Social Media Strategy for Academics
At some point in the spring of 2020, I took a break from Twitter. I was without childcare and all my work had ground to a halt. I found myself scrolling for hours, posting reactively, and growing to hate colleagues I was usually fond of.
Twitter was not good for me. More than that, it was pulling me away from relationships with my children and husband in ways that I didn’t like. I found myself feeling my loved ones were boring in comparison to breaking news, jokes, and academic feuding.
So, I took a break. And this was good. I felt less anxious and exposed.
However, as the pandemic has continued on, and continues to continue on, I have wanted more connection. The in-person conferences that used to allow me to maintain friendships and friendly acquaintanceships dried up and they seem unlikely to be as robust going forward.
Also, last spring I started a business that I needed to promote.
Combined, these factors have brought me back to social media, but I’m trying to engage more thoughtfully.
There are two things I’m trying to ask myself as I return: How can I minimize harm to myself and others? What am I trying to achieve through my social media use?
In terms of harm, I know a few things are neither good or helpful for me:
1. Piling on. This makes me feel bad. I get the same kind of guilt hangover that mean gossiping gives me.
2. Raging. I know some folks find community in this, but I’m increasingly finding that opening my guts in response to breaking news or fuming about my upper administration doesn’t help. I’ve come to see this posting as part of burnout’s reactivity and it feels depleting rather than cathartic.
3. Losing time in the app. I hate when I realize I’ve lost an hour to scrolling when I intended to “just check Twitter.”
Proactively thinking about why I am using social media has helped me find a healthier way to be on the various platforms. It has looked like considering some of the following questions:
1. Who am I trying to interact with and where are they? Like many academics, I have a number of different groups I am trying to interact with via social media, including family, friends, colleagues, and potential clients or employers. The blurring of these groups can cause incoherent social media posting and contributes to my anxiety around social media: Here’s a picture of my kids! Where can I eat good Greek food in Reno? Here’s a CFP for a conference paper! WTF, Supreme Court?!
This year, I am trying to dis-articulate the groups a bit, which is helping me ask the kinds of writerly questions I apply in other areas of my life: who am I talking to and what kinds of conversations should we be having?
2. What does this mean about what I want to post?
Thinking about the relationships I want to maintain or cultivate via social media has helped me be selective about platforms and posting. For example, I’m keeping Facebook for now because it is where I share pictures of my kids with their grandparents and give general updates to a wide of friends and family. This is mostly not the place I post about my business or detailed academic questions.
In contrast, I see Twitter as a place for making new connections, maintaining professional relationships, and sharing resources with other academics and potential academic clients. Especially as we are questioning the value and costs associated with in-person conferences, this space feels increasingly important for academic community.
3. How can I engage with social media while minimizing harm to myself or others?
My experience with rage-posting early in the pandemic has taught me that being reactive on social media often ends with me saying mean things in print that would better be said to a trusty friend over a tasty beverage or brisk walk. I end up feeling bad about myself and others as a result.
To post with less reactivity, I’ve started using two strategies:
First, I’ve developed a cadence that I’ve planned around my sense of what “enough” looks like for my goals, and I’ve put this into my task manager. For example, on Mondays I post something “original,” and on Thursdays I repost someone else’s content.
Second, I’ve started using Crowdfire, which is a social media management app (I use the free version). I draft posts here ahead of time and dump in articles I might want to share. Using the automatic scheduling feature has helped me to avoid the post-something-check-obsessively thing.
Certainly, my social media hygiene isn’t perfect, but I’m working toward a compromise that allows me to balance the good and the bad. If you’ve found strategies that are working for you, I’d love to hear about them.
Finally, if you are interested in talking through your own social media use and other aspects of academic writing life, reach out to discuss coaching with me:
