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Social media: introduction to useful tools for academics

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Lancaster University Library
Lancaster University Library

This document introduces social media tools that can be useful for academics, including blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Mendeley, Zotero, Figshare, Eventbrite, and Lanyrd. It discusses the potential benefits of using these tools, such as connecting with others, keeping up to date, and increasing traffic and engagement. However, it also notes potential pitfalls like privacy issues, lack of credibility, and commercialization of content. The document encourages exploring different tools and tracking impact through altmetrics.

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Social media: introduction to useful tools for academics Friday 13th February 2015 Tanya Williamson, Assistant Librarian
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
About social media Social media Digital services, websites, apps, cloud- based Sharing and creating content Create user profiles Networking and communicating Generates usage data Free or ‘freemium’
• 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 What are the potential benefits?
Blogging: Now an established medium Communication (All social media are about communication!) • Many platforms to choose from e.g. institutional, academic, publishers, personal e.g. using Wordpress, Blogger • Record your thoughts, findings, experiences, insights • Link to full publications/reports • Hub linking to your other social media content
One which stands out is Twitter Communication (All social media are about communication!) • Follow interesting accounts @lancasterunilib • Keep up to date • Search tweets and save searches • Aggregate tweets or take part in ‘tweetchats’ using hashtags #acwri • Make lists of accounts • Share, converse, ask, link to other web content
‘This isn’t rocket science. It isn’t even information science. If you tell people about what you’re doing, more people are going to have a look, and see it, than if you stick it in an institutional repository and leave it be.’ Melissa Terras, Digital Humanities Scholar http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/blogging-and-tweeting-about-research-papers-worth-it
Has anyone heard of YouTube?! Video sharing • 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
Aimed at academics and researchers: Academia.edu ResearchGate Piirus Profiles and networks • 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
Aimed at all professionals: LinkedIn Profiles and networks • Make connections: university, industry, business, practitioners… • Living CV • Skills and endorsements • Beware of importing your email address book! Institutional profile Individual profile
SlideShare Presentation sharing • 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, Haiku Deck
Gather, store, share and cite your reading. Both require additional download of software. Mendeley Zotero Reading and referencing
Figshare Data and code sharing • 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
Eventbrite Lanyrd Events • 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
• 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/ What are the potential pitfalls?
• Altmetrics: metrics based on the social web • Track how many times a research paper (or any other digital content with a DOI) receives ‘attention’ Engagement and impact? ImpactStoryAltmetric
Discussion Questions, concerns, experiences
References References Lupton D. (2014) ‘Feeling Better Connected’: Academics’ Use of Social Media. http://www.canberra.edu.au/faculties/arts-design/attachments/pdf/n-and- mrc/Feeling-Better-Connected-report-final.pdf [Accessed 27th November 2014] Terras, M. (2013) Is blogging and tweeting about research papers worth it? The Verdict. Melissa Terras' Blog. http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/is-blogging-and- tweeting-about-research.html [Accessed 12th February 2015] Terras, M. (2013) Is blogging and tweeting about research papers worth it? Engage Social Media Talks, University of Oxford. http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/blogging-and- tweeting-about-research-papers-worth-it [Accessed 12th February 2015]

More Related Content

Social media: introduction to useful tools for academics

  • 1. Social media: introduction to useful tools for academics Friday 13th February 2015 Tanya Williamson, Assistant Librarian
  • 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 Free or ‘freemium’
  • 4. • 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 What are the potential benefits?
  • 5. Blogging: Now an established medium Communication (All social media are about communication!) • Many platforms to choose from e.g. institutional, academic, publishers, personal e.g. using Wordpress, Blogger • Record your thoughts, findings, experiences, insights • Link to full publications/reports • Hub linking to your other social media content
  • 6. One which stands out is Twitter Communication (All social media are about communication!) • Follow interesting accounts @lancasterunilib • Keep up to date • Search tweets and save searches • Aggregate tweets or take part in ‘tweetchats’ using hashtags #acwri • Make lists of accounts • Share, converse, ask, link to other web content
  • 7. ‘This isn’t rocket science. It isn’t even information science. If you tell people about what you’re doing, more people are going to have a look, and see it, than if you stick it in an institutional repository and leave it be.’ Melissa Terras, Digital Humanities Scholar http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/blogging-and-tweeting-about-research-papers-worth-it
  • 8. Has anyone heard of YouTube?! Video sharing • 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
  • 9. Aimed at academics and researchers: Academia.edu ResearchGate Piirus Profiles and networks • 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
  • 10. Aimed at all professionals: LinkedIn Profiles and networks • Make connections: university, industry, business, practitioners… • Living CV • Skills and endorsements • Beware of importing your email address book! Institutional profile Individual profile
  • 11. SlideShare Presentation sharing • 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, Haiku Deck
  • 12. Gather, store, share and cite your reading. Both require additional download of software. Mendeley Zotero Reading and referencing
  • 13. Figshare Data and code sharing • 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
  • 14. Eventbrite Lanyrd Events • 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
  • 15. • 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/ What are the potential pitfalls?
  • 16. • Altmetrics: metrics based on the social web • Track how many times a research paper (or any other digital content with a DOI) receives ‘attention’ Engagement and impact? ImpactStoryAltmetric
  • 18. References References Lupton D. (2014) ‘Feeling Better Connected’: Academics’ Use of Social Media. http://www.canberra.edu.au/faculties/arts-design/attachments/pdf/n-and- mrc/Feeling-Better-Connected-report-final.pdf [Accessed 27th November 2014] Terras, M. (2013) Is blogging and tweeting about research papers worth it? The Verdict. Melissa Terras' Blog. http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/is-blogging-and- tweeting-about-research.html [Accessed 12th February 2015] Terras, M. (2013) Is blogging and tweeting about research papers worth it? Engage Social Media Talks, University of Oxford. http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/blogging-and- tweeting-about-research-papers-worth-it [Accessed 12th February 2015]

