Social Media for Academics

2015-04-16Hugo Guyaderdoctoral candidate

New Academic Environment

Past: Academics would focus on their research, put out ideas and results and then see what happens.

Present & Future: Academics now have to carefully plan projects and actively influence citations of their good work.

Gruber (2014)

Altmetrics• Alternative to traditional metrics. • Policy documents / reports cited,

but not on academic databases. • Traceability of mentions.

Twitter

Research Gate

Academia.edu

Slideshare

Google Scholar

LindedIn

Putnik & O’Brien (2015)

Reasons for Using Social Media

• Research-relevant discussions

• Industry interactions

• Networking & Collaboration

• Self-promotion & Citations

• Metrics

• Find “grey” literature

• Help, Support & Feedback

• “It gets you writing”

• Fun!

The 4 Cs➡ Curation

-> bookmarking = collecting, archiving and maintaining digital information and sources for use in your research (later). Examples of sources include blog posts, online journal articles, and posts on twitter.

➡ Conversation-> connect to other researchers and wider audiences. Blogging, networking sites and Twitter are ways of sharing your thoughts and research results as well as finding the right people to converse with.

➡ Collaboration-> working with others is more flexible: notes, files, literature and bookmarks from any computer or mobile device.

➡ Communication-> professional networking: LinkedIn

Haney (2012)

5 Truths About Social Media

in Academia

1. Social media is no option

2. There is no perfect channel, just go for all

3. Our role is already to create and share knowledge

4. Take back control of your unique online presence

5. Nobody pays us for social media, yet!

Hofeditz (2015)

… or maybe not?✦ being viewed

negatively by other academics

✦ time pressures

✦ social media use as an obligation

✦ becoming a target of attack

✦ too much self-promotion by others

✦ possible plagiarism of ideas

✦ commercialisation of content

✦ privacy & copyright

Luton (2014)

“You can’t compete so grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.”

✴ Lack audience to start intelligent conversations about niche topics.

✴ No promise that anyone is to reading.

✴ Search “marketing” on LinkedIn and you’ll find 68K groups.

✴ Serve the algorithm, rather than the editor.

The Next Web (2015)

Nice-to-have tools, not need-to-have

Social Media StrategyOn the one hand, social media lends itself to exploration and experimentation.On the other hand, there is a danger of being too scattergun.

✓ For whom are you writing? ✓ Why are you writing? ✓ How do you want to present yourself? ✓ What do you not want to show about yourself online?

(e.g. restrictions on who can access your pages)

Haynes (2012)

How to use Social MediaMy Experience

Twitter

• fast & responsive

• news — a window to the world

• discover articles & researchers

• no barrier of entry, no hierarchy

#academia#HigherEd

#dayofhighered

@GdnHigherEd

@Edudemic

@PhD2Published

@PhDStudents@PhDForum @cwphd @phdphil1 @socphd

#PhDchat #PhDlife #PhDAdvice #PhDForum

@researchimpact

@timeshighered@THEworldunirank

@insidehighered #EDresearch #researchED

#research#EDstudies

#AdjunctChat

#ScholarSunday

#scholarsgetviral

#AcWri

@chronicle

@PhD_Connect

@LegoAcademics@CitizenAcademic

@HackYourPhd

@ConversationEDU

@AcademicsSay

@Write4Research

@researchwhisper

@thethesiswhisperer

@NextScientist

@ResearchEx

@GradElitism@DrunkGrad

#GradSchoolProb @LifeofaPhDStud

Twitter & Academia1. Approximately 2,000 journal articles and 3,000 conference papers have been written about Twitter (Fry, 2014).

2. Nearly 90% of academics on Twitter use it for their work (Lupton, 2014).

3. Academic tweets are approximately 9 times more likely to be retweeted than other tweets (Holmberg and Thewall, 2014).

4. In 2012, only one in 40 scholars was active on Twitter (Priem et. al 2012).

5. There are no significant differences in how much time is spent on Twitter by amongst academics from different age groups (Holmberg and

Thewall, 2014).

6. The largest proportion of academics on Twitter are early career academics (Lupton, 2014).

Gross (2014).

Can Tweets Predict Citations?

