A guide to how use twitter as an academic and a researcher

1. How I use Twitter
(Twitter workshop)
Twitter

2. Who I am
Mother
Academic
Enjoyer of
Social
Media
Promoter /
(Wife)
Researcher
Active in
Local
Community
GroupsWider
Community
Activity That last one is important
I’ve been active online since I was 12
My online persona is as much a part of
me as anything else I do
It’s been cultivated and managed since
thenNia Wearn, Games Design, Resident Nerd
You can find me on most
Social Media as Wormella

3. I see twitter like a
fabulous cocktail
party
Put on your best
dress, drop in an
out of
conversations, lurk
and earwig on
others, make
friends, introduce
people you know,
swap between silly
conversations and
sensible ones..

4. I’ve been at this fabulous party for 8 years
Some things have changed the same:
Same Job @StaffsUni
Same Husband @PistolPeteWearn
Same picture of Batgirl as my profile
picture
I've been fairly consistent twitter usage
in that time - one account but it has to
do a lot of work
My First Tweet

5. I actually use twitter for lots of different things every day
Stafford District
Arts Council
Stafford Ladies
Circle
Staffs Games
Tech
Stafford Community
Wardrobe
Stafford branch of the
Clandestine Cake Club
My son has his own
twitter account – he
tweets about stuff he
does #todayinnursery
Afternoon Play (Birmingham’s
premier boardgame club)At one point I thought it
would be funny to
tweet on behalf of a
butternut squash in my
fridge
This many accounts takes a
certain level of discipline
They all their own ‘voice’
Some have their own
guidelines to work towards
Some of them are tweeted
by multiple people
With this in mind my own
account is precious to me

6. @wormella – Why only one account for me??
(I’ve only got one Facebook account too)
I love the points where tweeters overlap, or those little gems that emerge from
talking to the person as opposed to the persona.
- Which isn't to say I tweet everything
- I often retweet things – depends on my mood
- What I actually put online is carefully curated
- I don’t use it for directly marketing things like our courses or social groups
- I don’t use any social media for negative posts, ever
I strongly believe in an authentic voice on social media, as you would in real life
I’m rubbish at taking selfies
I take a lot of pictures of food (but not
good ones)
I don’t tend to let games etc post to
twitter

8. What do I use it for?
Communication
Community building
Silly things
Follow what’s happening
Promoting Myself
Other promotional /
community building
aspects
Personal Tweets

9. Everyone loves a kitchen makeover
People like
talking –
even grown
up sensible
people like to
chat
@mthwgeek is
an editor at
geek.com
@darbotron
Runs Arch
Creatives in
Leamington Spa

10. People I follow
Friends & Family & local things
Staffs Uni People & students
News Services
Fellow Academics & researchers
Brands & Companies
Interesting accounts – publications, conferences
Parody and Comedy accounts
Interesting people I admire
Industry people
(I used to organise them into lists – I gave up on that)

11. Who Follows Me
To be perfectly honest I don’t really pay attention to this – I scan it occasionally for
interesting people I should be following but I’m not.
I keep two thing in mind when I tweet:
1) Everything lasts for ever on the internet
2) My Mother-in-law is watching
I don’t get caught up on analytics either

12. Why use Twitter as a researcher?
Twitter is my semi constant companion (that I can switch off)
It’s very useful for real-time events like conferences
It’s so full of cool and interesting people
It takes a lot of effort to pump out witty tweets
It isn’t full of tedious ‘banter’
It seems less invasive then Facebook and more personal then LinkedIn.
It quite often makes me smile
I’m incredibly nosy – twitter helps feed this =D

13. Things I like
So much of my life / teaching / research overlaps
it makes sense to only have 1 account
I’ll save interesting things for later – very useful if
I’m on my phone and I see something cool
It means my likes are a little bit of everything – in
line with the rest of my posts
It also means RT’s can be a little random too –
as can conversations that happen because of
posts.

