As a young aspiring scientist, social media is one of the outlets to disseminate your work and connect to the community. This talk gives hints on the benefits and risks of science on social media. Talk at the ICSE 2022 New Faculty Symposium.

1. Andreas Zeller • May 17, 2022
Digital Networking and Community
ICSE 2022 New Faculty Symposium

2. Why am I invited to give this talk?
(On “digital networking and community”)
• I am a world-renowned SE researcher
• I am a TV / YouTube / TikTok personality
• I give TED Talks on a regular basis
• I was voted “sexiest SE researcher” in 2004
• After school, I wanted to go into advertising
• I have 7,000+ followers on Twitter

3. Why am I invited to give this talk?
(On “digital networking and community”)
• I am a world-renowned SE researcher
• I am a TV / YouTube / TikTok personality
• I give TED Talks on a regular basis
• I was voted “sexiest SE researcher” in 2004
• After school, I wanted to go into advertising
• I have 7,000+ followers on Twitter

4. Why am I invited to give this talk?
(On “digital networking and community”)
• I am a world-renowned SE researcher
• I am a TV / YouTube / TikTok personality
• I give TED Talks on a regular basis
• I was voted “sexiest SE researcher” in 2004
• I have the shortest titles at conferences
• I have 7,000+ followers on Twitter

5. Why be on social media?
• For impact. People may not know about your work unless you talk about it.
• For branding. You want people to know you – for positions, for awards…
• For connecting. You want to set up collaborations with others.
• For discussing. You want to get a feel for where your work is taking you.
• For bragging. The world is waiting for you to show what a big
fi
sh you are.
• For depression and envy. Everyone else is successful; nobody ❤s you.
(Or: “How I switched from LaTeX to Twitter”)

6. Impact
How to win friends and in
fl
uence people
For your presence on social media, share
relevant and useful content
• Share your papers as a whole
• Share your tools with the community
• State how these are worth reading/using
• Engage your public with open issues and
provoking
fi
ndings
• It’s about your public’s interest, not yours

7. Impact
How to win friends and in
fl
uence people
Engage
Added Value
Visual Content

8. Branding
Promote yourself and your work
• Post frequently.
But only if you have something relevant to share.
• Stay in brand.
Who are you to your followers? Stay within
one topic (CS, academia, your
fi
eld).
• Create alternative personas.
Use alternate pro
fi
les and platforms for
posting on di
ff
erent (personal) topics or in your
native language.
• Have a meaningful pro
fi
le.
CS researcher Did Delta Debugging Has papers
Posts cute cat pics
Bike enthusiast ❤s bandes dessinées

9. Branding
Promote yourself and your work
Provoking headline
My name (4x!)
Andreas Zeller has key ideas

10. Designing
A Good Post Needs Some Work
• Reduce complexity.
Use headlines and short summaries.
Use the terms of your readers, not yours.
• Prioritize visual content.
Use slides, screenshots, and PDFs.
Make use of animations and diagrams.
• Think about what you post.
You are not Elon Musk. Check your post
and think of its consequences. And check
spelling and grammar.

11. Designing
A Good Post Needs Some Work
Engaging opening
Big surprise
This was SO viral
Some irony

12. Connecting and Discussing
It’s called “social network” for a reason
• Social media is a great way to get in touch
with people – because it is public
• Go and ask questions, engage posters
into discussions
• Do not just like, but quote and reply
• Your questions will be answered quickly –
unlike a mail which may end in some silo

13. Bragging
Why don't you like me, why don't you like me?
• Using social media to congratulate yourself is okay. You deserve this!
• But use this as an opportunity to also create value for your readers:
• Be humble and don’t overshare – people will hate and leave you quickly
Instead of just saying Also say Even better, say
I got a paper accepted!
Thanks to all my co-
authors, without whom…
The paper is available here,
and it is cool because...
I got a great new position
I decided for this position
because...
My insights from the
application process
I got this fabulous grant I am hiring! My proposal is here. Enjoy!
I got a Turing award –/– –/–

