Developing a social media strategy to enhance your research profile

Developing a social media strategy to enhance your research profile

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Gilles Couzin17th June 2015

xkcd.com/1239/ (CC BY-NC 2.5)

About this workshopDo I really need a social media ‘strategy’?Developing your strategy: asking (and

answering) the right questionsMeasuring and evaluating success5 suggestions for getting startedCase study: PolicyBristol (Kat Wall)Q&A

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1 May 2023

 Photo by Mariano CC BY-SA 3.0

Show of hands…How many people in this room are currently using Twitter? LinkedIn? Facebook? others?:

For personal use? To support their research/professional activities?

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Do I really need a social media ‘strategy’?

 Photo by kdee64 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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carefully consider what you will do before investing time and resources;

prioritise your effort;plan content and a schedule for releasing it;avoid the “shiny object syndrome”; identify who will do what, when and how

often, when in a group setting;assess what works and what doesn’t;manage expectations.

…well, it’s up to you, but having a plan will help you…

Where you want to be?

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Who are you and where you want to be?

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JISC Developing Digital Literacies guide (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies)

Who are you and where you want to be?

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Beetham and Sharpe ‘pyramid model’of digital literacy development model (2010)

Listening

Participating

Creating

Leading

JISC Developing Digital Literacies guide (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies)

Activity 1

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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In pairs: use these models to discuss a) where you see yourself now in terms of your social media use, and b) where you would like to be.

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Developing your strategy: asking (and answering) the right questions

 Photo by Brian Koprowski (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Questions that need answersWhat do you want to achieve?Who do you want to reach?What conversation is already taking place?Where is it taking place?Who is involved?What tools will you use?What content do you want to share?How will you measure and evaluate

success?11

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Consider if someone was looking for the skills and expertise you

have as a researcher.

What search terms would they use to find YOU?

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Activity 2

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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In pairs:1. Explain what you do and why it matters.2. Listen to your partner explaining back to you

what your key skills are.

What do you want to achieve?Define your primary goals, e.g.:

stay up to date build connections promote my work raise my profile find potential collaborators learn from others publish my ideas communicate research results attract job offers a mix of the above?

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Who do you want to reach? Identifying your audiences will help you tailor

your content and also choose the right tool(s).

List your primary audiences, e.g.: other researchers in your field potential employers journalists the general public funders etc…

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Activity 3

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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In pairs:1) Discuss what you want to achieve through

social media and make a note of 1 to 3 goals.2) Start profiling 1 or 2 target audiences.

What conversation is taking place? Identify the “thought leaders” in your field -

start with Twitter, Academia.edu or ResearchGate What are they talking about?Where are they saying it? What tools are

they using?Keep track (“follow”) the topics, people and

sites that are leading the conversation that is relevant to you.

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What tools will you use?To start with, pick 1 or 2 core tools (e.g.

LinkedIn, Twitter) and concentrate on doing them well.

Plan to add new tools as you grow in confidence.

Map out which tools you will use now and which you will work towards using later.

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What tools will you use?

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Storytelling

Resource finding/sharing

Disseminating research

Networking

Blogging Twitter LinkedIn Academia / ResearchGate

Facebook Flickr Slideshare Pinterest YouTube

What content will you share? Identify the content you already have to

share, as well as the content you plan to develop.

Is it primarily news updates, research developments, networking information, opinion pieces? Images? Videos?

List the content you are planning to share via your social media outlets.

Also think how often you will publish content.

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Activity 4

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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In pairs:1) Discuss the social media tools that you think

may be most relevant to you.2) Identify the content you already have.

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Measuring and evaluating success

 Photo by Tormod Ulsberg (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Possible measures of success

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Web analytics

MentionsLikes

Followers

Retweets

Comments

Downloads

Shares

Bookmarks

However, remember that engagement is more than just

numbers!

Connections

Views

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Useful tools for measuring success

“Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the "Klout Score", which is a numerical value between 1 and 100.” Wikipedia

klout.com

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Useful tools for measuring success

“Hootsuite is a social media management tool that allows you to manage multiple social profiles, schedule messages, track brand mentions, analyze social media traffic and more.”hootsuite.com

Evaluate your activitiesSet a timeline for evaluating your social

media activities.As part of your evaluation, consider:

What is working. What is not working. What changes you need to make. New tools you could be using.

On-going evaluation should be part of your strategy.

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5 suggestions for getting started

 Photo by rachaelvoorhees (CC BY 2.0)

1: Create a professional profile

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Use your own name or choose a simple and descriptive name that clearly identifies your affiliation with the University, research project or organisation.

Write a short biography (including your skills and expertise) of yourself or your group/project.

Prepare a professional looking photo of yourself or use a group/project logo.

2: Join LinkedIn

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1. Create a LinkedIn profile

2. Consider your skills and add keywords

3. Add a photo to your profile

4. Edit your public URL and add it to your email signature

5. Join groups of interest to you

6. Add projects to your profile

7. Link SlideShare to your profile

8. Add publications to your profile

9. Blog good practice and tips

10.Connect with people!

3: Join Twitter

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1. Read the LSE Twitter guide (goo.gl/Sg6ST).

2. Create a Twitter profile.3. Consider your skills and add

keywords.4. Add a photo to your profile.5. Find and follow some relevant

people.

6. Search (use twubs.com) for relevant hashtags* and save them.

7. Use Lists to organise people and organisations you follow.

8. Use hootsuite.com to view and manage your lists and saved hashtags.

9. Re-tweet relevant tweets so your followers can see them.

9 tips to develop your Twitter presence:

* Start with these hashtags: #phdchat, #ecrchat, #scitwittips, #acadtwitter, #digitalacademic, #phdadvice, #research

4: Join an academic social network

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researchgate.net

www.academia.edu

4: Join an academic social network

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researchgate.net

www.academia.edu

www.piirus.com

5: Start blogging

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1. Read other people’s blogs and learn from them.

2. You don’t have to start your own blog, you can be a guest blogger - e.g. theconversation.com, www.huffingtonpost.co.uk, www.theguardian.com/science/blog

3. Use wordpress.com to set up your own blog.

4. Limit yourself to a maximum of 500 words (at least to start with).

5. Write regularly.

6. Monitor and reply to comments when appropriate.

7. Decide what you are going to blog about – e.g. research progress, opinion piece, book review, test new ideas, publications, etc.

8. Make use of your About page to tell who you are and the purpose of your blog.

9. Write in plain English.10.Share writing with colleagues if

the blog is for a group.

10 tips for blogging:

5: Start blogging - examples

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jonathansaha.wordpress.com

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/professor-sarah-childs

Case study: PolicyBristol (Kat Wall)

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Questions and answers

 Photo by Clarkston SCAMP (CC BY 2.0)

Where to find more information List of resources:

bundlr.com/b/developing-a-social-media-strategy-for-researchers

Connect with Bristol: www.bristol.ac.uk/connect/ UoB Social media directory:

www.bristol.ac.uk/connect/directory/ How to maintain social media channels at UoB:

www.bristol.ac.uk/style-guides/web/how/social/ Research Information Network – Social Media: A

guide for researchersrin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

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Credits and licenceSome of the ideas in this presentation are based on the work of others: “Who do you really think you are?” UCISA keynote, by Sue

Beckingham, Sheffield Hallam University (http://goo.gl/RCQc1S)

“Social Media for Research” CAURA 2013, by Krista Jensen, KMb Unit, York University (http://goo.gl/ORXqRW)

This presentation is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).

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