1 University of Salford REDS Production – this guide is available online at www.virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/reds

‘I’m sorry, do I know you?’ The REDS guide to networking for academics by academics

Contributors: Jenna Condie, David Roberts, Eleanor Jackson, Arash Raeisi, Charlie Mydlarz, Matthew Trump, Fiona Christie, Cristina Costa, Nazanin Asadi, Zbigniew Koziel, James Woodcock, Pascal Venier, Tobias Ackroyd, Gennaro Sica, Rasal Eskandari, Esme Caulfield, Princess Nwaneke, Ajeigbe Oluwapelumi, Lisa Scullion

This guide is the outcome of two events ‘How to network’ and ‘Online Networks for Enterprise’, part

of the REDS (Researcher Enterprise Development Salford) series of events designed to encourage

and support the development of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills amongst the research

community at the University of Salford. The sessions consisted of postgraduates, early career

researchers and experienced academics coming together to discuss and debate the how’s, what’s,

where’s, when’s and why’s of networking in academia. What we all agreed on was that networking,

when done right, can lead to some brilliant working relationships and opportunities for

collaborations, not to forget employment.

What is this thing called networking?

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are,

you need one.” Jane Howard

Everyone talks about networking and most of us feel that we should be doing it, but what is it?

Rather than giving you a dictionary definition, here’s a wordle of what networking means to us as a

group of enterprising academics:

This wordle or ‘word cloud’ represents what networking meant for the group (www.wordle.net)

2 University of Salford REDS Production – this guide is available online at www.virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/reds

A lot of the words above were originally part of a sentence so they might not make complete sense

on their own, for example ‘the old boy network’. However what the wordle does reveal is that two

words in particular, ‘sharing’ and ‘keeping’, were more commonly used by the attendees than any

other words. ‘Sharing’ knowledge and experience was important for attendees, as was ‘keeping’ up

with the latest in your field of research and ‘keeping’ in touch with those people. So as academics

and researchers, should we be networking for these central reasons, or should we be networking

with other goals in mind?

A bit of theory for you

As this guide is by academics for academics, here is a taster of some of the theories on networking

that we discussed in the session. These theories were used to help us consider the networking we

do, but also the networking other people and other groups do in their professional and personal

lives. Exploring different social networks (e.g. family, friends, professional), helped us get down to

the core of what networking is - an essential part of being human.

Within the session, we discussed the Strength of Weak Ties Theory by Mark Granovetter (1973)

which argues that people we don’t know very well (our weak ties) are less likely to know each other

than people we know well (strong ties). As we are already sharing a lot of information with our

strong ties, our weak ties have more potential for new information that we are unaware of such as

opportunities or collaborations.

Applying Granovetter’s theory, we

need to expand on our network and

form relationships outside of our

close knit research communities to

reap the most benefits. This raised

the question of whether we want

quality or quantity within our

professional networks. So we

mapped out our own networks to

get a closer look at them; thinking

about what we want from them and

what we offer our network too.

Attendees brought other theories

and ideas about networking to the

table such as Actor-Network Theory, the idea of boundary spanners, six degrees of separation,

Dunbar’s number of 150 (optimum network community size), and books such as Malcolm Gladwell’s

Tipping Point (2001).

One of the most important conclusions was that successful networking and developing professional

relationships should be reciprocal – it’s all about give and take. You need to be offering up

something too whether it’s suggesting an event that might be of interest to someone, or bringing a

potential collaboration to life. The more people you are developing successful relationships with,

the more good quality work you have to do.

3 University of Salford REDS Production – this guide is available online at www.virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/reds

So how do we network?

The group networked in a range of ways by attending events such as conferences and training

workshops; sharing information by publishing papers, speaking at conferences, and being part of

discussion/research groups within their specialist fields; getting involved in collaborative projects

such as REDS; and by using their expertise, knowledge and skills to support and help others with

their work. As a group, we also talked about how rewarding it can be getting to know people on a

social level.

As well as networking in person, some of the attendees were also networking online via various

social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Some of the attendees were

also using other academic social networks such as Academia.edu (an academic social networking

site) and Mendeley (a research management tool for sharing and organising papers). A number of

attendees were also keeping online research blogs to tell people about their research. Online

networks and academic digital presence created much discussion and debate in the two sessions.

Get over yourself (!) and some ‘how to tips’ By David Roberts

Can you recall a circumstance where you made a real effort to attend a meeting,

presentation, or event and came away feeling that your time could have been better

spent?

For many people the thought of walking into a room full of strangers can be a cause of

anxiety. Our primeval fears of rejection, failure, and the unknown are often

stimulated. The following tips and ideas could be used as preparation so as you can

get the very best out of the next event that you attend. It may even make the next

event you attend less fearful and more fruitful.

