The presentation provides reasons for using social media in research activities and communication. Various social media are linked to the Research Life Cycle. The original presentation was held at a research group meeting at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, June 2014.

1. Social Media for
Research Communication
Anand Sheombar
Lectoraat Process Innovation & Information Systems
@anandstweets

2. Contents
 What are Social media
 Social Media for Research Communication
 Academic Research Cycle
 Examples
 Managing your Digital Profile

3. Social Media’s Many Varieties

4. What are Social Media?
 The terms social media, social networks
(SNSs) and web 2.0 are often interchanged
(Parameswaran, 2007; Iriberri & Leroy, 2009).
 Definitions share characteristics: openness,
participation, connectedness and community
(Mayfield, 2008).
 Social media in the context of RESEARCH
also has these attributes:
 connecting;
 collaborating;
 creating and sharing;
 finding, using, organising and reusing.

5. Social Media Across The World

6. Social Media & The Netherlands
Source:Newcom Research & Consultancy

7. Benefits of Social Media for
Research Communication
• promote your research and
increase its visibility
• communicate directly and
quickly with others who
have an interest in your
research
• develop new relationships
and build networks
• reach new audiences, both
within and outside
academia
• seek and give advice and
feedback
• generate ideas
• share information and links,
e.g. journal articles and
news items
• keep up-to-date with the
latest news and
developments, and forward
it to others instantly
• follow and contribute to
discussions on events, e.g.
conferences that you can’t
get to in person
• express who you are as a
person.
Source: Economic and Social Research Council

8. Building a social media presence
 Building an online presence relevant and
interesting for fellow researchers and other
audiences
 Use your online presence to promote yourself
and your research
 Invest some time in building this presence,
particularly at the outset when you are trying
to build initial interest in your work
 Sustain your social media activity
Source: Economic and Social Research Council

9. Building Blocks of the
Networked Scholar
Source: Academics’ online presence

10. Which social media resources
should you use?
 Social media that work for you and that you
have time to devote to them
 Most common & effective: blogs & Twitter
 Other that are appropriate to your research,
e.g. YouTube channel for videos, or Flickr or
Pinterest for sharing image collections.
 Networking, career development e.g. LinkedIn
 Think of your goals and identify the social
media building blocks…
Source: Economic and Social Research Council

11. What social media tools do
academics use in their research?
CIBER, University College London report 2010

12. Academic Research Life Cycle
Source: Jisc

13. Suggestions for use of Social
Media in Research Life Cycle
Brainstorming
Find partners &
Collaboration
Reaching out
Crowd sourcing
Data collection
Preparing writing up
Disseminate published
Articles.
Find research papers

14. Assess your articles online
 Google Scholar
 Academia.edu
 ResearchGate.net
potential uses:
 Disseminate on the web your published
articles
 Find research papers
 Search for collaboration
 Share ideas

15. Online Referencing & Knowledge
Sharing on Literature
 Mendeley
 Zotero
 Refworks
 EndNote
potential uses:
 Disseminate on the web your published
articles
 Find research papers
 Search for collaboration

16. Using Twitter for research
projects
 Tweet about each new publication, website
update or new blog that the project completes
 Use hashtags (#) to make your materials
more visible
 Twitter provides many opportunities for
‘crowd sourcing’ research activities
 Reaching out to external audiences
 Showing the growth in your followers and the
number of people who read your research
blog can also be helpful for funding
applications. Source: Using Twitter in university research, teaching
and impact activities. Mollett et. al, 2011

17. Example: Social Media useful for
research discussions PhD
students
 Twitter #phdchat
 Promovendi Netwerk
facebook group
 YouTube

18. Me Using Social Media as a PhD student
 Curating [FB, Scoop.it; Pinterest]
 Networking (trust building)
[Twitter; facebook; Linkedin]
 Knowledge exchange [Facebook;
scoop.it;
 Research data collection [Twitter;
facebook; YouTube, etc.]

19. 4-Step Approach
Academics’ online presence

20. Why manage your digital profile?
Goodier and Czerniewicz 2012
Wednesday, June 04, 2014 20

21. Academics’ online presence Goodier and Czerniewicz 2012

22. Useful Resources
 Goodier and Czerniewicz (2012) Academics’ Online
Presence: A four step guide to taking control of your
visibility, Open UCT Initiative, University of Capetown
http://openuct.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/Online%20Visibility
%20Guidelines.pdf
 LSE blog on impact of social sciences (resources for social
media)
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/resources/
 Mollet et. Al (2011) Using Twitter in university research,
teaching and impact activities
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/files/2011/11/P
ublished-Twitter_Guide_Sept_2011.pdf
 Cann et. Al (2011) Social media: A guide for researchers
http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-
disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

23. Anand Sheombar
@anandstweets
nl.linkedin.com/in/anandsheombar
www.facebook.com/groups/SoMe4D
anand.sheombar@hu.nl
mmu.academia.edu/AnandSheombar