#twimpact

Twitter activity about a publication leads to increased distribution and can lead to an increase in citations.

Up to 11 times more citations.

Eysenbach (2011)

Quick answers to questions on things like .. where do I find this tool or that tool .. @rjhogue

There are people who are practicing what I’m researching academically and give me a reality check. @Annlytical

We trade references for research @Annlytical

Twitter is brilliant for keeping up with things, networking, finding new ideas, people’s blogs and publications @BenGuilbaud

meeting new people (in all disciplines), academic support, public engagement, increased visibility, filtered news @Martin_Eve

I’ve found Twitter useful for augmenting F2F academic conferences, extending the conversations @JessieNYC

Twitter’s unique advantage is that very quickly allows me to spread word of my work to non-academic audiences @elebelfiore

Keeps me up-to-the-minute with news in my field ie; policy issues, and connects me to conferences/other academics @DonnaBramwell

connects me to other delegates at conferences, allows me to interact with students in lectures, keeps me uptodate @timpaa

great source of information & resources wouldn’t have found otherwise @nicklebygirl

a PhD can be very isolated so I think twitter is a great way to meet people who can help and give advice @CET47

you can get very interesting literature advices or other sources you have not noticed yet @Journey210

shameless self-promotion…! @KatieMcGettigan

to invite community members to events and lectures on campus @MegFrauts

twitter is the best way to keep up to date with my subject, find useful resources and connect with others @LGSMU

follow conferences globally and get in touch with other academics for quick Q&A sessions @Greg0rE

joining twitter has helped remove the isolation of study through engagement with #phdchat – synch & asynchronous @JaneDavis13

twitter allows me to familiarize w current trends & edu tools for my students (tumblr & prezi are examples) @DisModern

keeps you in touch w development in your field n wider @lace675468

“Why do you find Twitter useful as an academic?”

Cardigan (2012)

Twitter

Van Noorden (2014)

A brief guide to

department meeting discourse

3 tweeting styles:• Informational: links to articles, blogposts,

announcements, and funding sources that might be of interest to others. Usually with a bit of explanation or commentary.

• Interactive: engage the Twitter community, usually by posing a question or topic of discussion or responding to something someone else has posted. Such exchanges lead to simple advices, or philosophical conversations.

• Personal: a window into your life. Probably an entirely worthless activity, at least professionally; but it does provide personal connections and a sense of community.

DIY Ivory Tower (2012)

1. Put up an avatar. It doesn't really matter what the picture is, but the "egg picture" (the default avatar for new accounts) makes you look like a spammer. 2. Don't pick a Twitter name that is difficult to spell or remember. 3. Tweet regularly. 4. Don't ignore people who tweet at you. Set Twitter to send you an e-mail notification when you get a mention or a private message. If you don't do that, then check your account frequently.

5. Engage in conversation. Don't just drop in to post your own update and disappear. Twitter is not a "broadcast-only" mechanism; it's CB radio. 6. Learn the hashtags for your subject field or topics of interest, and use them. 7. Don't just make statements. Ask questions. 8. Don't just post links to news articles. I don't need you to be my aggregator. 9. Do show your personality. Crack some jokes. 10. Have fun.

10 Commandments:

Gulliver (2012)

FEK Twitter@LiU_IEI_FEK

Founded by Richard Price in 2007

‣ "With networks like Twitter and Facebook, information whizzes around at laser speed, whereas in science, and research in general, the average time lag is a year before a paper gets in a journal and is distributed to the rest of the world.”

‣ "When you read a paper and want to comment, you'll be able to respond immediately. The conversation will take minutes and hours instead of months and years.”

3,500 new users / day

Academia.edu

Academia.edu

Van Noorden (2014)

Research Gate๏ scholarly mashup of Facebook and LinkedIn ๏ follow colleagues (6 million users) ๏ engage in collaborative discussion, ๏ upload and download papers (‘requests’), ๏ share results (even negatives) and datasets…

Open Review encourages users to post in-depth critiques of existing publications.

