Drawing on insights shared by Timo Lorenz and Ulrike Boehm at the To Be Honest Conference 2025, this article article offers practical guidance for researchers who want to use LinkedIn in a way that feels manageable, credible, and aligned with academic work. It starts with why LinkedIn can work for researchers at all and then outlines ten concrete practices you can apply at your own pace.

Why Using LinkedIn as a Researcher Works When It Fits Your Practice

LinkedIn often becomes frustrating when it is treated as something separate from research work. In practice, it works best when it mirrors habits researchers already have: observing, reflecting, sharing, and engaging with peers.

Seen this way, LinkedIn is not primarily about visibility. It is a space where research thinking becomes legible to others and where connections grow through ongoing interaction.

Ten Practical Ways to Use LinkedIn as a Researcher

The following practices follow a familiar research logic. They emphasize clarity, selectivity, and continuity over constant output.

Share parts of your process, not a perfected narrative

Small insights, early ideas, and real questions often resonate more than polished success stories. They show how you approach problems and make your expertise visible without performance.

Make your profile easy to understand at a glance

A clear headline and a focused “About” section help others quickly grasp what you work on and what they can contact you for.

Build a posting rhythm that fits your workload

Short phases of activity followed by quiet periods can be more sustainable than trying to post regularly every week. Over time, consistency matters more than frequency.

Use comments as an accessible way to participate

Commenting is a low-threshold way to engage. Thoughtful comments can spark exchanges, show how you think, and increase visibility without requiring full posts.

Curate a network around your real interests

Connecting with people whose work or questions relate to your own leads to more meaningful conversations. Relevance grows through focus, not scale.

Be open about uncertainty and what you learned from it

Sharing challenges can be valuable when paired with reflection. What resonates most is not the difficulty itself, but the insight that came from it.

Make your posts easy to read

Short paragraphs, spacing, and clear structure help readers stay with your message. Good formatting is part of good communication, especially for busy readers.

Let your broader skills and interests be visible

Leadership, communication, teamwork, and project work matter across roles and sectors. Making them visible adds context to your profile and reflects the full scope of your work.

Share resources that others can apply immediately

Templates, books, methods, and tools often generate interaction because they offer something concrete. Sharing resources is a simple way to contribute value.

Treat LinkedIn as a long-term record of your thinking

Over time, your posts form an archive of how your ideas develop. This record can help others find you and help you reflect on your own progress.

What This Means in Practice

Used this way, LinkedIn supports the work you already do instead of adding another task to your workload. It becomes a place to think in public, to stay connected to relevant conversations, and to make your work understandable beyond your immediate environment.

Instead of performing expertise, you build it gradually by showing how you think and what you care about.