Presentation given at @ILVOVlaanderen 9 June 2015

1. Workshop is mix of tips for researchers and tips for overall strategic approach of
research communication (impact).
First a general introduction, second twitter.
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2. There seems to be a new punch line in academia: Publish or Perish has become Be
Visible or Vanish.
From funding to citations to digital footprint and media exposure: research seems to be
about getting noticed and making an impact.
If you are serious about being a researcher in today’s context of science for society,
online academic tools and high impact and visiblity,
It might be interesting to pay attention to this talk and get a few pointers on how to
approach this in a strategic way.
Goodier and Czerniewicz adapted the functional building blocks of social media (‘Social
media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media’ by Jan
H. Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens , Ian P. McCarthy , Bruno S. Silvestre in Business
Horizons, Volume 54, Issue 3, May–June 2011, Pages 241–251) and applied them to the
networked scholar.
Your digital identity online, defined as ‘the extent to which others can identify you online
as a scholar’, is central. This is why it is critical to become aware of your online presence
and to shape and maintain this presence.
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3. According to the authors there are 4 steps in assessing and improving your online
presence.
- One – look at your current digital footprint. Yes people, this means googling yourself
or your organisation once in a while. Tools like socialmention.com
- Two: decide on what you want. Having an online presence is a time commitment.
Online profiles that are not maintained or updated do not create a good impression.
Think about how much time you can commit to keeping your profile(s) current and
then decide if you should have just one profile with links from other services, or
whether you should replicate your profile on a number of services.
- Three: Improving your outputs’ availability’ > Discoverability. This is about making
your scholarly outputs reach as many people as possible. This step involves assessing
what publications and other outputs of yours are already online and then sharing
everything else you are able to. You are also encouraged to share all your scholarly
outputs, including teaching resources and‘popular or informal’ resources in a variety
of formats.
- OPEN SCIENCE > Science Europe identified three essential aspects of Open science:
its relation to digital technology, the idea that ir explores changing research practices
and their impact on the research system as a whole, and the fundamental importance
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4. of “a certain vision of science as a community of practice”.
Once you got the basics, it is time to start communicating and interacting. And I cannot
stress enough that both aspects are equally important. Just broadcasting is not enough
(adopt the same attitude as in research: more than publications, also projects and
collaborations). Social media is all about reciprocity.
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5. How I see it, to take you to the next level you need to look for productive interactions.
Choose tools that fit your character, your talents and your research.
Re-use all this scientific and non-scientific knowledge that you’re amassing but be sure
to adapt it the fit your specific aim and tailor it to your audience.
PRODUCTIVE INTERACTIONS means looking for partners within your university.
- Communication Office
- Unit for Science Communication
- Research Communication (incl. scholarly communication)
- Faculty Communication
- Dedicated person with research group
It also means identifying external stakeholders:
- Of your research: general public and specific target groups
- Of your communication: media
When it comes to social media: FIND YOUR INFLUENCERS
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6. Before I turn to the wide array of tools at your disposal I would like to turn your
attention to a useful competence in your bag of communication tricks.
STORY-BOARDING – why not try story-boarding your research project?
• It helps envision, or picture in miniature, and long in advance, a finished product.
• Storyboarding is a kind of low-cost prototyping, a way of making more concrete
what will happen.
• Because concepts are fleshed out and made concrete in an accessible way, a
storyboard can help generate resources and commitment from external source.
• The storyboard (and later the screenplay) generate a detailed, common vision that
can be shared early on by many different actors in complex production teams.
Link: https://medium.com/advice-and-help-in-authoring-a-phd-or-non-fiction/story-
boarding-research-b430cebd5ccd
STORY-TELLING – that in turn will help when you try your hand at story-telling.
The risks that come with communicating your research to wide audiences are great.
Rigorous researching and attention-grabbing storytelling are very different trades.
However, by finding that point of connection in your research and by maintaining control
of your media relationships, you will be better placed at mitigating those risks.
Link: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/08/27/academic-storytelling-
risk-reduction/
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7. TOOLS
And let’s stress again: RE-USE CONTENT BUT ADAPT TO AIM AND TARGET AUDIENCE
- Website: news items
- Opinion pieces for all kinds of media
- Reddit
- LinkedIn: Not a scholarly network but still potential for outreach. Minimum effort,
maximum return (interesting when corporate world en entreprises aree your
stakeholders) (as researcher: keep profile up-to-date and make sure there’s a link to
Biblio)
- Ik heb een vraag
- Twitter: cf infra
- Tumblr. E.g. Congrats – you’ve got an all male panel! And
http://errantscience.tumblr.com/post/116460277480/birds-of-academia-an-often-
hard-to-spot-selection
- Wikipedia as a means to open up science:
https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/10/using-wikipedia-to-open-up-science/
- Infographics: http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2014/08/11/the-power-of-
pictures-how-we-can-use-images-to-promote-and-communicate-science/ > the
importance of visuals (academic poster becomes infographic)
- Online book reviews including popular books based on science:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/category/disciplines/media-studies/
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8. - Blog
- Explanimation: e.g. Crash Course Biology
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF > Choose your
audience / Deliver in style / Stay focused / Get to the point / Be part of the community
/ Give the audience an anchor / Be a person not a company
- Ted talk (start locally with TedX) – Scientists Popularizing Science: characteristics and
impact of TED Talk Presenters (PLOSONE April 2013): “Presenters are predominantly
male and non-academics. Although TED popularizes research it may not promote the
work of scientists within the academic community.”
