you realize this one thing: your goal is to be your direct, blunt, knowledgeable, no BS self. That’s it. Your goal is to be a knowledgeable resource.

Who’s my audience?

Your audience is going to mainly consist of:

  1. Your customers & potential customers (generally at a peer level, maybe one level up)
  2. The influencers in your world (e.g. suppliers, relevant media outlets)

You want to connect with these people both 1:1 and in groups.

For 1:1 connections, this may start digitally but lead to real meet ups and real relationships, or it may start with an in-person relationship and later include a digital connection.

You also want to join private groups where there’s an aligned topic of interest. For example, if you want to connect with people interested in systems engineering, you might find the INCOSE group useful. If you’re into FPGAs, find groups dedicated to FPGA developers. If you’re into manufacturing, find one of the manufacturing groups specific to your industry verticals.

What should my profile look like?

Your profile helps your customers and industry influencers understand what you’re into, what you stand for, and what you’re good at. It’s how you make a first impression in the digital world. Some things to understand (some of which you may not like):

  1. Your profile pic matters. I don’t mean you need to look like something you’re not. You definitely shouldn’t do that. In fact, you very much should show who you are. If you’re not a suit and tie person, don’t pretend to be. Offer up a glimpse of who you are: silly, serious, happy. Put the prom pic away, and don’t use a photo from 20 years ago.
  2. Your headline isn’t your title. There’s a separate place for that. Your headline is a place to express something (not everything) about who you are. If your title is something like “Senior Electrical Engineer”, and you’re really into signal integrity, maybe your headline is something more like “Signal Integrity Guru” or something along those lines. You can include multiple aspects of your being here, separated with a ‘|’.
  3. Say something real about what you care about in your professional summary. Don’t be dry and boring.

What content should I create?

Your content will take the form of articles, case studies, comments, and videos. There are three things you need your content to be:

  1. Authentic – be who you are, and people will respect that, especially when you’re an engineer or scientist.
  2. Informative – you want to teach your customers something useful that they care about.
  3. Not salesy – this should be natural for you. If you’re an engineer or scientist, your nature is to not be anything close to salesy, so rest easy. You don’t need to try.

Using LinkedIn to grow your career / find a new job

What are some of the best ways I can help my career?

  1. Make sure your profile conveys both what you’ve done (making sure to highlight the aspects that are most relevant to carry forward), as well as where you want to head. People often forget the latter. It’s important to let potential future employers know what your aspirations are.
  2. Select the various job seeking preferences in your settings.
  3. Make sure you’re displaying and getting endorsed for the skills that matter most to you.
  4. Reach out to someone that you can learn something from every ~3 months and ask them if they’d be willing to chat with you about your topic of interest.

Who’s my audience?

Your primary goal is to connect 1:1 with those that are closer to your future job than you are. This could be peers in another industry. It could be people several levels above you that are willing to mentor you in some way or another. You might find some of these people in private groups, so join them and be part of the conversation.

What should my profile look like?

You want your profile to help future employers understand what your good at now, and how that translates into where you want to head in the future. Some things to understand:

  1. Your profile pic matters. A picture says a lot, so make it say what you want it to. You do want to show your authentic self. If you’re not a suit and tie person, don’t pretend to be. Offer up a glimpse of who you are: silly, serious, happy. Put the prom pic away, and don’t use a photo from 20 years ago.
  2. Your headline isn’t your title at your current company. There’s a separate place for that. Your headline is a place to express something (not everything) about who you are. If your title is something like “Junior Software Engineer”, and you’re really into open source software, include something about that in your headline. Include multiple dimensions of yourself, separated with a ‘|’.
  3. Say something real about what you care about in your professional summary. Don’t be dry and boring.
  4. Make sure to ask your connections to endorse you for skills that you know about.

What should my content consist of?

Your content will often take the form of commenting on the posts of others, as well as maybe a few articles.

You generally want your comments to be:

  1. Authentic – don’t pretend to be someone you’re not.
  2. Inquisitive – get curious.
  3. Polite – remember you’re sharing with a large group of unknown people. Don’t offend those that don’t share your core beliefs/views.

You generally want your articles to be:

  1. Intriguing – you need a unique perspective, or else don’t bother sharing.
  2. Coherent – take the time to think through your article. Frame it. Structure it.
  3. Succinct – If it’s of questionable value, remove it.

I’m not comfortable sharing in general. How do I dip my toe in the water?

You’re not alone. Many people, including myself, feel this way when they first get started. One of the best ways to dip your toe in the water is to:

  1. connect with people closest to you (at least 50 of your closest professional relationships),
  2. follow ~10 companies,
  3. join ~5 relevant groups,
  4. and start scrolling through your feed.

You’ll start to get a sense for the way people communicate. When you see something you like, give it a thumbs up (or one of the other available reactions). If you see something you REALLY like, share it with your network.

After doing this over the course of a month or so, you’ll start to feel more comfortable. Maybe you’ll start commenting on a couple things here and there. Next thing you know, you’ll be ready to post a comment or an article.

Next Steps

In learning mode? Here’s a few articles that may grab your attention: