Using social media for research: how social media is more than just 'what you had for breakfast'
•Download as PPT, PDF•
2 likes•648 views
This document discusses how to use social media for research purposes. It covers setting up blogs, Facebook groups, and Twitter accounts to publish, share, discuss and learn with others about your research topic. Specific tools mentioned include using Twitter search, observing Facebook pages and groups, leaving comments on articles, creating a blog, and setting up a Twitter and Facebook group to promote your research and connect with others studying similar topics.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Using social media for research: how social media is more than just 'what you had for breakfast'
Similar to Using social media for research: how social media is more than just 'what you had for breakfast' (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Using social media for research: how social media is more than just 'what you had for breakfast'
- 1. Using Social Media to research what others are eating for breakfast In this session you will learn how social media can help you promote your research topic and connect with others pursuing similar research topics to your own. We will cover setting up a blog, facebook group and twitter account and then using these to publish, share, discuss and learn with others using social media. This sessions assumes you are comfortable using a computer and the internet but that you are not familiar with using Social Media tools for anything other than personal use. Presented by David Scott & Paul Tagell Source
- 2. WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA? Source : YouTube(click pic to play)
- 4. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA FOR RESEARCH? Source : ‘I Am Knowledge Worker’ by Stephen Collins (via SlideShare)
- 5. KNOWLEDGE IN THE 21 ST CENTURY Source : ‘I Am Knowledge Worker’ by Stephen Collins (via SlideShare)
- 10. HOW DO I OBSERVE?
- 14. CREATE Source
- 15. CREATE a blog @ wordpress.com
- 16. LOVE YOUR CONTENT AND READERS Source : XKCD
- 18. CREATE a twitter account http:// www.twitter.com
- 19. CREATE a Facebook Group http:// www.facebook.com/groups/create.php
- 20. Where to from here?
Editor's Notes
- Hello and Welcome to today’s session on “using social media to research what other’s are eating for breakfast”. My name is Paul Tagell and this is David Scott. We both work for the Marketing and Communications Department here at the University. David works in the Media and Public Relations team and has been responsible for running and maintaining the university's UoMMedia twitter account as well as publishing stories to the university’s new(s) Blog, aka The Melbourne Newsroom. He is also responsible for administrating the Universities Facebook page. I work for the Marketing Web Team, and a large part of my job includes figuring out new and innovating ways for the university to integrate social media into its websites. Initially, when we were asked to put this presentation together, I can remember thinking that surely there’s not much overlap between what we do using social media for marketing purposes and what you, as research students, are likely to need to know…the more I thought about it though, the more similarities started to appear. If there’s one thing about the internet it’s that there is something for everyone! So today we’d like to take you on a quick tour of what social media is, how things fit together, how you can engage with social media communities around your research topic and how you can go about setting up your own social media accounts. As mentioned, this session assumes that you have basic knowledge of social media (for example you use a facebook account for personal uses).
- Before we get started, we thought we’d put on a quick video which explains a little about what social media is and illustrates how pervasive it’s become in the modern world. What we define as SM: the formats (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube…all platforms that allow sharing), and the key elements (sharing, engaging, ease of access…all the stuff we discussed at the last SMWG) Clicking the image will display the video in a browser -
- My favourite quote here is actually the last one – for the simple reason that it illustrates that before people start engaging with it, all they see is how fantastic it’s going to be. However, once they do get into social media they realise that it’s acutally going to be quite a lot of work…
- I found these next two slides while researching this presentation to see how others see the use of social media in research. I think the idea of a knowledge worker is an interesting one: as researchers, you are involved in knowledge on a daily basis and while you’re here for a number of reasons, you’re probably all wondering how social media will possibly change how you interpret your roles. So let’s look at the two examples:
- It’s worth pointing out that when Stephen Collins talks about Knowledge Workers, he refers to all workers, not just academics, but I think that the way such a role has changed is still relevant. And while we’re talking social media, notice the source – SlideShare. It’s essentially a repository of powerpoint presentations just like this one. Good inspiration.
- Today we want to take you through the three key elements we believe are essential to using social media for research. These three steps are Observing, participating and creating. For the purposes of today, we’re going to assume that we’re doing research into Lupus, an auto-immune disease and we’re trying to find out what’s out there and then make our own contribution to that field. We’re also assuming that we’re not just in this field for a year or two, we’re looking to be in this research area for the long haul so that we can really make a difference to the field. Part of that means establishing ourselves online as an authoritative source of opinion, information and links around Lupus. The only way we can earn this sort of reputation is by following the three steps listed above.
- Observing is all about taking stock of what’s already out there in the world on your particular field of interest. The reality is you’re probably not the only one out there who is interested in ‘topic x’. It’s also about seeing how others go about writing on said topic on the web.
