Who uses LinkedIn?
We had a talk at INAM2019 yesterday about the Astronomical Science Group of Ireland which is about to be re-launched with a new website. One of the main reasons for doing this is that Ireland recently joined the European Southern Observatory and in order to capitalize on its involvement it is important to persuade the Irish government to invest in the resources needed (especially postdocs, etc) to do as much science as possible using ESO facilities. At the moment there isn’t a very well organized lobby for astronomy in Ireland.
One of the suggestions made yesterday was that astronomers in Ireland should join LinkedIn in order to raise their profile individually and collectively.
I am not, and have never been, on LinkedIn and this is the first time I’ve ever even thought of joining it (though I do from time to time receive emails from people I don’t know asking me to). I’ve always thought it was for more businessy types. I don’t know of any astronomers (or scientists generally) who use it either, but that may be just because I’m not on it and wouldn’t know either way.
I just thought therefore, that I might invite any readers of this blog – whether astronomers or not – if they use LinkedIn to please comment on its usefulness or otherwise using the box below. Please also comment on whether you think it would help astronomers in Ireland organize in the manner envisaged.
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In the Dark 
September 5, 2019 at 11:55 am
I would definitely recommend using LinkedIn to join forces and to maintain a network of like-minded colleagues.
Besides, you can setup the sharing settings to automatically publicize your WordPress posts to LinkedIn.
Please feel free to connect with me in LinkedIn should you decide to join it.
September 5, 2019 at 11:58 am
Just bear in mind that once you sign up, there’s no going back…
September 5, 2019 at 12:00 pm
One of my main worries is that I’ll get even more annoying phone calls from recruitment agencies..
September 5, 2019 at 12:15 pm
Hi Peter,
Mixed feelings about LinkedIn – can be a useful tool to research professional people/surgeons/musicians etc. and if inclined, to keep up with those you’ve worked with. It can also be a pain – asking you to connect with those it thinks you know – one is capable of doing that without a prompt.
September 6, 2019 at 6:36 am
I use LinkedIn. Years ago I was active. I connected with Don Lincoln of Fermi Lab. It is a mixed population but I believe there are scientists there. Research Gate might be another possibility.
September 6, 2019 at 8:13 am
For years I was getting these messages and assumed it was some strange local thing: living in Edinburgh, I naturally read it as “Link Edin”. But the reason it took so long to realise my mistake was because it looked like spam, and so got deleted with little scrutiny. I still think it’s as close to spam as makes no difference, and I can’t imagine it ever being useful in academia.
September 6, 2019 at 5:34 pm
What is Twitter?
September 10, 2019 at 1:39 pm
I do use LinkedIn, but then my background is in computing, not astronomy. It’s a great place when you’re jobhunting, but as a place to specifically raise your academic profile, it’s less useful. I’d also be wary about mandating it as a suitable platform, as it’s really quite spammy, and also tries to grab all your contacts. I don’t think academics should be endorsing that sort of predatory behaviour from companies. (Obviously as an individual, you can perfectly well make that choice in the interests of e.g. getting a job, but when you’re making strong suggestions for a community, I think your calculus should differ.)
Maybe academia.edu would be a more logical home?