Presentation given at the NTU Psychology away day 2013 about the use of social media as a research / academic tool and as part of a wider set of skills or literacies often referred to as 'digital literacy'.

1. Why SoMe?
Social media in an academic research context.
Rob Knight
Information Systems
Nottingham Trent University
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_examining_fan_of_Langley_Research_Center_16_foot_transonic_wind_tunnel.jpg

3. Social Media Use 2013
(UK)
• 33 mil Facebook accounts, just over 53% of the population and 62% of the online population (UK)
• 34 mil Twitter accounts, 81.1% have 50 or less followers and 74.1% follow 50 or less (UK). Small personal networks.
• <11 mil Linkedin accounts, professional target market. 79% over 35 (UK) only SoMe where male demographic largest
• Pinterest biggest growing SoMe tool for 2012, 200,000 UK users compared to 12 mil US.
• Google + stats limited considering Google’s analytics…….. 135 million active accounts worldwide.
• Instagram has limited traffic in UK with only 1.46% of total UK SoMe traffic.
• >70 mil WordPress blogs world wide, 29% from the EU (July 2011)
* Source service providers & http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2013/01/08/uk-social-media-statistics-for-2013/

5. • Digital authorship
• Social & Digital curation
• Networking
• PLN’s
• Enhance research impact
• Build stronger, wider professional networks
• Extend the reach of your work
• Do better more relevant research
Source: Social Media for research impact by Mark Reed.
e:mark.reed@bcu.ac.uk

6. Research Impact & SoMe
• The demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to
society and the economy (HEFCE)
• For your research to have impact, people have to engage with it, and
act upon it.
• People learn best from other people like them, who they trust.
• Wider audience>Engage>Learn>Apply
• Social Learning…..
*Source: Social Media for research impact by Mark Reed (Aberdeen CES)

7. Social Learning
A Change in understanding
That goes beyond the individual
to become situated in social groups
Via social
interaction
Reed, M. S., A. C. Evely, G. Cundill, I. Fazey, J. Glass, A. Laing, J. Newig, B. Parrish, C. Prell, C. Raymond, and L. C. Stringer. 2010. What is social
learning? Ecology and Society 15(4): r1. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/resp1/

8. Personal Learning Networks
*Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubun/2703828679/

9. Research Blogging
*Source: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0050109. Citation: Fausto S, Machado FA, Bento LFJ, Iamarino A, Nahas TR, et al. (2012) Research Blogging: Indexing and Registering the
Change in Science 2.0. PLoS ONE 7(12): e50109. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050109

10. Social Media Guidance
• Think before you post
• Material published online may have the potential to be available
publicly, indefinitely
• Don’t engage in any conduct online that would not be acceptable in
the workplace or that is unlawful
• Be judicious and consider social media content carefully
• Make it clear that the opinions expressed are solely those of the
author and do not represent the views of the University
• Support academic use
• Support collaborative use
*Source: NTU Social Media Policy https://portal.ntu.ac.uk/relations_reward/policies_procedures/Pages/documents.aspx?RootFolder=%2Frelations%5Freward%2Fpolicies%5Fprocedures%2FDocuments%2FSocial
%20Media&FolderCTID=0x012000011034941A0370408FF131ADAA7B58A6&View={71B67BFA-AE51-413E-8407-9962ED6BD76C}

11. Developing ‘Digital Literacies’
we all need new literacies
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•
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Social Networking
Privacy maintenance
Identity management
Creating content
Organising content
Reusing, re-purposing, remixing content
Broadcasting
Transliteracy
*Source: Social Media, Learning ... and the 'Always On' Generation by Steve Wheeler. e: swheeler@plymouth.ac.uk / t: @timbuckteeth

12. Digital Literacies & SoMe
*Source: http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/03/23/my-tedx-talk-on-the-essential-elements-ofdigital-literacies-video/#.T3A9nmGoPiw
*Source: http://www.teachthought.com/technology/4-principals-of-digital-literacy/

13. How?: SoMe use development
*Source: http://johnantonios.com/2010/02/06/the-social-media-hierarchy-of-needs/

14. SoMe!........ So why not?
Without social media connections I simply
wouldn’t have been able to
be in a research community like someone
campus-based.
Alun Salt (Archaeoastronomist)
I recently used a wiki with a couple of colleagues
to put together a funding
proposal. Even though we met up face-to-face, it
was useful for collaborative
editing of texts, sharing and discussing ideas
generally.
Andrew Coverdale, (PhD Student, Education)
I often get information about my job and research
from online sources, blogs,
twitter, comments, which might point me towards
more traditional pieces that
I should read.
Cameron Neylon (Senior Scientist, Biophysics)
I now have a network of individuals who I respect
and am confident in their
work. The network discovers and filters and
discusses. I have connected my
research to the real world in a way that would not
have been so easy before
and maybe not possible.
Terry Wassall (Principal Teaching Fellow, Sociology)
Usage feedback
I believe that social media have made me a better
researcher because I think a good
researcher needs to be able not only to do the
research but needs to be able to communicate,
and formulate ideas and arguments with other
people from the same field or people they
know. For example, a lot of my work uses clinical
trial samples and if I hadn’t read about the
importance of blinding my results I would have
analysed my data un-blinded as suggested by
one of my supervisors, and this could have
skewed my results.
Alexander Davenport (Research Assistant, Hemato-oncology)
My network is comprised of people I know,
people I know from their blogs or
online presence who I haven’t met in person.
Chris Jobling (Lecturer, Engineering)
*Source: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminatingresearch/social-media-guide-researchers

15. Thank You
e:
www:
t:
Rob.knight@ntu.ac.uk
www.rkphotographic.com
https://twitter.com/Axeman3uk