This document discusses using social media to develop an academic profile and engage others in research. It defines social media as websites that allow contribution and connection. Examples include blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. The benefits of social media are that it allows researchers to share their expertise, engage in dialogue, and potentially generate interest in their work. The document provides tips on which social media tools to use and how to plan an effective strategy, including considering goals, audience, and content. It also discusses maintaining privacy and professionalism online.

1. Using Social Media to Develop
Your Academic Profile and
Engage Others in Your Research
Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer
http://edina.ac.uk/
Social Media session for Informatics Researchers, 18th
June 2013

2. Introduction

3. What is Social Media?
• Social Media are any websites that allow you to contribute, to
engage, to connect with others and are “Web 2.0” tools
(O’Reilly 2005).
• Examples include:
– Blogs (WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc.)
– Twitter
– YouTube and Vimeo
– Facebook
– Google+
– Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
– LinkedIn, Academia.edu, etc.
– Mendeley, Delicious, Diigo, etc.
– FigShare

4. Why Use 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.

5. 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.
• Twitter - very effective way to share key research updates,
build a network around your work, find peer support and
advice, track news.
• Video 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.
• Flickr, Pinterest, Instagram 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.

6. This Time It’s Personal…
• Social media are about people,
personality and quirkiness.
• They allow use of links, images,
video, audio, and other
multimedia to bring a topic to
life.
• They are designed to nurture
communities, networks, peer
support, sharing, participation
and collaboration.
• Often used on mobile phones –
crossing personal and
professional spaces, places and
times. http://lookslikescience.tumblr.com/

7. What should you share?
• What your research is about and what it aims to achieve.
• 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.

8. Some examples…

9. Blogs: Trading Consequences
http://bit.ly/NhvkRj

10. Blogs: What’s on my Blackboard?
http://whatsonmyblackboard.wordpress.com/

11. Blogs: Mary Beard
http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/

12. Blogs: LSE Impact of Social Sciences
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/
impactofsocialsciences/

13. Blogs: Steven Gray’s Big Data Toolkit
http://bigdatatoolkit.org/

14. Facebook: I F***ing Love Science
https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience

15. Twitter: Joe Hanson
https://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe

16. Twitter: Nora McGregor
https://twitter.com/ndalyrose/

17. Pinterest: Creating Artificial Intelligence
http://pinterest.com/rakirk/crea

18. 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?

19. 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.

20. 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.
• Similarly do not share location information that might
compromise your own safety or that of your colleagues.
• 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.

21. Possible Next Steps (1)
• Think about the audience(s) you want to engage
with your research or your professional presence.
– Who should you be writing or creating content for?
– Is there anything special/particular they will want or need
from that presence?
• What do your professional peers or influential
people in your field do with social media?
– What works well (or poorly) for them?
– Are they using social media sites/tools you feel you should
also be present in?
– Are there any ideas you want to apply to your own presence?

22. Possible Next Steps (2)
• Think about planning suitable content.
– What content do you have available and want to highlight in
your own professional/research presence?
– What existing web and social media presences do you have?
Could they be better connected to each other?
– Can your publications, research methods or data be shared?
– What would a successful presence look like?
• How will you maintain any presence you set up?
– What time do you have available to keep a presence up to
date?
– How will you keep the quality and frequency of updates up.
– What are your goals for the presence and how will you
measure success.

23. Q&A
Questions?

24. Useful Resources
• LSE. 2013. Impact of Social Sciences blog.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/
• O’Reilly, T. 2005. What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next
Generation of Software. In O’Reilly, 30th September 2005. Available from:
http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
• Osborne, N. 2013. Social Media [resource sheet]. Available from:
http://nicolaosborne.blogs.edina.ac.uk/files/2010/10/SocialMedia2013-worksheet.pdf
• Patel, S. 2011. 10 ways researchers can use Twitter. In Networked Researcher, 3rd
August 2011. Available from:
http://www.networkedresearcher.co.uk/2011/08/03/10-ways-researchers-can-use-twitte
Privacy Settings Links
• Facebook Privacy Settings:
http://www.facebook.com/help/privacy
• LinkedIn Privacy Settings:
http://learn.linkedin.com/settings/
• Guide to Google+ Privacy Settings:
http://lifehacker.com/5827683/a-guide-to-google%252B-privacy-and-information-
control/

25. Managing Your Identity Online
Useful Search Engines for Social Media
• Google: http://www.google.com and Google Blog Search:
http://www.google.co.uk/blogsearch/
• Bing: http://www.bing.com/ and Bing Social Search:
http://www.bing.com/social/
• Whos talkin: http://whostalkin.com/
• Social Mention: http://www.socialmention.com/
• IceRocket: http://www.icerocket.com/
• Twitter Search: https://twitter.com/#!/search-home
• Topsy: http://topsy.com/
Useful Tools for Automatic Checking and Task Management
• Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts
• Tweetbeep: http://tweetbeep.com/
• IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/