Using Twitter as a Postgraduate Researcher#tgsfridays

@bioSimonUoBSimon Bishop,

Doctoral Researcher, School of Biosciences

#tgsfridays Menu

• What is Social Media/Twitter?• Why use Social Media?• How to use Twitter• What’s in it for me?

What is Twitter?

• Twitter is a short messaging service where users ‘tweet’ short messages of up to 140 characters (including letters, numbers, spaces, symbols and links)

• Twitter is everybody online talking; and you can take part.

What is Twitter?

Link ‘shortening’ services redirect long URLs

• Tweets appear in chronological order on a user’s timeline

http://twitter.com/PlanAustralia

• And on a follower’s timeline

#hashtags• A way to group conversations• Twitter follows everybody using

the hashtag in real time• Often used for TV programmes

#hashtags• Hashtags encourage discussion• Anybody can join in, anywhere, live• Great for conferences:

– synopses of talks as they happen allow anyone around the world to join in with the debate

– live tweeting provides a record of talks for both speaker and listener– live tweeting aids understanding by forcing you to summarise succinctly– makes it much easier to find similar tweeters/academics in your own field

• Some examples:– #TeamGB– #PrehistoricAutopsy– #PhDchat– #neurofly2013

Why use social media?

• Taxpayer money funds research: It’s your responsibility to talk about your work

• If you’re not out there talking, nobody will know about your work

• The best person to explain your research is you

• Funding often now requires evidence of outreach

• There is a knowledge and trust divide between scientists and the public which we, as researchers, need to bridge

“Trust is not about information; it’s about dialogue and transparency*”

*Managing the Trust Portfolio: Science Public Relations and Social Responsibility – Borchelt, Friedman & Holland, 2010

• Social media is an excellent tool for – public engagement– sharing of literature and ideas– debate – data and idea collection

• Keep up to date – news, papers, trends and opinions

• Social media transcends cultural, geographical, publication and professional barriers

• Networking opportunities are immense

• Exposure can help with funding and citations (Twitter data can be quantified)

Using Twitter for public engagement

Using Twitter to gather opinions

How to use Twitter (part 1)

Points to remember, part 1• Whatever you post, imagine that it

WILL be read by:– Your family– Your boss– Your competitor

• Always consider your audience, the limitations of that audience, and your online profile

Points to remember, part 2

• Be sensible, this is the Internet• Be aware of language issues and loss of

language subtlety• Be aware of peak times and time zones• Be polite and give credit– HT, via, MT, RT

• Never post unpublished data or confidential information. Ever. Not one bit. No no.

tut tut.

How to use Twitter (part 2)

1. Create Impact

Exposure can help with funding and citations

If you’re not out there talking, nobody will know about your

work

Quantify your impact:

METRICS

Using Twitter to create impact

2. Attend conferences from afar

3. Crowdsourcing

• “I asked on Twitter if anyone had experienced any outrageous sexism recently, and whilst I was expecting quite a few, amusingly stereotyped clangers, I wasn’t expecting the deluge that started 30 seconds after I inquired, and which carried on for nearly four days afterwards.”

4a. Datamining

“Reading the Riots”• Collaboration between Twitter,

the Guardian and the LSE• Twitter donated 2.65 million

tweets• Looking for patterns,

underlying reasons for the riots, and the roles of individuals in spreading information (real and erroneous) about the riots

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/reading-the-riots http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/07/london-riots-twitter

4b. Policy and Response “#qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods”

• Analysed Tweet data, focusing on use of Twitter by Queensland Police Service during crisis using #qldfloods

• New research area into how social media is impacting our lives

• Implications in psychology, IT and social sciences

Arc Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) http://cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf

Trendrr

Software for analysing Twitter trends, traffic and discussion

The Discovery of the Higgs Boson, as discussed on Twitter

Antonio Lima,PhD,College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Birmingham

5. Keep up to date

• Follow the people in your field• Share links to articles;

receive suggestions in return• Follow journals and journalists

• See what people are talking about in your discipline

6. Debate

#

7. Inspiration

Final thoughts

Social media is just like conversation, but it is:academic conversationcultural conversationtopical conversation

and useful conversationthat anybody can hear, anywhere.

You have time to join in – use it to your advantage

Twitter guide for academics:http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/ Social media for scientists:http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2011/09/27/social-media-for-scientists-part-1-its-our-job/ Using Twitter as a research tool:http://placevalues.org/2012/02/03/using-twitter-as-a-research-tool/Analysing Twitter data:http://theplan.co.uk/cleaning-up-twitter-data-in-excel-for-analysis/Handbook of Social Media for Researchers and Supervisors (VITAE)http://www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/Vitae_Innovate_Open_University_Social_Media_Handbook_2012.pdf

Thanks to @UoBGradSchool, @unibirmingham, @AnneOsterrieder, @DrJPritchard, @EmergencyPuppy