Describing personal views on how social media (Twiiter, ResearchGate, Mendeley, Google Scholar, Academia.edu, YouTube) can be used when you are an Academic. What to look for and how to use them. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Please cite the resource as: Stathis Th. Konstantinidis (2017) Are Social Media for Academics [presentation]. Nottingham, UK

1. Are Social Media
for Academics?
Unless otherwise stated

3. Should academics use social
media?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2016/08/06/se
rious-academics-should-use-social-media/#78b9b6304fb1

4. Potential Benefits
Help you create an online identity / profile
 If you don’t exist online…simply you don’t exist (for
many people at least)
Stathis Konstantinidis
This person does not exist!!!

5. Potential Benefits
 Make new connections
 It is a very good way to “virtual” meet colleagues around
the world

6. Potential Benefits
 Keep up to date with the latest research to your field
Projects
Funding
Research articles
Conferences
Events
Research New
Industry updates

7. Who new about your new
article or your new project
before Social Media?
Potential Benefits
Promote your work to your peers and the public at large
And now?

8. Personal and academic social
media
 Are you a different person when you live the University?
 Do your ethics change when you are at home?
http://staging.sickchirpse.com/university-of-manchester-professor-leads-double-life-as-a-porn-star/

9. Yes but…
 I share pictures with my friends on fb that I do not want
to be seen by my students…
 The Gold rule…
… something like an RCT:
“Whatever you don’t want to be shared do
not upload it in any social media site… and
if possible keep it offline”

10. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/do-academic-social-networks-share-academics-
interests

11. Social media
 Facebook
 Twitter
 LinkedIn
 Research gate
 Google+
 Slideshare
 Youtube
 Instagram
 Academia.edu
 Mendeley
 …

12. 3000 Scientists
Graphic from Nature 512, 126–129 (14 August 2014), doi:10.1038/512126a

13. Which should I use?
 All of them
 As much as you can
 What it fit better to your style
 What do you want to do? Connect with peers, promote
your research, promote your educational material...

14. Have in mind
while…
http://triphackr.com/access-facebook-twitter-youtube-blocked/
Wednesday 25 January 2017

15. Twitter
…the basic
A news broadcast
Short messages (<140
Characters)
Messages can contain link
to pictures, web pages,
etc.

16. How I select which news to
look at?
Follow users Search for keywords
https://twitter.com/search-home?lang=en-gb

17. How to tweet a news article,
research paper etc.
#Hashtags

18. #Hashtags
 Twitter users organize themselves
 Don’t overuse them
 Useful for:
 Conference, events
 Twitter chats
 Tracking trends

19. How to attract more
followers
 Follow your friends and colleagues, usually they will follow
you back
 Check the “who to follow” button
 If you haven't a username yet, keep it fairly short and avoid
numbers or underlines
 Make sure that you have a nice picture and a short bio
 Be active on twitter (Do not overdo it!)
 Do not be afraid to follow people, they might follow back.
 Use hashtags in your tweets
 Participate on twitter chats Create a PLN
 Mention people in your tweets who are relevant with the
tweet
 Add your Twitter ID to all of your signatures
The best ever
tweet…
Who reads your
tweets?

20. What to tweet?
 Interesting Articles
 News
 Retweets (be a transmitter for other people’s interesting
tweets)
 RT: @yourusername
 Events/ conferences
 Use photos, conference hashtag, speaker username
 Short your long URLs with http://tinyurl.com/ or
http://bit.ly/
 Select different time of the day for your tweets.

21. Tweet Analytics
Multiple online softwares
E.g. : http://keyhole.co/
https://www.tweetchup.com

22. Where I find the time?
 You do not have to follow everything… You just can’t
 Make it part of your routine, e.g. before a break

23. Twitter fear
 My account has been compromised:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/31796

24. Analysing my account
https://moz.com

25. Analysing my account
analytics.twitter.com

26. ResearchGate.net (EU based)
Academia.edu (US based)
Benefits
 Increase the dissemination of your research outputs.
 Connections with other researchers
 Find full-text papers, conference papers, abstracts
 Ask questions, get answers.
 Find the right job
But
 Commercial operations – Probably some kind of return in
the future?
 Not an Open Access repository by funders
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Criticize/235102

27. Where to store your research
papers?
Adapted from Ellen Fest, Seven questions about ResearchGate
https://www.slideshare.net/EllenFest/seven-questions-about-researchgate

28. ResearchGate.net (EU based)
 Link to articles were possible
 Respond to papers request by other academics
 Turn Email notifications on
Do not trust the cite statistics…
www.researchgate.net

29. Mendeley
a free reference manager and academic social network
 Find groups with relevant research papers
 Easy to update your presentation if you use them as a
reference manager
 Research Data Repository
 Careers
 Limitations are the same with Researchgate

30. Google Scholar

31. LinkedIn
Your Business Card
Your CV

32. LinkedIn
 Guides to improve your profile
 https://www.slideshare.net/LinkedIn-SMB/5-things-you-
should-be-doing-on-linkedin?qid=67a19ae9-d99b-41e1-
991f-ad12e58e287d&v=&b=&from_search=3
www.linkedin.com

33. YouTube

34. YouTube
21,900 results

35. Keep in touch / Sharing
Useful Information
 Twitter
 Facebook
 LinkedIn

36. Make Your Research Articles
Visible
 Google Scholar
 ResearchGate.net
 Mendeley
 Academia.edu
 Do not forget to add full text to your institutional
repository
 Do not forget to update your institutional personal
website

37. How can you make a good use
of social media
 Understand the importance of having a relevant bio on
their own online profiles
 Connect with other professionals outside of your own
institutional network of peers
 Take advantage of anytime anyplace CPD opportunities
and realise the value of self-determined learning
 Developing and owning their own professional online
presence by sharing achievements of self AND others
Sue Beckingham (2015) The Academics’ Guide to Social Media [a slide form presentation].
https://www.slideshare.net/suebeckingham/the-academics-guide-to-social-media
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons licence BY-NC-ND

38. Good use of social media
 add presentations to SlideShare and sharing also on your
LinkedIn / twitter / facebook profile
 add your publications to your LinkedIn profile /
ResearchGate/ Academia.edu/ Mendeley / Google Scholar:
articles, press releases, papers, books and chapters
 add projects you are involved in along with the names of
those you are collaborating with (LinkedIn, ResearcgGate,
Mendeley)
 write guest posts for other peoples’ blogs, websites and
digital magazines and share them through Social Media
 write your own blog and share a link via Twitter/ Facebook
/ LinkedIn
 write a LinkedIn post and updates which include links to
useful content
Sue Beckingham (2015) The Academics’ Guide to Social Media [a slide form presentation].
https://www.slideshare.net/suebeckingham/the-academics-guide-to-social-media
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons licence BY-NC-ND
Note: Text in green have been altered and does not express original creators views.

39. Thank You!!!
Dr. Stathis Th. Konstantinidis
Assist. Prof. in e-Learning and Health Informatics
Health E-learning & Media (HELM) Team
Digital Innovations in Healthcare and Education (DICE)
Research Group
School of Health Sciences
The University of Nottingham
twitter: @staconst
E-mail: Stathis.Konstantinidis@Nottingham.ac.uk
Unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under
a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 4.0 International
License