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Twitter for Researchers & Academics: Tips for IMPROVERS
The document provides a guide for researchers and academics on effectively using Twitter, emphasizing the importance of conversation over mere broadcasting. It covers content creation, tone, account management, logistics, and analytics, aiming to help users enhance their online presence while engaging with their audience. Key tips include balancing professional and personal tweets, utilizing hashtags, and analyzing tweet engagement for better outreach.
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Twitter for Researchers & Academics: Tips for IMPROVERS
- 1. Twitter for Researchersand Academics Tips for IMPROVERS Ned Potter Academic Liaison
- 2. Above all, rememberit’s not about broadcasting, it’s about conversation!
- 3. Above all, rememberit’s not about broadcasting, it’s about conversation! This is Web 2.0. It’s interactive, participatory, and about positioning yourself as part of a dialogue. If you remember this rule, all the other rules in this guide can be broken.
- 4. This guide covers Content,Tone, your Account, Logistics and Analysis.
- 5. It is aimedat people in the academic environment who already use Twitter. If you’re brand new to the platform, read this introduction first.
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- 7. Don’t just makestatements, ask questions. Content
- 8. Content Tweet multimedia Pictures, videos,slideshows all appear within Twitter itself
- 9. Consider the 1in 4 rule* *actually it’s more of a guideline… Content
- 10. Consider the 1in 4 rule* 1 in 4 Tweets directly about you / your work *actually it’s more of a guideline… A ReTweet? A link to something useful?A reply? Content
- 11. Embrace the smartphone! (Soonthere will only BE smartphones so you may as well get started now.) Content
- 12. Embrace the smartphone! (Soonthere 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
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- 17. Capture the goodstuff Twitter is ephemeral but you can archive Content
- 18. Activity 1 Capturing auseful hashtag with Storify Content
- 19. You can request yourown archive Content
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- 21. Try not tothink 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
- 22. Spell things correctly,don’t use text-speak, ensure proper grammar and syntax – but the tone is friendly and approachable. Tone
- 23. Ultimately the toneon 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, irascible? That’s probably how you should be on Twitter, too. Tone
- 24. Ultimately the toneon 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, irascible? That’s probably how you should be on Twitter, too. (Just don’t be unpleasant, as the written word can have a bigger and longer-lasting impact than what is spoken.) Tone
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- 26. Your profile ishugely important – it can both win and lose you opportunities. Use your bio to give people a reason to engage with you. Use the URL space to link your blog. And whatever you do, don’t leave the picture as the default ‘Twitter egg’ – people associate this with spam accounts and switch off instantly. Your Account
- 27. Talking of spam… Askingfor the occasional RT is fine (‘Please RT’ commonly results in 11 times as many RTs, ‘Please ReTweet’ results in 16 times as many) doing this too often is considered spammy. As is frequently trying to get influential tweeters to tweet links to your sites… Your Account
- 28. Your Account Follower limit Keepin mind the maximum number of accounts you can follow is 2000, until you yourself have 2000 followers.
- 29. Bio, blog link Followingback Don’t be spammy Check hashtags Your Account You don’t HAVE to follow back. Although reciprocity is an important part of building a social network, don’t feel like you have to follow everyone who follows you. Above all Twitter has to be manageable and work FOR you.
- 30. Your Account And ifyou DO have to follow back for political reasons… The mute button is your friend.
- 31. Your Account Dealing withtrolls Block > unblock Block Block and Report Lock
- 32. To lock ornot to lock your account? Advantages: Complete control over who sees your tweets Free reign to be critical or otherwise controversial Protection from the undesirable side of the internet Numbers of followers are not an end in themselves – a larger network doesn’t always equate to a more valuable one
- 33. To lock ornot to lock your account? Disadvantages: Will reduce the size of your network so you may miss out on interacting with useful or interesting people Prevents you from being ReTweeted, meaning you cannot reach additional audiences Your tweets cannot be seen by people who don’t follow you, even if addressed directly at them with an @ reply
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- 35. Logistics How often should youtweet? Targets can often backfire – tweet when you have something to say, and don’t when you don’t.
- 36. That said, themore people tweet, the bigger their network.* Often the bigger their network, the more they get out of Twitter. Logistics *Usually. But there’s no guarantee here!
- 37. Set up savedsearches After any useful search, save it so it’s easily accessible next time you click the search box. Logistics
- 38. Set up savedsearches As well as searches for relevant topics, set up a search on pertinent URLs (for example your project page or blog) so you can see whenever anyone tweets about your work. Logistics
- 39. Amazing things can happenfrom searching for your own URLs! Logistics
- 40. Lists allow youto usefully ‘curate’ the people you follow For example, make lists of people who tweet about Your discipline Research in your area Impact factors Technology in HE Higher Education in general Local news Global news University news Whatever is relevant to you Logistics
- 41. Consider a socialmedia dashboard Twitter doesn’t have to be run from twitter.com – something like Hootsuite may be useful as it allows you to view your timeline, mentions, direct messages, lists, searches etc, in real time, from one screen, and you can also manage other social media accounts here Logistics
- 42. Activity 2: SavedSearches and Twitter Lists Logistics
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- 44. Analyse your Tweets Thereare 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… Analysis
- 45. Twitter Analytics Allows youto see how many people actually see your tweets (a fraction of your followers) and compare how engaged your network is from month to month. Analysis
- 46. It also showsyou where your followers are from so you know if you need to adjust the times you tweet key info. Analysis
- 47. Final Activity: analysingyour own account with Twitonomy Analysis
- 48. And don’t forget…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
- 49. Thanks for reading! Moreon ‘Becoming a Networked Researcher’ can be found at http://www.york.ac.uk/library/info- for/researchers/networked/ Follow the Library on Twitter: @UoYLibrary Picture credits are on the next two slides.
- 50. Photos via FlickrCreative Commons (1) Twitter birds on a wire by MKH Marketing, at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkhmarketing/8477893426/size s/l/in/photostream/ Birds in the sky by ,T.R.G, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/therealgrudge/4065114735/siz es/l/in/photostream/ Twitter bird in a cage by MKH Marketing, edited by us, original at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkhmarketing/8481608368/size s/l/in/photostream/ Graduation, by j.o.h.n walker, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/whatcouldgowrong/460896372 2/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Smily fruit by *Light Painting*, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/helmuthess/9563262919/sizes/ l/in/photostream/ Seminar room by Jonas_k, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonask/2311309574/sizes/l/in/ photostream/
- 51. Photos via FlickrCreative Commons (2) Egg by JeffPoskanzer, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/7550549938/sizes/c/ Reciprocal roof by The Year of Mud, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/smallape/2868726577/sizes/l Homemade hashtag by Alexander Hugo TarTari, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/byhoogle/6879766189/sizes/l Blue padlock by Aff, at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/affers/8298047871/sizes/c/in/ph otostream/ Question-mark cufflinks by Oberazzi, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/318947345/sizes/z/in/ photostream/ Smartphone by Xrajis_, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/xraijs/3474643866/sizes/l/in/p hotostream/ All Twitter icons, and the iPad icon, via www.iconfinder.com All other pictures are copyright free and via Pixabay.