This document discusses using social media to promote the Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (GtoPdb) and G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) databases. It notes that social media, altmetrics, open access, and open data are central to the current revolution in scholarly communication. The document then provides details on the social media presence and growth of the GtoPdb Facebook page and Twitter account. It also discusses using individual Twitter accounts and reciprocal interactions to expand reach. Other topics covered include using altmetrics for immediate impact assessment, open access statistics, maintaining blogs, leveraging networks on LinkedIn, using SlideShare for post-conference exposure, and rankings on Google.

1. www.guidetopharmacology.org
Getting it out there:
Social media for GtoPdb and GPCRDB
Dr Christopher Southan
For the Gloriam Group, University of Copenhagen
May 2015
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2. Introduction
• Scientists are like genes; they only get noticed when they
express themselves
• We are in the midst of a web-enabled revolution in
scholarly communication
• This revolution cannot be precisely circumscribed but
Social Media, Altmetrics, Open Access and Open Data
are central strands
• There are successful scientists who to appear to ignore all
this (but they probably delegate)
• The rest of us need to engage as teams and individuals
• Adeptness at this is becoming career-enhancing
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3. Tools of the revolution
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4. Team Social Media: TheApril 2015 GtoPdb report
• 2913 ‘likes’, up from 532 in October 2014
• 589 followers, up from 496 in October 2014
• We now have a blog on WordPress, with 23 posts as of
April 2015
• Our SlideShare account includes slide sets and posters
from the team
• We also have a Guide to PHARMACOLOGY company
page on
• We maintain a presence on Wikipedia, with a page
describing the background, development, content and
features of the resource

5. Team Twitter
• A GtoPdb retweet of my
post reaches extra 550
• My RT of a GtoPdb
post reaches extra 177
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550 45 177
GtoPdb intersect
Me

6. Individual (professional) Twitter presence
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7. Twitter accounts I follow
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8. Reciprocal contacts with RT networks < 1000
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9. Between relevant and “push” followers
• Many twitter accounts I follow have over 50% spurious followers
• I purge ~ 2-4 per week by “blocking”
• A general Social Media problem
• Includes pushes into your Google + circles
• LinkedIN connection requests from strangers with no context
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10. Familiar?
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11. Altmetrics: Immediate impact assessment
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12. Open access stats and citations
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Citations in PMC = 245
In Google Scholar = 53
Citations in PMC = 4
In Google Scholar = 14

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14. Team blog
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15. Personal blog
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16. The “In the Pipeline” effect
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17. Google +: Useful but in decline ?
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18. Wikipedia:An important presence
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19. Google: Rankings matter
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20. LinkedIN “Likes” flash across multiple networks
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21. LinkedIN groups: Patchy utility
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22. LinkedIN: The network advantage
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23. Team Slideshare: Post-conference exposure
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24. Individual Slideshare
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25. Individual
Slideshare
Stats
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26. Figshare: better than supplementary data
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29. Conclusions
• Papers, citations, meeting presentations, grant apps and
database entries remain our core business
• However, its wise to be cognisant of the revolution I have
outlined in these slides
• Exploiting the individual and team utilities can pay off in real
outreach and impacts
• There are no rules or “correct” ways of doing any of this (its
anarchy out there)
• There are many creative ways of working the systems
• Notwithstanding, its probably better to be succinct,
professional and polite
• Yes, it can waste some time, but then so can many things….
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30. Acknowledgements, Info and Qs
GtoPdb database team:
• Adam Pawson,
• Helen Benson
• Elena Faccenda
• Joanna Sharman
• Jamie Davies
See “Beyond the paper cv and developing a scientific profile online,
Antony Williams” (Slideshare)
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