Second Life Education Research

I’m no expert on self-marketing but I’m learning more and more all the time and the more I learn and experience the more I become a devout believer in the need to toot one’s own horn. In previous posts I’ve discussed the importance of self-branding. I understand that not everyone wants to be an “Intellagirl” or dye their hair pink to get noticed but I really believe that getting yourself known for what you do best is a strong tool for self-promotion. Whether that self-promotion is to get your work noticed beyond where you work/study or to get you noticed by the higher-ups where you already are, letting people know what you’re working on is never a bad idea.

As academics, much of our best work is buried in journals that few people read or in conference presentations attended only by people who already agree with what we have to say.

Here are a few tips to get yourself noticed beyond the confines of your academic circle:

1. Join a listserv and actually post! Most grad students I talk to are notorious lurkers. No one will know what you have to say unless you say it. This is not to say that you shouldn’t be careful when you post. Reputations are made and destroyed with posts to listservs. Contribute, but contribute thoughtfully.
2. Blog: Start a blog where you think through ideas, wrestle with theories, or just post your unpublished work. Include a blog roll of the academics who you most respect and pretty soon they’ll be reading yours too.
3. Get business cards and hand them out. My university doesn’t offer business cards to grad students so I splurged on $40 worth of cards from Kinkos. I felt weird handing them out at first but it’s become easier. I often use the excuse of writing a link or a reference on the back and handing them to someone who has asked about it. Be sure your email address is on the cards. This is another great excuse to give away your card. Also, if you’re designing the card yourself, be sure it’s visually interesting and offers something valuable that will make people want to keep it. Cover the back of the card with links that people in your field may find useful or a list of the top five reasons a specific idea/application is important.
4. Save your money for conferences. Go to conferences even if you have to eat ramen noodles out of the hotel’s microwave. Once you’re there don’t sit in your room. Get out and rub elbows. Talk to the person sitting next to you in the coffee shop. Talk to presenters after sessions. Attend special interest group meetings. I’ve learned that attending sessions non-stop is NOT the way to go. I’ve met more really great people sitting on a bench in the hall than I have actually attending sessions.

I realize that lots of folks go into academia because they’re introverted and they actually enjoy spending hours alone in the library. But please remember that academia is also very political. Getting a job, becoming known for your work, or actually earning more money than your pitiful stipend is all about politics. No one ever got elected without a campaign. At least in this campaign you get to support someone you really believe in, YOURSELF.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 7:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.