IEI 250 members 230 publications

LiU 2300 members 12000 publications

Research Gate

Van Noorden (2014)

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

Van Noorden (2014)

7 tips to supercharge your academic LinkedIn profile

1: Bust down barriers to finding your profile 2: Make your Headline into an ‘elevator pitch’ 3: Make yourself approachable with a photo 4: Hook ‘em with your Summary section 5: Give the scoop on your best work 6: Brag about your best Awards and publications 7. Add some eye-catching content

Konkiel (2014)

Advantages

+ Easy and free to use

+ Dominates the university sector

+ Records all citations

+ Quite up-to-date

Disadvantages — Not clear which sources they use

— Not clear how algorithm works

— Records all citations

— Cannot recognise duplicated outputs

Blogging

• Content!

1. Blog name = what you plan to blog about: specific area/theme, made-up name or your own name.

2. Platform: ❖ already existing blog: university, a research

group, community, alumni, etc. ❖ start your own blog (multi-author?):

❖ on wordpress, blogspot, blogger, tumblr (e.g, hugoguyader.tumblr.com) - limit to how far you can customize - limited amount of themes you can use

❖ purchase your own website name and hosting (e.g. jonengstrom.com)

Things to consider

“Blogging is quite simply, one of the most important things that an

academic should be doing right now”.

• Make sure your titles tell a story, and your findings are communicated early on.

• Remember the Web is a network, post your links to Twitter and Facebook. Let people subscribe by RSS or email.

• Talk to your readers. Encourage people to comment. Respond on Twitter and Facebook. And be reciprocal, open-minded and fair in sharing your content with others and linking to their work.

Dunleavy & Gilson (2012)

Videos

• Source of information and discussion

• Channels: Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Google, (e.g. HBR, TEDtalks) ➡ Transmission of live webinars ➡ Films ➡ Lectures — M.O.O.C.

SlideshareTo share knowledge online

• Created: October 2006

• Acquired by LinkedIn: May 2012.

• Uploads: 15 million

• Monthly views: 60 million visitors and 215 million page views.

• Users: brands, speakers, NGOs, consultants, magazines, academics, etc.

Slideshare

Email list

PodcastOne of our highest aims is to bring academia online, and in turn, broaden access to the social sciences. Audio is integral to this process. By giving narrative to the full breadth of academic research, we hope to stretch the understanding and impact of research beyond the confines of universities.

“

”Cheryl Brumley, LSE Podcast Digital Editor

• LiU: Social media for researchershttp://www.bibl.liu.se/publicera-och-sprida/sociala-medier?l=en

• London School of Economics: Maximising the impact of academic researchhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/

• Social media: A guide for researchers http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

• Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network http://www.nature.com/news/online-collaboration-scientists-and-the-social-network-1.15711

• Social Media for Academics http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/book/9781843346814

• Boost Your Career with Social Media: Tips for the Uninitiatedhttps://hbr.org/2011/12/boost-your-career-with-social.html

• Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisorshttps://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-publications/reports/innovate-open-university-social-media-handbook-vitae-2012.pdf/view

• Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/files/2011/11/Published-Twitter_Guide_Sept_2011.pdf

• Tweet your Science http://www.tweetyourscience.com/

Advices & Guides

• Academic blogging, a personal experiencehttp://freakonometrics.hypotheses.org/12660

• Fortune: From Justin Bieber to data scientists, how Twitter got hot in the academy http://fortune.com/2014/08/22/contagion-justin-bieber-data-scientists-twitter/

• Chronicle of Higher Education: The Academic Twitterazihttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/02/scholars-debate-etiquette-live-tweeting-academic-conferences

• Is blogging and tweeting about research? http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/is-blogging-and-tweeting-about-research.html

• Practical Advice for Teaching with Twitter http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/practical-advice-for-teaching-with-twitter/26416

• 12 things every business blogger should know how to do http://www.getinfrontcommunications.com/12-things-every-business-blogger-should-know-how-to-do.php

• From Tweet to Blog Post to Peer-Reviewed Article: How to be a Scholar Now http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/09/25/how-to-be-a-scholar-daniels/

• CUNY Academic Commons: The Importance of Audio and Podcasts http://justpublics365.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2014/07/02/podcasting/

• Everything You Want to Know About How to Create an Amazing #LinkedIn Profile http://www.kokasexton.com/create-amazing-linkedin-profile/

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