using Social Media to Communicate Your Research
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This document discusses using social media to communicate research. It defines social media as websites that allow contribution and engagement. Popular platforms mentioned include blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. The document outlines benefits of social media such as accessibility, engagement and raising your profile. It provides examples of using different platforms and recommends regularly sharing engaging content like images and updates. The document advises planning content and goals, considering your audience, and cautions against sharing sensitive information or anything unprofessional. Resources for learning best practices are also included.
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using Social Media to Communicate Your Research
- 1. Using Social Media to Communicate Your Research Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer http://edina.ac.uk/ Heriot-Watt Crucible VII, 15th January 2015, Edinburgh
- 2. Introduction
- 3. What is Social Media? • Social Media are any websites that allow you to contribute, to engage, to connect with others and are “Web 2.0” tools (O’Reilly 2005). • Examples include: – Blogs (WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc.) – Twitter – YouTube and Vimeo, Vine – Facebook – Google+ – Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, Giphy, etc. – LinkedIn, Academia.edu, etc. – Mendeley, Delicious, Diigo, Reddit, etc. – FigShare – Stack Overflow, Jelly
- 4. Why Use Social Media? Social media tools… • Are go-to spaces for expertise and advice. • Offer new ways to tell stories, to engage in dialogue, to reach out to your audience(s). • Rank highly on Google, Bing, etc. • Can enable direct access to key figures from Principal Investigators to Research Councils to press and potential research participants. • May generate media interest in your work, new collaborations and other unexpected opportunities. • Offer inexpensive ways to raise your own profile and that of your research.
- 5. What tools should you use? • Blogs - make your work visible, enable semi-formal ways to share working methods and progress, and provide a way to find and engage in dialogue with your audience. • Twitter - very effective way to share key research updates, build a network around your work, find peer support and advice, track news. • Video or Audio - can bring clarity to complex concepts quickly. Well-made short videos or animations can convey complex concepts and research quickly, accessibly and in very engaging sharable ways. • Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, etc. – any images bring a project to life – research is about people, ideas, events, collaboration, equipment... Images make your ideas, achievements and discoveries far more tangible.
- 6. What should you share? • What your research is about and what it aims to achieve. • Processes, updates, changes of approach – to the extent that such transparency is appropriate and acceptable. • Quirky, playful and accessible content around your work and research area. • Publications, presentations, press mentions and materials that reflect research outputs and expertise. • CHECK ANY EXISTING PRIVACY, NON-DISCLOSURE OR SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES AND ENSURE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE OR ACTIVITY COMPLIES.
- 8. Blogs: What’s on my Blackboard? http://whatsonmyblackboard.wordpress.com/
- 11. Facebook: I Fucking Love Science https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience http://www.iflscience.com/categories/technology
- 12. Tumblr: NPR’s Seed to Shirt http://seedtoshirt.tumblr.com/
- 13. Twitter & YouTube: Joe Hanson https://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe
- 14. Twitter & Vine: #6secondscience https://twitter.com/search?q=%236secondscience http://6secondscience.tumblr.com/
- 15. Planning Social Media Use • Consider what you want to achieve, what your goals are, what you want to share about your research. How can you track progress? • Think about your audience(s): where do they hang out online? What will engage them in your work? How can you make it relevant to them? • Be creative – what social media tools could help you to communicate in new ways? • Be pragmatic - what best fits your project’s style, expertise, and time availability?
- 16. Planning Social Media Content • Brand your presences and ensure you complete your profile information. Always link back to your definitive research profiles and project websites. • Regularly share interesting engaging content, use images, listen to and engage with the audiences you are reaching out to. • Ensure you keep profiles and presences up to date and relevant, review their effectiveness, and ensure they represent your work as you want it to be seen.
- 17. What should not be shared • Commercially sensitive data or other material your employer/PI would not want shared or that might breach guidelines. • Personal information about colleagues, participants, those at partner organisation that might breach Data Protection law or ethical guidance. • Material (images, discussion board posts, tweets, etc.) that might impact on your own professional reputation or the credibility of your research. • Anything you would not want a funder, professional peer, project partner, or future employer to see or read.
- 18. Useful Resources • LSE. 2013. Impact of Social Sciences blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/ • Minocha, Shailey and Petre, Marian. 2012. UK: Vitae Innovate and Open University. Available from: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/Vitae_Innovate_Open_University_Social_Media_Han . • O’Reilly, T. 2005. What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. In O’Reilly, 30th September 2005. Available from: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html • Patel, S. 2011. 10 ways researchers can use Twitter. In Networked Researcher, 3rd August 2011. Available from: http://www.networkedresearcher.co.uk/2011/08/03/10-ways-researchers-can-use-twitter/ Privacy Settings Links: • Facebook Privacy Settings: http://www.facebook.com/help/privacy • LinkedIn Privacy Settings: http://learn.linkedin.com/settings/ • Guide to Google+ Privacy Settings: http://lifehacker.com/5827683/a-guide-to-google%252B-privacy-and-information-control/
- 19. Managing Your Identity Online Useful Search Engine • Google: http://www.google.com and Google Blog Search: http://www.google.co.uk/blogsearch/ • Bing: http://www.bing.com/ and Bing Social Search: http://www.bing.com/social/ • Topsy: http://topsy.com/ • Twitter Search: https://twitter.com/#!/search-home • Social Mention: http://www.socialmention.com/ • Whos talkin: http://whostalkin.com/ • Social Searcher: http://www.social-searcher.com/ • SmashFuse: http://www.smashfuse.com/ Useful Tools for Automatic Checking and Task Management • Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts • Tweetbeep: http://tweetbeep.com/ • IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/
Editor's Notes
- Social media are go-to places for expertise and advice – that can benefit you both for your own information finding and for proving yourself as an expert in your community. Setting up your own presence allows others to differentiate between you and others with same/similar names or roles and establish yourself in the way you want to. Social media sites rank highly on Google Key figures – CEOs, Senior Managers, Research Councils, Leading Academics and Researchers, etc. are much more accessible via social media allowing you to build a great network. Social Media can lead to collaboration, employment, speaking, and other opportunities. Social media gives you a way to raise your profile for engaging, outreach etc.