Using Social Media to Develop Your Academic Profile and

Engage Others in Your Research

Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer

http://edina.ac.uk/

Social Media session for Informatics Researchers, 18th June 2013

Introduction

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– Facebook– Google+– Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.– LinkedIn, Academia.edu, etc.– Mendeley, Delicious, Diigo, etc.– FigShare

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.

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.

• Flickr, Pinterest, Instagram 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.

This Time It’s Personal…

• Social media are about people, personality and quirkiness.

• They allow use of links, images, video, audio, and other multimedia to bring a topic to life.

• They are designed to nurture communities, networks, peer support, sharing, participation and collaboration.

• Often used on mobile phones – crossing personal and professional spaces, places and times. http://lookslikescience.tumblr.com/

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.

Some examples…

Blogs: Trading Consequences

http://bit.ly/NhvkRj

Blogs: What’s on my Blackboard?

http://whatsonmyblackboard.wordpress.com/

Blogs: Mary Beard

http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/

Blogs: LSE Impact of Social Sciences

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/

Blogs: Steven Gray’s Big Data Toolkit

http://bigdatatoolkit.org/

Facebook: I F***ing Love Science

https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience

Twitter: Joe Hanson

https://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe

Twitter: Nora McGregor

https://twitter.com/ndalyrose/

Pinterest: Creating Artificial Intelligence

http://pinterest.com/rakirk/creating-artificial-intelligence/

Planning Social Media Use• Consider what goals you want to achieve, 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?

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.

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.

• Similarly do not share location information that might compromise your own safety or that of your colleagues.

• 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.

Possible Next Steps (1)

• Think about the audience(s) you want to engage with your research or your professional presence.– Who should you be writing or creating content for? – Is there anything special/particular they will want or need

from that presence?

• What do your professional peers or influential people in your field do with social media? – What works well (or poorly) for them? – Are they using social media sites/tools you feel you should

also be present in? – Are there any ideas you want to apply to your own presence?

Possible Next Steps (2)

• Think about planning suitable content.– What content do you have available and want to highlight in

your own professional/research presence?– What existing web and social media presences do you have?

Could they be better connected to each other?– Can your publications, research methods or data be shared?– What would a successful presence look like?

• How will you maintain any presence you set up?– What time do you have available to keep a presence up to

date?– How will you keep the quality and frequency of updates up. – What are your goals for the presence and how will you

measure success.

Q&A

Questions?

Useful Resources• LSE. 2013. Impact of Social Sciences blog.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/

• 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 

• Osborne, N. 2013. Social Media [resource sheet]. Available from: http://nicolaosborne.blogs.edina.ac.uk/files/2010/10/SocialMedia2013-worksheet.pdf

• Patel, S. 2011. 10 ways researchers can use Twitter. In Networked Researcher, 3 rd 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/

Managing Your Identity Online

Useful Search Engines for Social Media

• 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/

• Whos talkin: http://whostalkin.com/

• Social Mention: http://www.socialmention.com/

• IceRocket: http://www.icerocket.com/

• Twitter Search: https://twitter.com/#!/search-home

• Topsy: http://topsy.com/

Useful Tools for Automatic Checking and Task Management

• Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts

• Tweetbeep: http://tweetbeep.com/

• IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/