- Podcast
Missing: facebook
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9. So let’s start by asking the question: is social media a waste of time?
And I’ll be honest: social media are not the easy way out.
Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
Certainly a matter of ‘look before you leap’.
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10. Besides the obvious benefits:
- Connect with peers and building a scholarly network. Quote: “It’s allowed me to open
up new communities for discussions and increase the indertdisciplinarity of my
research.” (A network boost by M. Baker. Nature, 12 Feb 2015)
- Reputation management
- Dissemination
Conferences:
- Back-channel: (capture content & provide feedback) share questions and resources
- Connecting and networking
- Virtual participation
- Reading tip: http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-
network/blog/2012/oct/03/ethics-live-tweeting-academic-conferences
Jobs & prof. development:
- “Following institutions, companies and individuals on Twitter can offer clues about
workplace culture and ongoing projects in a way that static website do not.”
- “Junior researchers are creating identities that don’t have to be routed through the
principal investigator.” (A network boost by M. Baker. Nature, 12 Feb 2015)
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12. There’re great benefits to integrating social media into your research – not just as a way
to communicate but also as a means to become
a better scholar.
Although it can be great fun and many of the social media look flighty (eg. half-life of a
tweet is 18 minutes) it should not be taken lightly
but approached in a strategic and professional manner.
It’s all about finding the right balance:
- Not overthinking it but using it to your advantage
- Getting into the spirit of sharing while keeping focus in your own research and not
losing yourself in procrastination
- Giving it a natural place in your time management and approaching it so you feel
comfortable with it
It might even offer you some release to the incessant publication and promotion
pressure (although the current academic system
is not yet in tune with outreach and online activities)
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13. Twitter can be a lot of fun and be an added value if you find the right use for you and
your aims
But those might not be the aims of your target audience
It also adds to information ‘overload’
It does need to be approached with a healthy wariness and self-control
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14. Account:
- in order to keep an account active, a user needs to log in and tweet at least
once every six months, or risk permanently losing an account.
- An account might appear dead, but someone might be an active reader of
other’s tweets.
- Group account or personal account?
- Visuals: make it attractive (why not use a great research photo as
background?)
Handle / user name:
Use a short Twitter username. Limit to 15 characters
cannot contain "admin" or "Twitter“
(avoid numbers or underlines: you want others to be able to remember it and
type it easily.)
You can be anonymous if you wish, but as a researcher I would not recommend
it: you are more likely to have interesting interactions with others if they know
who you are.
Bio:
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15. Why should people follow you?
Affiliation (~trust) or other twitteraccounts
Hashtag topics in your field
Personal elements
Please no eggs!
Settings: what notifications would you like to receive?
My tip: more early on, less further on (building network). Notification if DM.
Don’t forget website
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18. • Twitter clients: Twitter, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Tweetbot > app or web-based
• Schedulers: Hootsuite, Buffer
• Feed updates
• Link shorteners and trackers: Bitly, Owly
• Analytics: Twitter Analytics, Twitalyzer, SumAll, twtrland > some examples later on
• Filters
• Archive: twDocs lets you save Twitter tweets, favorites, mentions, direct messages
and search results as PDF, DOC, XML, CSV, TXT, XLS or HTML files.
• History: Topsy (get old tweets)
• Storify
• BlueNod
• TwInbox: integrated into MS Outlook
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19. Importance of a good bio
Odd followers: it happens – so do bots!
@tweetyourscience database
With time, you'll become adept at discerning who is worth following and who is
not. There's no set strategy for this — it's completely up to you and your own
personal tastes. It might also depend on your strategy.
Spread the affort: within research group?
Twitter etiquette does not require that you follow someone just because they
follow you, but following someone is a way of indicating your presence to them.
You can also mention people without having to follow them.
LISTS
A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or
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20. subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream
of Tweets from only the users on that list.
Lists are used for reading Tweets only. You cannot send or direct a Tweet to
members of a list, for only those list members to see.
You can follow Twitter profiles using lists without actually following their accounts,
which means these users aren’t notified that you’re following them.
If you’re going to an event or attended one in the past — add the people
associated with the event to a Twitter List.
