Wordpress: A Hands on Workshop for Researchers

Wordpress: A Hands
on Learning Session
for Researchers
KMb Learning Session
April 3, 2012

Agenda
1. Introduction to social media
2. Blogging 101
3. Blogging for research
4. Setting up a blog with Wordpress.com
5. Strategies for getting started
6. Additional resources
7. Q and A

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1- Social Media- Some Definitions
• “A group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange
of user-generated content”

• “Includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into
interactive dialogue”

• “Online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between
the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that
enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or
mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.”

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010).Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business
Horizons,53(1), 59-68

Social media. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 10, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

Thornley, J. (2008, April 8). What is “social media?”. Retrieved January 10, 2012 from ProPR blog http://propr.ca/2008/what-is-
social-media/
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1- Social Media: Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0

http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/08/18/web-10-vs-web-20-the-visual-
difference/

4

1- Social Media and Knowledge Mobilization
Why use social media for KMb?
Social media provides the tools to
help support the process of KMb
• Disseminate knowledge and
research in an iterative and
interactive way
• Build communities for
partnerships, collaboration and
sharing
• Get academic research into the
hands of people who can use it
Image adapted from http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/the-four-cs-of-social-media-marketing/ 5

2- Blogging 101
• The word blog is short for web log

• Blogs contain entries, more commonly called posts, displayed in
reverse chronological order typically pertaining to a single subject
or theme

• Readers may leave comments about blog posts, making blogs
more interactive and social than static websites

• People can subscribe to updates to a blog via RSS or email

• There are a number of free blogging tools available. The most
popular are- WordPress, Blogger, TypePad

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blog. Accessed on April 2, 2012 6

3- Blogging for research
Why blog for research activities?

• Blogs allow you to connect in a more interactive and less formal
way than traditional websites

• Provides you with a wider audiences and lets interested readers to
follow your blog posts

• An alternative to traditional academic journals- blogs are open
access, some blogs are now peer reviewed and they can reach
readers who may not have access to academic journals

7

8 Reasons Why Researchers Should Blog:

1. Public engagement

2. Raise your profile and digital identity

3. Networking

4. Writing practice

5. Helps shape your thoughts/ideas

6. Gets your material out quickly

7. Allows for a quick response from your audience

8. Opens your eyes to the bigger world of social media

Morris, Gareth. (2010). 8 reasons why researchers should blog. Retrieved from

http://www.homelesshub.ca/%28S%28cbktsc45bmzvmjn31tluzrqw%29%29/Library/8-reasons-why-researchers-should-blog-48123.aspx
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4- Blogging with WordPress
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

• WordPress.org is a web publishing system that can be used to
create small websites and blogs that you install on your won
server. York computing services can set up a York-branded
wordpress.org blog for York faculty members and departments

• WordPress.com is just a blog that lives on WordPress’ servers.
You don’t have full control over the PHP code, and you can’t
upload plugins but it is easier to set up and maintain and you can
still customize the look and feel of your blog

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From Wordpress http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/. Accessed on April 2, 2012

4- Setting up a blog with WordPress

Go to http://wordpress.com and log in

Username: kmbyork

Password: kmbunityork

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4- Setting up a blog with WordPress.com

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Break

Please be back in 10 minutes

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5- Strategies for Getting Started
Things to Consider Before You Start:

• What will you blog about?
• What topics will you blog about?
• Do you think you have enough to blog about?

• If you are part of a project or team- who will do the blogging?
• Who will be responsible for writing the posts, putting them into WordPress and
monitoring any comments?
• Will you have one blog author, for example ResearchImpact, or will each
person who writes a post publish it as themselves?

• How often will you post?
• Aim to post at least one blog story per week

34

5- Work Plan for Getting Started
• Decide on a blog name and register for an account

• Set up the appearance of your blog by:
• Choosing a theme
• Adding widgets to your sidebar
• Adding your logo (if you have one) to the header
• Filling out your profile
• Adding an About page

• Configure settings such as:
• Your personal settings
• Connecting your blog to your other social media sites
• Set up notifications for new comments

• Add some categories and tags to help organize your content and facilitate
searching

• Write a blog post!

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5- Tips for posting
• Try to keep post between 300-500 words
• Include pictures for visual interest and to break up the text so it is
easier to read
• Add hyperlinks where appropriate
• Remember to add categories and tags
• Click on Preview to see what it will look like before publishing
• Change the title of pictures so that they are a description of the
picture for people using screen reading technology
• If the picture seems really close to the text, go into Advanced
Settings and enter in 5 in the Vertical space and Horizontal space
boxes
• If you re-use the same picture often, you don’t need to re-upload it
everytime. Instead, click on Media Library and select the picture
from there

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Resources
8 Reasons Why Researchers Should Blog
http://www.homelesshub.ca/%28S%28cbktsc45bmzvmjn31tluzrqw%29
%29/Library/8-reasons-why-researchers-should-blog-48123.aspx

Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog
http://www.yorku.ca/ddoorey/lawblog/

How to Write a Good Research Blog Post
http://scienceofblogging.com/how-to-write-a-good-research-blog-post/

Research Blogging
http://researchblogging.org
• A list of blogs that talk about peer reviewed research

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Resources
Research Matters: Finding Solutions to Homelessness
http://www.homelesshub.ca/researchmatters

Science Blogs
http://scienceblogs.com/
• A collection of over 80 science focused blogs

Vanderbilt University Social Media Handbook
http://web.vanderbilt.edu/resources/social-media-handbook/
• Very good resources on how to create a social media strategy and how
to start using various tools

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6- Resources

YorkU’s Graphic Standards Manual
http://www.yorku.ca/yorkweb/standards/graphicstandards.htm
• Follow this to ensure you following York’s visual identity standards and
are using the York logo correctly

YorkU Web Publishing Services
http://www.yorku.ca/computing/facultystaff/webpages/publishing.html
• Can help you set up a Wordpress.org blog

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Krista Jensen
Knowledge Mobilization Officer
kejensen@yorku.ca x 88847
Website SlideShare
www.researchimpact.ca www.slideshare.net/KMbYork

Twitter YouTube
twitter.com/KMbYork www.slideshare.net/KMbYork
twitter.com/researchimpact
Delicious
Mobilize This! Blog delicious.com/researchimpact
researchimpact.wordpress.com

O3 Space
researchimpact.othree.ca

Wordpress: A Hands on Workshop for Researchers

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