Hey researchers, get on Twitter!
On the 27th of May, David Flanders and I were invited to speak at @unimelb’s “Social Media Professionals” about how @ResPlat can help researchers engage in social media.
We’re here with the social media professionals of @unimelb! @dfflanders and @heyDejan are speaking soon! pic.twitter.com/TUqUwzEPo7
— ITS Research (@ITS_Res)May 27, 2014
Our slides can be found here, and most of the content I spoke on is repeated in these blog posts: 1, 2, 3.
So why should you, as a researcher, start tweeting? Well first, because it aids the public understanding of science. Twitter is that magical bridge between the academic and public.
Second, you only have 140 characters to express yourself. No time for jargony, convoluted speak. Twitter sharpens your writing! (this was written in less than 140 characters).
.@AstroKatie +1. Twitter is therefore a fantastic tool in sharpening academic writing.
— Dejan (@heyDejan)July 1, 2014
Katie Mack agrees.
Third, Twitter is academic currency. Can tweets predict citations? (that caught your eye, didn’t it?) Why not check this study and find out? Also check out LSE’s Impact Blog. LSE love Twitter. As an academic, you become your own (usually) self-managed brand. Twitter is the perfect way of spreading your ideas, your research papers and forming collaborations. Jump on board!
An infographic outlining the role of Twitter in Science Publication & Communication - source at bottom of image.
Fourth, everyone’s on it - or at least they’re starting to. Stay ahead of the curb. You’d be surprised at how many of your colleagues are furiously tweeting away.
Making a master spreadsheet of all unimelb academics on Twitter. Glad to see my school, @Government_UoM, leading the way.
— Dejan (@heyDejan)July 1, 2014
Want to be included in my beautiful spreadsheet? Ping me!
Closer to home, Dr Katie Mack, with more than 12,000 followers, has had enormous success navigating the twittersphere. “AstroKatie” (as she’s known more commonly in her community), writes:
I jumped right in and found it to be an excellent resource for keeping up with astrophysics and the world-wide academic community… When a scientist on Twitter veers away from the pure science and talks about the life they’re balancing with (or building around) a research career, it helps break down stereotypes and increase public trust in science. I think it can be an especially good opportunity for women or minorities in science to become role models for young people hoping to follow the same path.
Read the rest of “Unlocking the secret of tweet success” here.
The academic community is growing. Interest in science is growing. Twitter is growing. I urge all researchers, academics, and University students to get on board and join the movement. Let’s make it trend-y!
What can you do? Forward this blogpost to colleagues, friends and other community members you think need a little Twit nudge. I have about a million other resources which might aid in this Twitter revolution, so ping me! I’m also more than happy to provide some Twit-Lit (Twitter Literacy).
Tweet ya later!
140 Characters is the New Black (part 2)
Engaging academics in social media
In reading part 1, I’ll now outline some very basic tips and tricks across three channels: Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube.
Follow your favourite academics, communities, organisations, businesses, journalists, news agencies.
Use:
- Sharing moments: live-tweeting and picture sharing in real time (especially handy for conferences which have their own #hashtag)
- Sharing information: linking out to a blog-post, Journal Article, an Event, or newspaper article.
- Social currency: connecting to other professionals, organisations, communities. You can ask for promotion (e.g. a retweet), name their contribution to an event you’ve organised (thanks to @!), invite them for collaborations. This works well as there’s bidirectional profit; they receive a plug from you, you might receive one back. This also aids transparency - all active agents are visible to the public.
Tips:
- Be concise and snappy with your tweets. They’re designed to be bite-sized. New research shows that the perfect length is around 100 characters!
- Join a #hashtag community! e.g. if you’re writing about Higher Education, use the #HigherEd tag! Check this page for more academic hashtags communities.
- When tweeting a user directly, use their handle at the beginning of the tweet e.g. “@heyDejan Hi, could you please RT my last tweet? Thanks!”
- If you want all your followers to see the above tweet, put a full stop in front of the handle (e.g. “.@heyDejan Hi…”) or use the handle elsewhere in the tweet (e.g. “Hi @heyDejan). Placing the handle at the beginning of the tweet means that only those following both accounts (e.g. yours and @heyDejan) will be able to see it on their feed.
LSE also have you covered on academic blogging!
Uses:
- Informal blogging: quick blog-posts with photos depicting an idea, reflection, problem or past event.
- Formal blogging: longer, reflective posts which capture an idea; its successes, problems, history and future.
- Mediums: Tumblr allows for a number of various mediums in blogging, including text posts, photos, videos, links, sound bites, quotes, dialogues.
note: Tumblr is just a proxy for a blogging platform. Feel free to play around with others such as WordPress.