14. Depression and Envy
Why is it that everyone else is better than me?
• Do not use social media to compare yourself to others.
• There’s always someone who in some metric is better than you
(# of papers, # of grants, # of citations, # of followers, …)
• But you are doing some work that no one else does. No one can take
that away from you. And the value of your work is not measurable
through some stupid metric.
• Have a “feel good” folder in which you store encouraging messages*
• Once a week or so, spend 15 minutes thinking about what you learned or
what you achieved – and post about it 🙂
* Thanks to Janet Siegmund
for this suggestion!

15. Depression and Envy
Which one is better: simple or hard?
• Your work may be too complex to
fi
t into some post.
And that’s perfectly okay: Why should we restrict ourselves to work whose
fi
ndings can be reduced into 240 characters?
• While your social-savvy colleagues work on crafting posts, at least you can
work on the hard intellectual challenges. (And social media may not be the
best for discussing these.)
• Being widely recognized on social media can create envy in your colleagues
(just like being widely cited, btw)

16. Kardashian
Index
K-index =
number of Twitter followers
43.3 * number of citations0.32
0 5000 1⋅104 1,5⋅104 2⋅104 2,5⋅104 3⋅104 3,5⋅104
2500
5000
7500
1⋅104
Followers
Citations
13.71
6.69
0.79
2.37
0.92
• Satirical measure of the
discrepancy between a
scientist's social
media pro
fi
le and
publication record
• “If your K-index gets
above 5, then it’s time
to get o
ff
Twitter and
write those papers” 1.78

17. Kardashian
Index
0 5000 1⋅104 1,5⋅104 2⋅104 2,5⋅104 3⋅104 3,5⋅104
2500
5000
7500
1⋅104
Followers
Citations
> 1m

18. Will digital networking help your career?
• Yes, as it helps promote you and your work
• Yes, as it helps to connect with colleagues and practitioners
• Yes, as society expects us to communicate our science
• No, as it might create envy in colleagues who are less social-savvy
• No, as you might be perceived as being too shallow
Go for social media as a consequence of your work,
but not as a goal in itself

19. Andreas Zeller
Digital Networking and Community
ICSE 2022 New Faculty Symposium
Impact
How to win friends and influence people
For your presence on social media, share
relevant and useful content
• Share your papers as a whole
• Share your tools with the community
• State how these are worth reading/using
• Engage your public with open issues and
provoking findings
• It’s about your public’s interest, not yours
Branding
Promote yourself and your work
• Post frequently.
But only if you have something relevant to share.
• Stay in brand.
Who are you to your followers? Stay within
one topic (CS, academia, your field).
• Create alternative personas.
Use alternate profiles and platforms for
posting on different (personal) topics or in your
native language.
• Have a meaningful profile.
CS researcher Did Delta Debugging Has Papers
Posts cute cat pics
Bike enthusiast ❤s bandes dessinées
Designing
A Good Post Needs Some Work
• Reduce complexity.
Use headlines and short summaries.
Use the terms of your readers, not yours.
• Prioritize visual content.
Use slides, screenshots, and PDFs.
Make use of animations and diagrams.
• Think about what you post.
You are not Elon Musk. Check your post
and think of its consequences. And check
spelling and grammar.
Depression and Envy
Why is it that everyone else is better than me?
• Do not use social media to compare yourself to others.
• There’s always someone who in some metric is better than you
(# of papers, # of grants, # of citations, # of followers, …)
• But you are doing some work that no one else does. No one can take
that away from you. And the value of your work is not measurable
through some stupid metric.
• Have a “feel good” folder in which you store encouraging messages*
• Once a week or so, spend 15 minutes thinking about what you learned or
what you achieved – and post about it !
* Thanks to Janet Siegmund
for this suggestion!
Go for social media as a consequence of your work,
but not as a goal in itself