Took place on the 4th July 2012 at the University of Southampton. Described here: http://theculturalheritageweb.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/social-media-for-researchers-digital-literacies-conference/

1. Social Media for Researchers
#sotondiglit workshop
4th July 2012
Nicole Beale - @nicoleebeale
#sotondiglit

2. Getting to know one another
I do not have a I use social media all
social media the time, and feel
account comfortable negotiating
all tools and platforms
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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3. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

4. Brief Disclaimer
Wherever possible I have tried to acknowledge
where ideas have come from, with links to the
originating paper/blog post/etc.
Please let me know if you feel that I have
misrepresented something, or missed out an
acknowledgement.
The full recording of this presentation is available
here:
http://coursecast.soton.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/View
er/Default.aspx?id=c4394051-2574-4142-9431-
658206c11c95
#sotondiglit

5. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

6. What is social media?
• Decide on a definition for social media in your
group
• Identify key terms
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7. Social media is…
• “Internet services where the online content is
generated by the users of the service.”
– Quinnell, 2012
• “Social media are online communications in
which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly
between the role of audience and author. To do
this, they use social software that enables anyone
without knowledge of coding, to post, comment
on, share or mash up content and to form
communities around shared interests.”
– Thronley, 2008
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8. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

9. Why use social media?
• Identity
• Connection
• Sharing expertise
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10. Social media can…
• Expand your research network to increase
opportunities for collaboration, employment, funding,
discussion and research
• Access collective intelligence to become more
knowledgeable about your own fields of research
• Establish a reputation that demonstrates your
expertise and the significance and relevance of your
research
• Practice your debating, discussion and thinking skills
• To conduct research
-- Gillaspy, 2012
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11. How do you do it?
1. How do you make sense of your academic /
professional practice? i.e. what do you do?
2. How can social media support what you do?
3. How can social media disrupt what you do?
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12. Private vs. Public
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13. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

14. Research cycle
Identification
Dissemination Knowledge Creation
Quality
Assurance
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15. Knowledge identification
• Sharing information with many networks
simultaneously and consistently will help to
identify, manage and sort relevant knowledge
– Audience
– Wider dissemination
– Many to many networks
– Manage and organise
– Quality of access for others
-- Nelson, 2012
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16. Research cycle
Identification
Dissemination Knowledge Creation
Quality
Assurance
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17. Knowledge creation
• Utilizing and engaging multiple tools to create
knowledge and develop skill sets to manage
the information that has been identified.
– Gathering information for collaboration
– Build something
– Create original content
– Use different networks
-- Nelson, 2012
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18. Research cycle
Identification
Dissemination Knowledge Creation
Quality
Assurance
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19. Qualifying Knowledge
• Overcoming unknown hurdles of quality(REF for
current reference), which is in flux, and validating
its use and quality for knowledge.
– Ownership / Access
– Authorship, social media footprint - expert? Publishing
record?
– What determines experts or measuring quality
– Seeing comments then sharing that information
– Integration and interaction between author and
comments
-- Nelson, 2012
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20. Research cycle
Identification
Dissemination Knowledge Creation
Quality
Assurance
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21. Knowledge dissemination
• Engaging with a range of social media tools and censoring
ideology, knowledge and content amongst a variety of
audiences in and outside of academic institutions.
– How you spread information and how it is framed.
– How is knowledge discussed – legal considerations
– Exchanging information in the social sphere. - anonymous
sources.
– Terms and conditions on the social networks – Who owns the
content?
– Blogging as a way of individualizing yourself
– Branding / social media strategy
-- Nelson, 2012
#sotondiglit

22. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

23. (Micro)Blogging
• Blogger
• Plurk
• Posterous
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• Typepad
• Wordpress
• Yammer (University of Southampton)
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24. Blogging
• Regularly
– Become disciplined
• Informality
– Opportunites to explore different writing forms
• Generality
– Conveying complex information to non-specialists
• Contexts
– Risk (free)?
– Shape ideas and formulate thoughts and concepts
– Work in progress
– Raw material for thesis/conference/journalpapers
– Emphasis on personal experiences/perspectives/opinon
– Quinnell, 2012
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25. Using Twitter
• IN YOUR GROUP: 5 ways academics can use
Twitter
• BY YOURSELF: Your research in 140 characters
• IN YOUR GROUP: Read out your research in
140 characters to your group. Any changes
suggested?
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26. Wikipedia
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27. RSS
• Google Alerts
• Google Reader
• Google Analytics
• NetVibes
• FeedDemon
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28. Social bookmarking
• delicious
• Digg
• diigo
• Reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Pearltrees
• PinBoard
• Pinterest
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29. Social citation sharing
• CiteULike
• Connotea
• Mendeley
• Zotero
• Bibsonomy
• Google
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30. Media sharing
• SlideShare
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Scribd
• Flickr
• SoundCloud
• AudioBoo
• (Google Play / iTunes)
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31. Collaborative working
• Who do you collaborate with at the moment?
• What collaborative tools do you use and for what
purpose?
• How might social media tools improve your
collaborative practice?
• Are there any potential risks to using
collaborative working tools in an
academic/professional context?
– Ethical/Legal?
– Practical/Logistical?
– Quality assurance? -- Gillaspy, 2012
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32. Wisdom of the crowds
Surowieck’s principles essential for wisdom of
crowds:
1. Independence
– Everyone’s working on their own project
2. Diversity
– Drawn from a range of different
backgrounds/disciplines
3. Decentralisation
– Bringing people together who are funded and
managed in different ways
-- Surowieck, 2004
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33. Collaborative writing
• Dropbox
• Zoho Office Suite
• Etherpad:
– sync.in
– PrimaryPad
• Google Docs
• Wikis (WikiMatrix Wiki Choice Wizard):
– Wikispaces
– MediaWiki
– Wikia
– PBWorks
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34. Synchronous meetings
• Eventbrite
• Adobe Connect
• Bamboo
• BaseCamp
• BigBlueButton
• Citrix GotoMeeting
• DimDim
• Elluminate
• Huddle
• Skype
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35. Academic networks
• Methodspace
• Researchgate
• #phdchat
• Academia
• LinkedIn
• Meetup
• Lanyrd
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36. Academic / professional networks
• What does your research network look like at the moment?
• Who are the weak ties?
• How do you want your network to expand?
• Where are the greatest concentrations of people you want
to talk to?
• What value do you bring to the network?
• What are the risks of using social networking tools
(Ethical/Legal? Practical/Logistical? Quality assurance?)
-- Gillaspy, 2012
#sotondiglit

37. Content curation
• Paper.li
• Mural.ly
• Netvibes
• Storify
• Scoop.it
• PageFlakes
• iGoogle
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38. Open access
• Open access journals
• Figshare
• Academia
• Scribd
• Eprints
• Nanopublishing
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39. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

40. Strategy
• Aggregate
• Filter
• Connect
-- Kastelle, 2010
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41. Filtering
Judgement
Naive Expert Network
Based Filtering:
Amount of information
Mechanical Heuristic Algorithmic
Filtering:
-- Kastelle, 2010
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42. Using tags
There are some things to consider when using tags:
• Personal:
– Personal organisation / management of bookmarks, searchable
tag list / cloud
• Group:
– Participatory / democratic knowledge base
• Social:
– Use as search engine, keyword / user search other user
bookmarks, subscriptions / networks
intrapersonal & interpersonal
– Quinnell, 2012
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43. Strategy
Aggregating Filtering Connecting
Synchronyous
Social Meetings
RSS
Bookmarking
Collaborative
Writing
Social
Academic
Citation Content
Networks
Sharing Curation
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44. Strategy
• Team
• Primary Goals
• Measuring Success
• Audiences
• Current Conversation
• Content
• Name and Design – Branding, Affiliation
• Evaluation (timeline, realign)
-- Research Impact Project, KMb Unit, University of York,
2012
Social Media Governance – social media policy database,
including some universities.
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45. Digital professionalism
What not to share:
• Think of two things that you would share
about your research, and two things that you
wouldn’t share about your research.
• Discuss in the group why you made these
decisions.
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46. Ethical considerations
• Intellectual Property
• Copyright
• Creative Commons Licensing
• GNU General Public License
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47. Evaluating credibility
• Use citation metrics – e.g. Publish or Perish
• Use advice – e.g. Twitter Journalism
• Use network curated content – e.g. Public
Insight Network
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48. Social media analytics
• Personas
• Tiny.ly – real time sharing and usage stats
• Bit.ly
• Ow.ly
• Google Analytics
• Klout
• TrustCloud
• Twuffer
• TweetStats
#sotondiglit

49. This workshop
• Define social media
• Why we use social media
• Social media in the context of the research cycle
• Social media tools/platforms
• Designing a strategy
– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;
Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations
• Spreading the word
#sotondiglit

50. What we could do
• Raise awareness of range of tools and their
usefulness for different scenarios
• Examples of successful use and good practice
• Guidelines for training, enabling informed
decision making
• Standards for and advice on curation and
preservation.
-- University of Bath, The Connected Researcher
project
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51. Get Involved
Email me nicoleebeale@gmail.com
Tweet me @nicoleebeale
#sotondiglit