Social media: an introduction to useful tools for academics
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This document provides an introduction to using social media tools for academics. It discusses the potential benefits of social media in connecting with others, staying up-to-date, and engaging an audience. Several useful social media tools are introduced, including Twitter for communication, YouTube and SlideShare for sharing videos and presentations, and ResearchGate and Academia.edu for building professional networks. The document also covers potential pitfalls of using social media and suggests exploring different tools in the practical session.
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Social media: an introduction to useful tools for academics
- 1. Social media: introduction to useful tools for academics Friday 28th November 2014 Tanya Williamson
- 2. Overview 1. About social media 2. Discussion: The potential benefits 3. Introduction to useful social media tools 4. Practical: Exploration of tools 5. Feedback to group 6. Discussion: The potential pitfalls 7. Engagement and impact
- 3. About social media Social media Digital services, websites, apps, cloud-based Sharing and creating content Create user profiles Networking and communicating Generates usage data
- 4. What are the potential benefits? • Connect and share with others • Reduce isolation of solo researchers • Keep up to date • Improve traffic to your other web content • Continue to use if/when you leave this Institution • Break down hierarchies • From broadcasting to engagement
- 5. Communication (All social media are about communication!) One which stands out is Twitter • Follow interesting accounts @lancasterunilib • Keep up to date • Search tweets and save searches • Aggregate tweets or take part in ‘tweetchats’ using hashtags #acrwri • Make lists of accounts • Share, converse, ask, link to other web content
- 6. Video sharing Has anyone heard of YouTube?! • Subscribe to and create channels • Upload and share videos • Very popular information source for ANY topic • Search for and share useful videos • Share your own knowledge and comments
- 7. Profiles and networks Aimed at academics and researchers: Academia.edu ResearchGate Piirus • Find others with similar interests • Share outputs, expertise, posts, questions and answers • Build social networks based on affiliation, discipline, methodology • Increase opportunity for collaboration • Analytics
- 8. Presentation sharing SlideShare • Easily upload your presentation to share with others • Search for other interesting presentations • Use alongside other social media tools Creating, storing and sharing presentations Prezi, Emaze
- 9. Reading and referencing Gather, store, share and cite your reading. Both require additional download of software. Mendeley Zotero
- 10. Data and code sharing Figshare • Easily upload your datasets, figures, images etc • Each will be assigned a DOI and will be easy to share and cite • Search for data (including negative data) and figures Github Collaborate and share code
- 11. Events Eventbrite Lanyrd • Find and create events in your area or on a topic • Easily manage events • Tie in with other social media tools • Lanyrd enables sharing of presentations, profiles and follow up
- 12. Practical Timing Activity 15 minutes • Choose a tool to explore • Read the ‘About’ page or take a tour of the features • Create a profile • Explore! • Try searching for people, your department, association, or activity in an area of interest to you. • Was it easy to find something interesting? • Did you find anything useful? • How could YOU use this tool? 15 minutes Feedback to the group
- 13. Feedback • Share with the group your first impressions of the social media tool you explored • Would you go back to explore it further? • Can you anticipate any drawbacks?
- 14. What are the potential pitfalls? • Privacy and the blurring of boundaries between personal and professional use • The risk of jeopardising their career through injudicious use of social media • Lack of credibility • The quality of the content they posted • Time pressures • Social media use becoming an obligation • Becoming a target of attack • Too much self-promotion by others • Possible plagiarism of their ideas • Commercialisation of content and copyright issues From Lupton, 'Feeling better connected' Social media us by academics' (2014)# • Be aware of University advice: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/iss/security/training/social-networking/
- 15. Engagement and impact? • Altmetrics: metrics based on the social web • Track how many times a research paper (or any other digital content with a DOI) receives ‘attention’ Altmetric ImpactStory
Editor's Notes
- Culture of sharing is growing in academia PhDs esp often site isolation from other researchers Current awareness Link SM together