This document provides guidance on using social media to communicate research work. It recommends considering goals and target audiences when planning social media use. Popular tools like blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr are discussed as ways to share updates, build networks, and engage audiences. Both barriers and appropriate content for social media are addressed. In particular, the document advises checking privacy and disclosure policies, and avoiding sharing sensitive or unprofessional information.

1. Using Social Media to
Communicate Your work
Nicola Osborne, MediaHub Service
Manager / Digital Education Manager
http://edina.ac.uk/
Nicola.osborne@ed.ac.uk

2. Introduction

3. Why focus on Social Media?
Social media tools…
• Are go-to spaces for expertise and advice.
• Offer new ways to tell stories, to engage in
dialogue, to reach out to your audience(s).
• Rank highly on Google, Bing, etc.
• Can enable direct access to key figures from
Principal Investigators to Research Councils to press
and potential research participants.
• May generate media interest in your work, new
collaborations and other unexpected opportunities.
• Offer inexpensive ways to raise your own profile and
that of your research.

4. Planning Social Media Use
• Consider what goals you want to achieve, what you
want to share about your research. How can you
track progress?
• Think about your audience(s): where do they hang
out online? What will engage them in your work?
How can you make it relevant to them?
• Be creative – what social media tools could help you
to communicate in new ways?
• Be pragmatic - what best fits your project’s style,
expertise, and time availability?

5. Planning Social Media Content
• Brand your presences and ensure you complete
your profile information. Always link back to your
definitive research profiles and project websites.
• Regularly share interesting engaging content,
use images, listen to and engage with the audiences
you are reaching out to.
• Ensure you keep profiles and presences up to
date and relevant, review their effectiveness, and
ensure they represent your work as you want it to
be seen.

6. What tools should you use?
• Blogs - make your work visible, enable semi-formal ways
to share working methods and progress, and provide a
way to find and engage in dialogue with your audience.
Audiences for blogs vary but, largest blog provider,
wordpress.com blogs receives over 400 visitors reading over 61
million posts every month (WordPress 2015).
• Twitter - very effective way to share key research
updates, build a network around your work, find peer
support and advice, track news.
288 million global active users (Twitter 2015), up from 200 million
in 2013 (Twitter 2013). 15% of online adults in the US use Twitter
(Smith and Brenner 2012). 10 million active users in the UK 60%
of whom contribute content/tweets (McGrail 2012 and Arthur
2012). 80% of UK users access Twitter via mobile phone (McGrail
2012 and Arthur 2012)

7. What tools should you use?
• Video, Animation, or Audio - can bring clarity to
complex concepts quickly. Well-made short videos or
animations can convey complex concepts and research
quickly, accessibly and in very engaging sharable ways.
Over 1 billion unique users each month (YouTube 2015), up from
800m in 2013 (YouTube 2013). Vine use is growing. Periscope
(and Meerkat) increasingly used.
• Flickr, Pinterest, Snapchat etc. – any images bring a
project to life – research is about people, ideas, events,
collaboration, equipment... Images make your ideas,
achievements and discoveries far more tangible.
Flickr has approx 92 million users globally, sharing 1 million
images per day (Etherington 2014). In the US: (at least) 46% of all
adult internet users post original photos or videos online. 26% of
online adults use Instagram (Duggan et al 2014). 28% of online
adults use Pinterest (Duggan et al 2014).

8. What tools should you use?
• Facebook, Google+, linkedIn, SNS – useful for
building
up community and engagement.
Over 35 million Facebook users in the UK (McCarthy 2015). Up
from 32 million in 2013 (socialbakers 2013). In the US: 71% of
online adults report using Facebook (Duggan et al 2014) up from
66% in 2012 (Rainie, Brenner and Purcell 2012).
Google+ has 2.2 billion users who have a profile, only 9% or 4-6
million of these seem to be active users (Barrie 2015).
Over 15 million LinkedIn users in the UK (Withnall 2014), up from
11 million in 2013 (LinkedIn 2013). In the US: 28% of online adults
use LinkedIn (Duggan et al 2014) up from 20% in 2012 (Rainie,
Brenner and Purcell 2012).

9. Some barriers/considerations
Social media tools rely on internet access
• Not all tools are equally accessible in public
libraries/low bandwidth connections.
• Rural access and use of broadband varies,
particularly low in some areas (see RSE Spreading
the Benefits of Digital Participation Report 2014).
• Older people, low income and some other
vulnerable groups less likely to use internet in
general, including social media.
• Blog posts, videos, images can all be accessible
without sign in etc. But tools like Facebook can be
hugely beneficial in activism, engaging existing
active community groups, etc.

10. What should you share?
• What your research/work is about and what it aims
to achieve – and how your audience can engage.
• Processes, updates, changes of approach – to the
extent that such transparency is appropriate and
acceptable.
• Quirky, playful and accessible content around your
work and research area.
• Publications, presentations, press mentions and
materials that reflect research outputs and expertise.
• CHECK ANY EXISTING PRIVACY, NON-DISCLOSURE
OR SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES AND ENSURE YOUR
SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE OR ACTIVITY COMPLIES.

11. What should not be shared
• Commercially sensitive data or other material
your employer/PI would not want shared or that
might breach guidelines.
• Personal information about colleagues,
participants, those at partner organisation that might
breach Data Protection law or ethical guidance.
• Material (images, discussion board posts, tweets,
etc.) that might impact on your own professional
reputation or the credibility of your research.
• Anything you would not want a funder, professional
peer, project partner, or future employer to see or
read.

12. Q&A
Questions?