14. Classic conference usage: Pre Tweets & Promotion
I’ve got a panel accepted on a
conference in August – a quick
tweet that generated a RT from the
conference and a little bit of love
on Twitter (from some staff &
students, the other panellists and
other people I know will be at the
conference)
Why Tweet?
It’s a quick reminder to everyone that I’m
doing things and I’m an active part of my field
It’s the kind of conference where the
social media isn’t an afterthought
There’s a facebook page & event up
too – but that goes hand in hand with
the world I work in

15. Classic conference usage: Follow the Hashtag
Classic issue – where you let people construct a hashtag – remember this if you ever host an event
Co-Author actually
at the conference
It’s worth bookmarking hashtags
for conferences to go over later.
It’s a great way to see who is
active in your field at a specific
conference
Sometimes it can take a little bit
of detective work.
Someone else who was there also collected all of his tweets on a ‘storify’

16. Research usage - #StaffsPGR
I like to think of it as our little staffs uni club
house for all the cool research peeps
The community feeling and support is a good
thing – and a useful nudge at times.
It’s nice to see what other people are doing at
the university – I’m keen to be part of an active
research community at the university.
I think it’s important the outside world see what
we’re up to as well (this is the downside of cosy
little Facebook groups)

17. Research Usage - #niaphd
I use twitter as my personal PhD aide-memoire
- Things I’ve seen of interest or relevance
- Musings
- Reminders to the outside world – and myself
– that I am doing things on top of everything
else
- Pulls together my thoughts – quickly (and
publically – which I find helpful for
accountability)
- Makes me feel part of something bigger

18. Research Usage – Data Collection
I’m stating to see innovative uses of Twitter for research
One of my co-authors on a paper did a ‘sentiment’ analysis on game jams themes
I’ve used it myself to try and collect data and quick thoughts’ – but found
engagement was low in my particular study
What I did get out of it was interesting and seemed truthful
I’m still working out how to engage subjects (and my students) with Twitter
There’s some much potential beyond networking and procastination

19. How do I tweet?
On the Go:- Smart Phone (I’ve got
a Samsung Galaxy S5)
I actually use the twitter app
because it allows me to easily swap
accounts
At a Desk:-
My @wormella account is always
logged in
I also use Tweetdeck on my PC –
very useful for searches, hashtags &
multiple accounts
I’ve actually played with a lot of
different apps over the years for
twitter and twitter / facebook
integration but I’ve found the
official Twitter app to be the best.
I just use a link to the mobile
version of facebook to save
space on my phone now

20. How do I tweet – At a Conference
Always Tweet Something If there’s a Hashtag (and especially if there’s a ‘twitter wall’
and tweets with that hashtag are posted up in the room
Sometime these tweets are about lighter things (or the buffet)
If I can I’ll tweet about travelling to a conference too
Conference accounts are run by people too –
probably the person in charge – someone worth
being noticed by
I find tweets a useful hook for networking (usually
over lunch) – or the person you want to talk to is
surrounded by others and you can’t get to them – or
your having another equally wonderful conversation
with someone.
It’s also useful to follow up with people after the fact.

21. At a Conference cont…
I sometimes take photos and post them up,
sometimes I try and tweet useful things but I
find I get distracted if I’m trying to do too many
things.
Usually I take a notebook and squiggle notes
as I go – If I get a chance I’ll write this up on
my blog – my blog posts also outputs to twitter
I also do a few other housekeeping things:
Follow people who also tweet about the
conference
Follow anyone for panels and presentations
I’ve enjoyed / found interesting
If I’ve met someone / got a business card I
follow that up on LinkedIn.
If I really like someone and find them an
interesting human being and it seems
appropriate I’ll add them on Facebook.
If it’s an academic on my field I’ll follow them
on Research Gate / Academia.Edu
I’ll try and do this at the end of every day if I
can – but I don’t leave it too long
Any of these things gives the person in
question a notification – useful to remember.

22. Why the Twitter Love? Drop in Drop Out
I have limited head space for research (and limited time too)
I’m also pretty lonely as one of a handful of researchers in my department
Twitter gives me the chance to drop in and out of the research headspace
I can in a second get an overview of what everyone else in my field is up to
(What ever field that happens to be today)
Sometimes it also give me a break to see what’s happening outside of my field

23. Twitter downfalls?
It’s not great for file sharing
Things move quickly – if you like it – click the heart!
If you post something you’ve no idea what will happen to
it (probably nothing – but you never know)
Everything can be a little bit transient - which is also a
good thing
Facebook groups are better for a lot of conversation and
sharing elements – but they can a little bit overwhelming
You can pick it up, and put it down – but don’t forget
about it

25. Accounts I love – here’s 50 suggestions
https://twitter.com/Wormella/lists/twitter-workshop/members
And of course you can find me online
@wormella
=D