Tips:
- Picture/Text ratio should be 50:50: plenty of eye-candy for your readers. Check here for a master-map of all ideal lengths for most channels! (Thank you Kevan Lee!)
- (Hash)tags: group similar posts together. For both archiving and promoting.
- Engagement: if you want somebody specific to read your post, mention them somewhere in it and ask them to check/edit the post before publication. You get a fresh pair of eyes and the pair you always wanted in one hit!
- Narrowcasting: you have your blogpost up, now what? It’s time to start feeding it to different communities. Tweet it out (include @ who might dish out a retweet), publish it on your Facebook (if you’re actually using it), or even email it around to people you think would be interested!
- Sign-Off: at the end of every blogpost write a sentence or two about how you can be reached. See the end of this blog as an example.
Following the rise of TED, videos are more popular than ever!
Uses:
- Vlogging: Can it be academic? Good question! This guy seems to think so.
- Posting interviews: these are short (1-2 minutes max) videos of people at events; their thoughts, feelings, expectations, inventions, ideas.
- Advertising: videos are a great form of marketing as they showcase what your events are like and what they can expect. Sometimes content is more fun, accessible and personable in video form compared to text.
Our very own David F. Flanders’ TedxHamburg Talk on 3D Printing
Tips:
- Video style: make sure you develop one with your own distinct voice.
- Editing: YouTube has a decent editing system.
- Privacy: YouTube has three main privacy systems (public, unlist, private). Public videos are accessible to anyone and can be searched through the YouTube search bar and Google more generally. Unlisted videos can only be accessed through the video’s custom link. You can email, tweet or embed unlisted videos to your specific audience. Private videos can only be viewed by the owner of the YouTube account (handy for editing).
Stay tuned for part 3, ‘the road ahead’ & more #ResBaz social media developments in the months ahead!
Research can be ‘bazaar’, we’re here to help! Don’t understand how? Read our mission statement. Flick us a tweet, watch a video, check out our page and follow our blog-posts - both formal and fun. Even better than the virtual, meet like minded researchers at one of our events. Come engage with the Melbourne research community!
Get started by contacting your discipline’s ‘Research Community Coordinator’ who can help you learn new tools and have fun collaborating with fellow researchers! Here’s the full list.
140 Characters is the New Black (part 1)
Engaging academics in social media.
140 Characters is the new black, or perhaps the new leather elbow patch, for the eager and active academic. Unfortunately, most academics have been slow in grasping this realisation.
Image can be purchased and viewed here. Owned by CartoonStock.
On February 15th 2014, the New York Times published, “Professors, We Need You!” by columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Nicholas Kristof. Kristof asserts that “professors today have a growing number of tools available to educate the public, from online courses to blogs to social media. Yet academics have been slow to cast pearls through Twitter and Facebook”. He reminds that it was nonscholars who instilled a breath of fresh air into ‘lectures’ through the internet phenomenon, TED Talk. Online lecture series which have no particular 'research impact’ but are talk of the town and a bragging right when placed in a room of academics.
So why aren’t academics in like with social media? Kristof responds that most Ph.D. programs reproduce a culture which “glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience”. A culture of “exclusivity” - writing and publishing for each other and superiors as opposed to the public. This is at odds with social media; an operation built on openness, public discourse, information sharing, collaboration, networks and virtual communities.
Probably what academics imagine Twitter being like
I would also assert that perhaps academics view social media as immature, frivolous, procrastination, cats and unacademic. A view that, admittedly, may sometimes be true. However, social media’s birthplace is the World Wide Web and the possibilities are therefore boundless. Niche communities pop up faster than you can retweet your favourite academics’ latest musing. And yes, academics are on Twitter! It’s also worth mentioning that The London School of Economics is so far ahead of the curb that they even have a “Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities” guide made available.
Front page of LSE’s Twitter Guide for Academics & Researchers
So if LSE can do it, why can’t we here at The University of Melbourne? If harnessed correctly, social media has the potential to revolutionise the way academics see, do and understand research. In fact, the World’s first Twitter only academic journal is already in the works!
In part 2 of “140 Characters is the New Black” I’ll very quickly go through three social media channels (Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube) and outline some handy tips and tricks to get you started on your new-found academic journey!
And in the conclusion to the trilogy, part 3 of “140 Characters is the New Black” will examine the road ahead. What are the practical things we can do to get professors and academic staff out of the nest and tweeting.
Research can be ‘bazaar’, we’re here to help! Don’t understand how? Read our mission statement. Flick us a tweet, watch a video, check out our page and follow our blog-posts - both formal and fun. Even better than the virtual, meet like minded researchers at one of our events. Come engage with the Melbourne research community!
Get started by contacting your discipline’s ‘Research Community Coordinator’ who can help you learn new tools and have fun collaborating with fellow researchers! Here’s the full list.
