Twitter for Researchers

TwitterBecoming a Networked Researcher 2015 Ned Potter Academic Liaison #yorksocmed An Introduction to

Aim of today: explore what Twitter is, how it relates to academia in general, and how it can be USEFUL to researchers specifically.

Whatis Twitter?

Twitter is social media and social media is part of Web 2.0 – the interactive and participatory side of the internet. It’s basically people exchanging stuff (most often opinions) – a LOT of stuff.

(Click the image to see just how much stuff, in real time)

Twitter is a social network which allows users to exchange public messages of 140 characters or less, known as Tweets. It’s easy to tweet, via:

Tweets can be entirely text-based or they can contain multimedia such as images or video, and links to anything online.

Your tweets are seen by other Twitter users who follow you; you see the tweets of users you follow. You can quickly build up a network of peers with shared interests. There are around half a billion Twitter users worldwide (225 million of whom are active on a monthly basis). It works like this:

THREETwitter MYTHS

1: YOU CAN’T SAY ANYTHING IN 140 CHARACTERS. Yes you can, because Twitter is meant to be a conversation rather than a broadcast. It’s easy to ask, and answer, questions in 140 characters or less.

2: IT’S JUST PEOPLE SAYING WHAT THEY HAD FOR LUNCH. No it isn’t – only celebrities really do that, because they have so many followers that meaningful dialogue isn’t really possible. For the rest of us, it’s a conversation.

3: THERE’S NO POINT IN MY BEING THERE AS I DON’T KNOW ANYONE ON IT. Firstly you probably do know people on it (search for your peers’ names) but secondly Twitter is a great leveller – it provides the chance to engage with people you don’t know, including the leaders in your field. (As someone said, Facebook is where you lie to your friends, Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers.)

Whyuse Twitter?

Because highly tweeted articles are 11 times more likely to be cited than less-tweeted articles Eyesenbach, 2011, Can tweets predict citations? Journal of Medical Internet Research 13 (4) Hat-tip to Michelle Dalton – see http://t.co/6MV8xQEujV for more stats.

To build a scholarly network (or several), quickly and dynamically

To keep up to date in real time, with your field, with HE, with the wider world

To share resources

Because Twitter is full* of like- minded people

Infographic by Katie Pratt (@katie_phd)

Also Twitter is FUN.

Time to get started. Go to Twitter.com and follow the instructions in PART 1 the hand- out, Setting Up Your Account.

Time to get started. Go to Twitter.com and follow the instructions in PART 1 the hand- out, Setting Up Your Account. Hello, Slideshare! You can find the handout we used in the session on Scribd – just click the screen to go straight there…

Click the pic for some more academic perspectives

www.storify.com is perhaps the tool for recording useful Twitter discourse

How it works:

Keyconcepts defined

Tweet: your tweet is your message. 140 characters. Seen by a: your followers who happen to be online at the time and b: anyone who happens to look at your profile, and potentially c: by the followers of anyone who ReTweets it. ReTweet: if you RT someone else’s tweet, it will appear in your timeline and your followers can see it. Being ReTweeted yourself is a really good thing – it means your ideas are being exposed to new networks.

@reply: you can converse directly with someone by putting their username (beginning with @) into your tweet – this will ensure the tweet shows up in their ‘@ replies’. Your tweets will be seen by anyone following both you AND the person with whom you’re conversing. (In other words, you don’t see every tweet from every person you follow – Twitter filters out the noise.)

Hashtag: a #hashtag is a way to bring together disparate users on the same topic, without the tweets needing to know each other alredy. Hashtags can also be a way to archive conversations on a theme, and discuss events or conferences. You can click on any #hashtag (for example #altmetrics) and find all recent tweets which have included it. Direct Message: a DM is a private message, within the network, which only you and the recipient see.

E.g. Academic Tweeters

Find Tweeters by discipline: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/02/academic-tweeters-your-suggestions-in-full/

@uniofyork is the main account of the University @UoYLibrary is the Library’s account @UoYITServices is the IT services account @RDT_York is the Researcher Development Team account @TFTV_YORK is the TFTV account, one of the many Departments on Twitter @UoYEvents is the account for Events at York @UoY_Yorkshare is the VLE team’s account Departmental tweeters: @timeshighered is the Times Higher’s very active account @lseimpactblog is the LSE Impact Blog’s account (don’t be put off by the name, it’s relevant to all researchers interested in Web 2.0 tools) @gdnhighered is the Guardian’s Higher Education account Wider HE tweeters:

Some researchers explain why they find Twitter useful Pete Smith:

Some researchers explain why they find Twitter useful Lauren Smith:

Some researchers explain why they find Twitter useful Jon Tennant:

Some researchers explain why they find Twitter useful Kellie Jaremko – why I love Twitter as a scientist:

Some researchers explain why they find Twitter useful Kellie Jaremko – advice for Tweeting

More hands-on time. Follow the instructions in PART 2 the hand-out, Exploring Twitter further.

well Tweeting

Above all, remember it’s not about broadcasting, it’s about conversation! All the other rules can be broken.

Consider the 1 in 4 rule* Tweets directly about your work Content

Consider the 1 in 4 rule* Tweets directly about your work *actually it’s more of a guideline… A ReTweet? A link to something useful?A reply? Content

Embrace the smartphone! (Soon there will only BE smartphones so you may as well get started now.) Content

Embrace the smartphone! (Soon there will only BE smartphones so you may as well get started now.) Imagine the people reading your Tweets are not just in your building, but on the train, in the supermarket queue, at conferences or events. Twitter doesn’t have to be something people MAKE TIME for. Content

Don’t just make statements, ask questions. Content

Try not to think of it as purely personal or purely professional – it works better when it’s both. (Personally I think it works well when you major in professional and minor in personal…) Tone

Spell things correctly, don’t use text-speak, ensure proper grammar and syntax – but the tone is friendly and approachable. Tone

Ultimately the tone on Twitter is roughly akin to how you would address your peers face- to-face (as opposed to in print). Are you friendly, irreverent, sarcastic, enthusiastic, rude? That’s how you should be on Twitter. Tone

Logistics How often should you tweet? Targets can often backfire – tweet when you have something to say, and don’t when you don’t.

That said, the more people tweet, the bigger their network.* The bigger their network, the more they get out of Twitter. Logistics

Analyse your Tweets There are a million and one Twitter stats packages online – choose the ones which give you information you can ACT on. E.G. use http://tweetstats.com to check how often you’re replying and RTing, and WHEN you’re Tweeting… Logistics

Finally: you need to actually tell people you’re there.

Finally: you need to actually tell people you’re there. @username on your business cards on your PowerPoint presentations on your name-badge at conferences in your email signature

Any questions, comments, ideas, plans?

Thanks for coming! More on ‘Becoming a Networked Researcher’ can be found at http://www.york.ac.uk/library/info- for/researchers/networked/ The RDT webpages are at http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/researcher- development/ The slides (with a link to an online version of this hand-out) can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/UniofYorkLibrary/ Absolutely every picture via www.iconfinder.com

Twitter for Researchers

University of York Library

Twitter for Researchers