Soft Skills Training for Graduate Students: Building Your Online Presence and Personal Brand

The Institute for Pandemics (IfP) invites University of Toronto graduate students for a special soft skills workshop to build an online presence and personal brand.

About the workshop

This 90-minute interactive webinar is designed specifically for graduate student researchers who want to establish a strong personal brand and manage their online presence effectively.

At its simplest, a “personal brand” is simply how others perceive us. That means that whether we like it or not, we all have a brand. The question is: how is that brand working for us? How can we think more strategically about managing our reputation? And what can we do to use social media and other online platforms to present ourselves and our work as professional, credible and trustworthy? The answers lie in this webinar.

With social media playing an increasingly pivotal role in professional visibility, we will explore how researchers can use these platforms as well as other online profiles to communicate their expertise, engage with broader audiences, and connect with potential collaborators. We will consider how to align brand objectives with the most effective online tools. We will also discuss how to balance time and energy when using online platforms to enhance a brand and amplify messages.

Expect practical information that covers branding, social media, and online presence, as well as best-practice examples, useful tools and resources, and opportunities to ask questions and share ideas throughout.

Whether you are new to thinking about how to manage your reputation, or you have been positioning yourself strategically for years, you’re sure to come away from this session with new ideas, resources, and techniques to help you raise your research profile.

Key learning outcomes

During this session, attendees will:

• Understand what a personal brand is and why it’s essential in the research community.
• Learn how their online presence and social media activity contribute to their personal brand.
• Gain insight into effective personal branding principles tailored to researchers.
• Understand the benefits, drawbacks, and different use cases of social media for researchers.
• See how to use social media to broadcast messages AND build their networks.
• Explore additional aspects of online presence, including websites, online profiles, and academic networks.
• Get some ideas about how to use AI tools to help them brainstorm ideas, plan social media calendars, or simply get input on how suitable content is for the intended audience – all whilst maintaining research integrity.
• Be introduced to a wealth of tools and resources to support them with their online presence and branding activities.

By the end of this fast-paced, information-packed and useful session, attendees will have a clear understanding of how to plan and craft their online brand, enhance their online presence, and manage their digital reputation.

About the presenter

Suzanne Whitby is the founder and managing director of SciComm Success.

She is a communication specialist who has nearly 20 years of international experience of tackling communication challenges head-on. Since 2014, she has been designing and delivering training programmes and workshops to help scientists and researchers share their research effectively with non-expert audiences, and develop the skills they need to interact successfully with peers and colleagues. Her experience extends across a range of sectors and she has designed and delivered communication and facilitation programmes for many well-known organisations in Europe, the USA, and further afield.

In addition to her innovative use of training and facilitation methodologies in her programmes to aid learning, she is known for her ability to cut to the heart of problems and to provide innovative insights, direct feedback, and supportive advice to help people transform their communication and personal impact.

A life-long learner, Suzanne is studying towards a PhD in heritage and sensory studies in her free time, enjoying the life of an academic researcher gathering and analysing data in sometimes pressurised conditions, which makes her work with researchers and academics particularly relevant!

On a personal note, she is a voracious reader, an oral storyteller and a “fish hugger” (rather than a “tree hugger”) who loves scuba diving, walking and travelling. She believes in the importance of human connection and creates new communities wherever she goes. She is continually becoming better at “tread more lightly” on the earth and lives in Innsbruck, Austria with her Atmospheric Physicist husband.