Using Social Media to Communicate Your Research

Stephanie (Charlie) Farley, Social Media Officer

http://edina.ac.uk/

Scottish Crucible, 21st April 2016, Edinburgh

Introduction

What is Social Media?• Social Media are any websites that allow you to contribute, to

engage, and 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, Periscope, Meerkat– Facebook– Google+– Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, Giphy, etc.– LinkedIn, Academia.edu, etc.– Mendeley, Delicious, Diigo, Reddit, etc.– FigShare– Stack Overflow, Jelly, GitHub

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, track news and events in your field, build a network, find peer support and advice.

• Video or Audio - brings clarity to complex concepts quickly. Well-made short videos or animations can communicate complex concepts quickly, accessibly, and in engaging sharable ways.

• Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, etc. – images bring a project to life. Research is about people, ideas, events, collaboration, equipment - images make your ideas, achievements and discoveries far more tangible.

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…

Facebook: I Fucking Love Science

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Blogs: The Conversation

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Twitter & Vine: #6secondscience

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Multiple Platforms: Joe Hanson

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Multiple Platforms: Joe Hanson

Planning Social Media Use• What do you want to achieve? Do you have

specific goals? What do you want to share about your research.

• Identify and locate your audience(s): who do you want to reach? Where do they hang out online? How is your work relevant to their interests?

• Be pragmatic - what best fits your project’s style, expertise, and time availability?

• Brand your presences and apply this consistently across all your accounts.

• Keep up to date and relevant, review their effectiveness, and ensure they represent your work as you want it to be seen.

Planning Social Media Content• Complete your profile information. Interlink your

accounts and always link back to your definitive research profiles and project websites.

• Be consistent – both in your content and its regularity.

• Listen to and engage with the audiences you are reaching out to.

• Be creative – what social media tools could help you to communicate in new ways? Don’t be afraid to try something new.

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.

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_Handbook_2012.pdf.

• 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/

Managing Your Identity OnlineUseful 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/• 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• IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/ • Hootsuite: https://hootsuite.com/ • TweetDeck: https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/