Social media engagement for professional development and demystifying graduate school

A few years ago, I remember frequenting Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit to understand what it would be to start and do a PhD abroad. Inspired to follow in their footsteps, I started using social media platforms in a professional capacity in 2020. According to Dr. Christina Boswell’s (2022) research career management tool, doctoral students can utilize social media engagement for wider knowledge dissemination. Indeed, I could better prepare for the next step in my academic career by following the professional social media accounts of scholars with similar identities to mine (multilingual applied linguist and first-generation PhD applicant from the Global South). Linkedin is where I connect with colleagues and update them on my milestones. Twitter tends to be for more informal updates, and staying in touch with academics. Facebook is where I keep track of the latest news (e.g., publications, call for proposals) in professional groups. Still, my most regularly used platform is Instagram. In this article, I want to share my autobiographical narrative on creating Instagram content for professional development and demystifying graduate school.

Instagram account as an interactive professional development diary

Since the beginning of my PhD program, I have developed the habit of sending monthly progress updates to my supervisors. I report where I am at in my professional development journey, highlighting my ups and downs, contemplations, and plans. Additionally for the three years, I have been sharing my “updates” on Instagram. Both are ways to hold myself accountable, and get feedback from different audiences. While the former is textual, more formal, and only for two people, the latter is more multimodal and informal, and has a broader audience. Numbers are not everything, but my Instagram content had 13803 impressions between June and September 2022 alone. My posts reached 995 accounts, and my stories had a smaller audience (306). Regardless of the statistics, I try to share useful and engaging content through publishing both posts and stories.

Creating posts takes longer than stories, as there is a need for a topic, at least one photo, and a caption. In addition to talking about my experience, I add takeaways, resources, and questions for reflection. This format of posts also helps me consolidate what I have learned. One recent post with significant engagement (accounts reached, likes, comments, shares, and bookmarks) is about how long it can take to complete a PhD. It was such a popular question that I had to take it to social media. Partially inspired by the audience questions, I have also written about choosing a topic for your PhD dissertation, keeping up with the field through associations, and being on top of a flexible PhD schedule. Since sharing my research and graduate school experience, I have also been invited to do live streams and webinars for educational institutions and professional organizations.

Another Instagram content is stories, where I post short videos, and photos with some or no textual information. Typically, I share what I am reading (exciting publications), writing (newsletter articles like this), and doing every day (studying in a library or watching a webinar). To increase the engagement, I use quizzes, polls (Where would you want to work?), links (e.g., websites), mentions (universities, organizations, etc.), and locations (e.g., conferences). Tagging other accounts can help promote useful resources, get reposts, and earn new followers. Stories with the most extensive reach were related to my professional achievements and updates, non-academic photos and videos, and professional development resources (publications, conferences, webinars).

Figure 1

An Instagram post’s statistical insights

Demystifying graduate school by speaking the language of my audience

A crucial question I ask myself as an emerging scholar is how I want to communicate my research and content for demystifying graduate school. On social media, I try not to use much jargon, and, instead, opt for “lay” language that is accessible to a broader audience. Considering that 77.5% of my audience is from Qazaqstan, I try to use as much Qazaq as possible. After all, there is not that much Instagram content like mine in my native language. Creating academic content in Qazaq is my strategy to 1) increase the representation of Qazaq researchers on Instagram, 2) use my native language in more domains, and 3) inspire other Qazaq people to become academics. However, I also translanguage transcending the boundaries of Qazaqstan’s commonly used named languages such as Qazaq, Russian, and English. My translanguaging is understood by my non-Qazaq audience as well. A few days ago, my Canadian colleague said he gets the essence of my Instagram content even when I am not using English only. My social media engagement is a handy way to normalize translanguaging through my example and construct my identity as a Qazaq scholar, critical applied linguist and translanguaging advocate. In other words, I get to practice what I preach.

Figure 2

Translanguaging in constructing my Instagram content and researcher identity

To conclude, running this interactive diary on Instagram has been a rewarding experience. Social media engagement is an excellent tool to grow professionally, reach your target audience, and strengthen your researcher identities. My advice on using Instagram or another platform professionally would be to

- Be honest: Shed light on the bitter and the sweet of a grad student’s life.

- Consider the feedback and the statistics, but do not post only content that gets the most likes.

- Construct useful content: Share tips and resources best fit for your audience.

- Speak the language of your audience: Avoid making your content dense and use accessible language.

- Stay true to your researcher identity: Advocate for causes you are passionate about through your example.

References

Boswell, C. [@BoswellPol]. 2022, August 9. I'm really pleased to share a tool I developed with colleagues at Edinburgh University - designed to support academics [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/BoswellPol/status/1556904096644431872