Before you walk into the room, try reminding yourself of the following points and

make some decisions. First, you are going to enjoy yourself and meet some people

who will be interesting. Second, you will meet and listen with interest to two or three

new people and you will learn about their interests and the kind of things that are

important to them. Thirdly, remind yourself that the other people in the room are

there to meet people too. Fourth, be clear about your areas of expertise and your

interests. Finally, decide that if you do meet the 1% of the population who might try

to reject you ignore them and go and talk with somebody else.

As you walk into the room of strangers, take a number of slow deep breaths, put on

your best smile, and then make immediate eye contact with the people who look at

you and go and talk with them first.

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Academics in the digital age

In the current climate, it’s arguable that if you’re not online you might as well not exist. Have you

ever googled yourself? You might be surprised at what you find. By creating your own online

presence and building a profile of your work online makes you findable and accessible if someone

wants to contact you or consult with you about your research. Also by paying attention to what is

out there online about you means you can manage and control your online content.

In the group sessions, we used various online

technologies to engage with others. Many of us

were using twitter to find information,

communicate with other researchers, and talk

about various events that we were attending.

Twitter can be useful before, during and after any

events you attend. Today, most events create a

twitter hashtag (e.g. #sparc11, #REDSalford)

which people can use to tag all their tweets about

the event. There are also virtual communities of

people coming together on twitter to network

with one another, share information and keep in

touch (e.g. #phdchat).

On a recent #phdchat discussion (8th May, 2011) about what technologies academics were using,

@scottwdavis tweeted ‘I discovered a company and set up a live meeting to discuss a potential

research project all through Twitter’, and @qui_oui

‘through Twitter I recently participated as an "expert" on

a Guardian.co.uk online panel’. Twitter can be a place of

opportunity.

Facebook can also be good place to network online, for

example see the Salford PhD’s page

www.facebook.com/salfordphds. Although remember

to check your Facebook privacy settings and have a read

of Facebook's terms and conditions about copyright and

intellectual property rights. Awareness of Facebook’s

conditions is even more important if you are using the

site for academic purposes.

Managing your online presence takes time and skill. For

example, if you use Twitter for informal, unprofessional purposes, it would be unwise to sync your

Twitter with a LinkedIn account that you use for professional purposes, as the messages sent out to

your online network would be mixed. Have a look at what other people are doing to create a

professional identity online. If you’re unsure, training workshops and events are popping up all the

time on the use of social media for academic purposes. Also, we have included some links to useful

resources at the end of this guide.

5 University of Salford REDS Production – this guide is available online at www.virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/reds

Networking for enterprise

One of the workshop attendees said ‘we can shape our future successes’. Networking is about

creating your own opportunities, as is enterprise. Being entrepreneurial is not necessarily about

making money or taking risks, it is about recognising and creating opportunities. We talked about

how meeting new people can be uncomfortable at times, especially if we have been brought up on

the mantra ‘don’t speak to strangers’. Enterprise is about exploring opportunities and one of the

most effective ways of exploring opportunities is to share ideas with new people. As individuals who

work within the field of academia, developing our networks will help increase the number and

quality of opportunities that present themselves. However doing this will require a little practice.

Once practiced, opportunities will emerge. Good luck!

To conclude

It is important to note that, as a group, we did not all agree on the best ways to network. How to

network is very much dependent on the individual in question – work out what works best for you.

In a LinkedIn discussion group recently, Nicole Gravagna, a Molecular Biologist at University of

Colorado said, ‘The economy doesn't look so bad if you skip the job ads and speak directly to the

CEO'. At the end of the day we all want a job, preferably doing something we like and something

that makes use of our strengths and expertise. If you network and network well, you are

(potentially) opening yourself up to a ton of opportunities. You never know what’s around the

corner!

A few links

Try mapping your network on LinkedIn Maps -

http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/

There are many places to network online but

here are some of the main ones to check out:

LinkedIn, Academic.edu, Twitter, ResearchGate,

Facebook, and Mendeley. If you’re starting out

on these sites, try searching for some of the

contributors to this guide – we look forward to

hearing from you.

Mark W Schaefer’s book ‘The Tao of Twitter’ is an excellent introduction to Twitter.

Why not start your own research blog? Wordpress www.wordpress.com and Blogger

www.blogger.com are easy to use.

Check out Social Media & Marketing Consultant Rachel Levy’s blog on online networking

http://www.rachel-levy.com/

The University of Salford postgraduate careers team have a blog full of advice and

information http://virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/pgrs/

Vitae have lots of useful information on networking too http://www.vitae.ac.uk/