Social media for scientists

Sarah Keenihan

PhD | B Med Sci | Grad Dip Sci Comms

Why should I communicate?

Royal Society. Factors affecting science communication: a survey of scientists and engineers, 2006.

“Most researchers have highlighted that social and ethical implications exist in their research, agree that the public needs to know about them, and believe that researchers themselves have a duty, as well as a primary responsibility, for communicating their research and its implications to the non-specialist public.”

Peer-reviewed publication

Conference abstract & slides/poster

ThesisBook chapter

Grant/fellowship applicationIndustry presentation

Communicating science

Peer-reviewed publication

Conference abstract & slides/poster

ThesisBook chapter

Grant/fellowship applicationIndustry presentation

Newsletter

Popular science article

News article

Long-form weekend article

Annual report

Industry publication

Press release

Communicating science

Communicating science

Social media: a definition• Social media describes the online tools that people use to share content,

profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online

- democratisation of content

- central role of people in creating and sharing content

- shift from broadcast to ‘many-to-many model’

- conversational

http://www.briansolis.comSimon Divecha, Mal Chia, Petra Dzurovcinova, Sarah Thomas

Why should I use social media?• It’s fun! • It’s free!• Find new /engage existing audiences• Develop communication skills• Belong to communities• Meet more scientists• Find career opportunities• Find funding & collaboration opportunities

Academic paper downloads: Melissa Terras

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/04/19/blog-tweeting-papers-worth-it/

Why should I use social media?

Blogs

• flexible• relatively long-form• ready to use platforms eg Wordpress • create your own style, layout, ‘brand’• conversations through comments facility• http://www.ipscell.com (Paul) • http://othersideofscience.com (Noby)• http://scienceforlife365.wordpress.com (Sarah)

Facebook• Everyone!

- individuals, groups, associations, communities, brands, businesses

• Ready to go: updates, photos, blog posts, links• http://www.facebook.com/scienceforlife365

Facebook: ScienceAlert

Chris Casella: “people love science, and people love Facebook”

Facebook: ScienceAlert

Facebook: Impact of Social Sciencesjoint project between the LSE, Imperial College, and the University of Leeds

Facebook: Impact of Social Sciences

Facebook: you’re not really in control

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/facebook_i_want_my_friends_back

Twitter

• short, sharp, shiny communication: 140 characters

• to know Twitter, you must do Twitter

• make a profile with a photo/image

• find people to follow (can later ‘unfollow’)

• tweet!

Twitter profiles matter

Twitter: real-time science

START

Twitter: live event coverage

HashtagAttributing commentsStorify

Refining your twitter experience• Create lists to manage

your stream• Use hashtags to follow

specific conversations• Participate in organised

chats #onsci #phdchat

• Use toolseg Hootsuite, Tweetdeck

• Use Storify.com to see/create archives

Useful places to go

• Social Media for Marketing Science, S. Keenihan & K. Alfordhttp://bridge8.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/b8_socmed_marketingscience.pdf

• Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities. A guide for academics and researchers, A. Mollett, D. Moran, P. Dunleavyhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/files/2011/11/Published-Twitter_Guide_Sept_2011.pdf

• Scienceonline http://scienceonlinenow.org - Google hangouts

Social media has broader lessons

The algorithms at Facebook privilege photographs because they are what people are most likely to interact with. And users love a picture that’s worth a thousand words, four thousand Facebook likes, 900 retweets, a bunch of hearts, and some reblogs: everyone likes being an important node. The whole system tilts towards the consumption of visual content, of pictures and infographics and image macros.

Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic via http://betterposters.blogspot.com.au

ASSCR social media activity

• http://www.facebook.com/groups/182425878465/

• @ASSCRStemCells #ASSCR2012

See you on twitter