Academia.edu - like Linked In

http://www.academia.edu

This website is becoming more and more popular as more folks embrace social media as a means of professional networking. On the site, you can create a profile with your current affiliation and position, post your publications, identify what areas of research you are interested in, and "follow" any other Academia.edu member (similar to "friend-ing" someone on Facebook or following someone on Twitter).

On your profile, you can add your CV. But that's not all! You can add specific sections to highlight your experience, such as talks/lectures, paper drafts, conference presentations, book reviews, and more. So, this seems like a similar features to Linked In, because you can specify your qualifications and experiences for colleagues and employers to see.

You can also use analytic tools (similar to Google Analytics) in order to find out how many times your page has been visited, how many unique visitors you've had, how many times your papers have been uploaded, and some other generic website stats. This could be useful during a job search, or if you are just curious about how many people in the Academia.edu world have clicked on your work! It's easy to start following your Facebook friends and Gmail contacts who also have profiles on Academia.edu. You simply import them during your account creation process.

I know that many of my readers don't have time to upload a profile or start a new social networking venture. But consider making a profile on this site... it literally only takes 5 minutes to set up, and then you can get e-mail notifications whenever someone interacts with your page, follows you, or wants to contact you. As a doctoral student, I know that networking is key in this stage of my career, and I'm sure many of you can relate!

So, create a profile. Then, follow me! :) Just click on this link:

Follow me on Academia.edu