The next LinkedIn doesn't exist yet — and that's good!

What this means for scientists now.

Hello hellooo,

“LinkedIn feels icky — what’s the next platform scientists should be on?”

An professor based in Netherlands asked me this question in one of our recent calls.

It’s a fair question. I’ve watched scientists migrate from Twitter to LinkedIn, and now LinkedIn is filling up with AI-generated noise, algorithm unpredictability, and the pressure to post constantly just to stay visible.

But here’s what I actually think is happening — and why it changes everything about how you approach your online presence.

We are moving from platform-driven connections to people-driven ecosystems.

Right now, the platform decides who finds you. You go where the crowd is — LinkedIn, because everyone is on LinkedIn. The platform is the middleman between you and your audience.

That is starting to shift.

The trend I’m seeing — and it’s not unique to science, it’s happening everywhere — is that people are increasingly choosing to follow people, not platforms. They find someone interesting, and they enter that person’s universe directly: their newsletter, their website, their podcast, their community. Substack is the clearest current example of this, but it won’t be the last. New individual-driven spaces will keep emerging.

What this means for you: the platform you’re on matters less than the foundation you build.

If your entire visibility strategy depends on LinkedIn’s algorithm, you’re one platform shift away from starting over. But if you’ve built a platform-agnostic personal brand — one rooted in your voice, your audience, and your expertise — you move with the trends instead of being swept away by them.

This is exactly the mindset we cover in the Personal Branding for Scientists workshop on 23 June.

In 3 hours, across 6 modules, you’ll walk away with:

  • A career goals framework that anchors everything you do online
  • A clear audience map so you know exactly who you’re talking to
  • Your personal branding statement which is essentially your elevator pitch
  • A platform strategy built around your personality and comfort zone — not someone else’s formula
  • Practical ways to use AI to make the whole thing easier and faster
  • And most importantly — your next 48-hour action plan so you leave with momentum, not just notes

The mindset you’ll learn is platform-agnostic. You learn it once, and you can apply it to whatever comes next — whether that’s LinkedIn, a new emerging space, or your own corner of the internet.

Because sustainable visibility isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about showing up in the right place, in a way that feels like you — not like a task on your to-do list.

👉 Register for the 23 June workshop here

Cheers,

Pranoti Kshirsagar Founder, The Science Talk

PS: If, apart from my email, you also need help strengthen impact strategy, I think you’ll be happy about:

  1. Impact strategy for research proposalswhere I work with principal investigators who want professional science communication that matches the ambition and budget of their grant proposal. More details are on my website.
  2. ERC Starting Grant Resource Kit got a got a refresh! The kit now has 48 official resources including core webpages, interactive tools, PDFs of official documents, ERC classes, compliance & AI guidance, and examples of winner grants - all in one pdf. You can access the kit here.