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21. @ResearchUGent: under the hood…
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22. Management of expectations:
- Regularity
- Content
- Warning when tweeting prolifically
- (muting)
Individual tweets are being displayed with larger font and a new font face, while your
thumbnail image, name and Twitter handle are actually smaller, bringing the focus on
the content of the tweet.
And your tweets that are getting particularly high engagement (more favorites,
retweets, etc.) will actually be displayed with even larger font to bring further attention
to them.
PIN TWEET TO YOUR PROFILE PAGE
Thin and thick tweets (David Silver): one layer of information > more layers
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24. Disclaimer: often depends on twitter client
REPLY AND MENTION
- Visiting another user's profile page on Twitter will not display Tweets that
mention them. However, you can search for all Tweets mentioning their
username in the search box. Search for "@username" to view results.
- People will only see others' @replies in their home timeline if they are following
both the sender and recipient of the @reply.
- People will see any mentions posted by someone they follow (all mentions are
treated like regular Tweets).
- People with protected Tweets can only send @replies to their approved
followers.
If someone sends you an @reply and you are not following the user, the reply will
not appear on your Tweets timeline. Instead, the reply will appear in your
Mentions tab. You can click People you follow at the top of the Mentions timeline
to only display mentions from users you are following.
It's a good idea to be judicious in your use of the Twitter @ reply button. If you're
trying to have a direct conversation with someone, be sure your tweets are
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25. interesting before you start sending a barrage of Twitter replies. (of course, no DM
is possible to multiple contacts)
TWITTER CANOE
If you’ve been @-mentioned in a conversation on Twitter that mentions a lot of
other users and that doesn't stop until the people involved run out of things to
say, congratulations! You’ve been roped into a Twitter canoe.
A canoe is a conversation on Twitter that keeps rolling and adding new people
until people get annoyed or bored and stop talking to each other. Adding yourself
to a Twitter canoe is a bit of a bold move—etiquette calls for someone to add you
first.
SUBTWEETING and TWEETSTORMS > CODE of CONDUCT
DIRECT MESSAGE
Direct Messages are private messages sent from one Twitter user to other Twitter
users. You can use Direct Messages to communicate privately with a single person
or with a group of people.
• You can start a conversation with anyone who follows you.
• Some accounts, including businesses, have enabled a setting to receive Direct
Messages from anyone. You can send a Direct Message to these users even if
they don’t follow you.
• There is an account limit of 1,000 Direct Messages sent per day.
Blue Line versus View Conversation
On Twitter web as well as its Android and iOS apps the tweets that form part of a
conversation are displayed connected by a blue line. This makes conversations
much easier to follow right from the timeline itself without having to go to a
tweet's permanent URL.
This means that if you have something to say that cannot be contained within the
confines of a single tweet, split them up into logical sentences, post the first
sentence(s) and then reply to that tweet using the reply button, remove the
@mention and then put in the second sentence(s), follow the same procedure for
subsequent tweets.
Also, if a conversation started an hour ago, but the latest tweet was sent 38
seconds ago, the whole conversation is going to appear at the top of your
timeline.
Blue line: if you follow people involved in conversation
View conversation: if retweeted (so people you don’t follow)
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28. Blue Line versus View Conversation
On Twitter web as well as its Android and iOS apps the tweets that form part of a
conversation are displayed connected by a blue line. This makes conversations much
easier to follow right from the timeline itself without having to go to a tweet's
permanent URL.
This means that if you have something to say that cannot be contained within the
confines of a single tweet, split them up into logical sentences, post the first sentence(s)
and then reply to that tweet using the reply button, remove the @mention and then put
in the second sentence(s), follow the same procedure for subsequent tweets.
Also, if a conversation started an hour ago, but the latest tweet was sent 38 seconds
ago, the whole conversation is going to appear at the top of your timeline.
Blue line: if you follow people involved in conversation
View conversation: if retweeted (so people you don’t follow)
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29. When? Get to know the habits of your followers and influencers!
Attribute: approach twitter as you would approach your research.
Be strategic in mentioning other people
Indicate why someone should read this tweet – summarize – trigger – appeal for
action
Don’t expect everyone to have read your tweet.
HALF LIFE: http://www.socialmediacontractors.com/half-life-tweet/
Also consider the amount of followed accounts by your tweeps
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32. Favourite
Getting it right?
1. Your followers are reacting: you should be able to see a reaction ripple
through your feed.
2. Your number of followers is steadily and naturally growing. If your follower
numbers are falling, tweet less; if they’re static, tweet more.
3. The right people are seeing and responding to your tweets. Connect with the
influencers.
4. You treat Twitter interactions differently than promotions. If you are using
your Twitter account strictly as a promotional channel, people will treat it as
such.
5. Your posts yield real results.
Knowing how many times to tweet per day is a process of trial and error, but that
doesn’t mean it’s a matter of blind luck to find that magical number. It’s an
ongoing process of refinement.
I would add: management of expectations
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34. Something for ILVO account?
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