Can a tweet become a job offer? UMSI research suggests yes

Contact: Noor Hindi, [email protected], 734-647-0999 or Jared Wadley, [email protected], 734-834-7719

ANN ARBOR—Social media promotion can boost visibility and job outcomes for early-career scholars, especially women.

New analysis from the University of Michigan School of Information researchers suggests a single post can significantly increase a candidate's visibility. In some cases, it may even land them a job. 

The paper, which appears in the May issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that when early-career researchers receive social media amplification from senior scholars, their work receives significantly more attention. 

In a randomized field experiment conducted during the 2022-23 economics job market cycle, UMSI professor Yan Chen and her collaborators invited more than 2,700 candidates across North America and Europe to participate in a field experiment. 590 people opted in, and all submissions were posted to a research Twitter account (now X). 

Half of the participants were then randomly selected to have their work amplified by senior scholars in their field, who quote-tweeted the papers to their own networks. 

“We wanted to understand whether attention itself and something as simple as visibility on social media could have a causal impact on job market outcomes,” Chen says.

The results were striking. 

Papers in the treatment group saw a 400% increase in views and a 290% increase in likes compared to those that were not amplified. While this visibility did not significantly affect early-stage interviews, it did impact the hiring process later in the process. Candidates whose work was promoted received, on average, one additional campus visit and slightly more job offers overall. 

The impact was especially pronounced for women, who received one additional job offer on average. 

“That’s a substantial difference,” Chen says. “It suggests that increasing visibility can help address some of the inequities we already know exist in academic labor markets.”

The study, Chen says, was motivated by longstanding disparities in academia. Women and underrepresented groups remain less likely to receive senior faculty positions. Research has also found that women are less likely to promote their own work on social media. 

“Women are generally less likely to go out and say, ‘I have this great paper,’” she says. “So we wanted to test whether external promotion could help level the playing field.”

The other research authors were Jingyi Qiu, doctoral student; associate professor Alain Cohn; and Alvin E Roth at Stanford University. 

Paper: “Social media promotion improves job market outcomes”