Editor's Notes

  1. Q What is Social media?
  2. Interlinked User generated content Allows (encourages) people to present themselves, connect with each other, share content – opinions, ideas, information, discover, communicate Leaves a trail of data – useful for advertisers, useful for analysing behaviour and networks Q What benefits would you hope to get out of using social media?
  3. Culture of sharing is growing in academia – open science, open access to research PhDs esp often site isolation from other researchers Current awareness Link SM together Q What social media are you using already? Do you use sm for academic purposes?
  4. Does anybody keep a blog? Originally weblog – personal journal, ridiculed for being too parochial Very much established Shorter form of writing, easy to edit update
  5. Very versatile Simple to use Healthy and growing academic presence on Twitter – facilitates very niche interests as well as popular and general interest e.g. news sites, commercial, entertainment, personal Public engagement – unmoderated, very public – can be nasty, subject to trolls (I haven’t experienced this) Evidence to show that blogging and tweeting about research papers significantly increases downloads, especially from open access repositories
  6. Video is an engaging medium, useful for novices Open up your expertise or share other people’s videos
  7. Not going to cover FB as such – Q Does anyone use FB? Academia – Quite large, all disciplines including those who support academics. Not informal like FB, just about your academic work. News feed, posts, groups, research topics, papers (people’s own, bookmarks to others) endorsements. Analytics ResearchGate – Aimed at scientists mainly. Profile, upload your papers, research interests, groups, q&as, score! Based on how much you ‘contribute’ – uploading, answering qs etc. It will create a basic proflie for you if your collaborating authors add details of a publications 3. Piirus – relatively young, Developed by Univesrity of Warwisck. Facilitates matching researchers with similar interests and methodologies
  8. Make connections with other professionals. Look at their profile, connect. Useful to keep up to date so people can contact you (e.g. potential collaborators, employers, media)
  9. Slideshare – easy to use. Will suggest presentations for you, create a profile. Easy to embed a presentastion on a blog or webpage
  10. Instead of Endnote, which is what the University supports If these become embedded in your way of working they can be very powerful. Allow simple adding of publications and web content through your browser Social element is secondary, but the data generated does influence on the ratings of publications (more about that later) Allow research groups to read collectively Involve downloading desktop software
  11. Figshare: Potential to disrupt scholarly communication! Provides access to all kinds of figures, diagrams, images Github Admit it’s beyond my comprehension, but allows computer programmers to share code and work collectively on solving problems
  12. Eventbrite: Conferences, lectures, seminars, meetings Lanyrd: Tech bias. Allows searching, sharing of presentations, speaker/attendee profiles, ties in with Twitter hashtags etc
  13. It is not always clear what could happen to the data and documents you upload to the cloud – not necessarily governed by the laws of the territory you are in! You are always generating usage data. Not always something to worry about, but something to be aware of.
  14. As more interactions are happening online, and with increased adoption of the open access ethos, traditional ways of measuring engagement and impact – e.g. citation counts – are being stretched. Complimented by data generated by the networked researcher Altmetrics – emerging field / movement looking at developing new ways to use the web to measure impact, influence of scholarly communications, beyond counting citations to journal articles 2 products to highlight Altmetric allows you to easily see the buzz around a paper/d object. Not just volume but also who counts Impact Story Profile of your work, links together you different outputs and shows metrics for them