- I actually just stumbled across this page today while I was preparing notes for the session and I thought it would be quite relevant. The title if you can’t make it out is “What I Did Right: How I Averaged 80 Comments and 135 Tweets in My First Week of Blogging”. The author, a marketing expert named Lisa, only started blogging for herself on May 20. What she writes I think will resonate with a lot of you: “ My first week of blogging was like a dream. I went through it in a hazy fog of anxiety, excitement, happiness, and disbelief that I never could have anticipated. As I write this, on Friday, May 21, my first-ever two posts have received 159 comments and have been tweeted 272 times. I'm simply stunned. It would be nice if I could say that I'm glowing, but the reality is that this week has kicked my butt. My first foray into blogging has shown me that it can be a Herculean task to keep up with responding to comments and tweets while balancing clients and life. But it's all been worth it. When I look at the amazing comments from my readers in regard to how my blog posts have resonated with them, and in some cases helped them tremendously by giving them a bit of direction or perhaps an ounce of inspiration, then it makes the lack of sleep and sense of discombobulation all worthwhile.” Her first two key points are incredibly relevant: I spent a lot of time learning about blogging before I ever considered starting a blog & I did a lot of hard work to understand what resonates between bloggers and their readers. That’s the power of observation.
- Paul and I were trying to come up with an interesting example to show you how easy it is to find information on a particular topic, and how you can engage with that information. We didn’t plant to call up a million pictures of Lady GaGa. However when we decided to use Lupus – a chronic auto immune disease – it turns out Lady GaGa is among the first things you find as she apparently suffers from it.
- So setting aside the GaGa, how do you observe? There’s quite a few tools available to help you track down relevant and popular information about your topic and see how others do it too. The best way is probably social bookmarking – services that allow users to post up links to their favourite articles and share them with others. Digg, Delicious and Technorati are just some of the sites that do this. They are also really good at ranking results, meaning that the more popular pieces – ie. Most bookmarks – rise to the top so you get a great snapshot of what people are reading and why. For example: http://digg.com/search?s=lupus+research http://delicious.com/search?p=lupus+research&chk=&context=main|&fr=del_icio_u http://lfa-inc.blogspot.com/
- Twitter and Facebook searches can also help. Even better, they can often give you a ‘real time’ update of what people are saying about Lupus, and allow you to connect directly into that conversation.
- Where possible, add your thoughts to the mix. You have an educated opinion to add to many discussions. Don’t be afraid to voice it and back yourselves. Many websites have areas to provide comment and opinion about articles read. It is only by being a thoughtful and contributive member of the online community - This is how your online reputation is formed. Comments, forums and discussion boards are your opportunity to earn the respect required to draw people to your blog / further research. OUTPOSTS of credibility which draw people back to your research. INSERT SCREENSHOT OF COMMENTS SECTION WITH URL BACK TO OWN BLOG Insert screenshots / links to forums / discussion boards.
- Ok, so now that you’ve had a look at what’s already out there on the Lupus scene, and you’ve taken the time to get to know how people interact and participate online, it’s time for you to start publishing your own thoughts. Don’t get hung up on the need to publish immense volumes every time – many people find that publishing to a blog or to a twitter stream is a great way of jotting down thoughts about particular
- Wordpress.com is a free blogging platform – there is a premium version as well, but this is not something you’ll need to worry about for some time. Lets give it a go… Easy set up process Customisable URL (http:// yourblogtitle.wordpress.com ) Make sure that when you’re chosing a url for your blog that you include the topic you are researching (for example – “LupusResearch”. Keep in mind that you can always purchase a URL later so that you can have www.lupusresearch.com as opposed to lupusresearch.wordpress.com. That’s it. Now you can start creating blog posts. Keep in mind that it will take some time before your blog gets much traffic. Also useful to note on this page that you can view statistics about the number of people viewing your posts – which posts have been most viewed etc. As you publish more and more content, you’ll be able to get a sense of what content drives the most views. You’ll also get an idea of where people have come from – which is really important once you get into using other forms of social media to promote and discuss the content on your blog. DO what you do best, and link to the rest – don’t be afraid of linking to other sources of information where you think they are worthwhile. Don’t be afraid to link to other bloggers you respect (or even criticise) . Disagreemtn in a scholarly way is valuable.
- Love your content and your readers – one is useless without the other. If someone publishes a comment to your blog, make sure you take the time to respond to them – this helps you build relationships and makes you more approachable – although research could be considered by many to be about the furthest thing away from a customer-service that there is, online your readers are your customers and you’ve got to keep them happy. Perhaps the best example of online customer service comes from Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library Tv – he takes the time to respond to every single person who sends him a comment despite getting hundreds of comments a day. This has helped make his business highly profitable.
- Once you’ve created your blog, facebook and twitter are great ways to let people know about your content. Why? In the same way that you would need to publicise a written publication, in order to spread your opinions and attract comments from others around the world you will need to promote the content you publish on your blog. There are lots of ways to do this using social media. Today we’re going to cover setting up a twitter account and a facebook group where you can let others know about your content, but keep in mind that you can also use more traditional methods to let others know about your blog such as listing your blogs URL in your email signature, including it on your business cards etc. All of these things will help contribute to the visibility of your blog online and make it so that it’s a more useful publishing platform for you.
- As well as being a great place to find content related to your research topic, Twitter is also a great way to promote the content you’ve created on your blog. The first step in using Twitter to set up an account. We’ll walk you through doing that now. As with your blog, try and make sure that you twitter handle (@lupusresearch) seomthign with your primary focus in it.
- Facebook groups provide people with ways to connect around common causes. In this case, we’re creating a group both to publicize the research you’re publishing on your blog, but also to encourage discussion around questions that might help you with your research. As groups attract people who are interested in your research area or topic, those people could be a useful source of ideas, criticism or inspiration. They’re also likely to be avid readers of your blog content so letting them know when you publish content onto your blog is a great way to keep them engaged.