arma 2012 social media in research support
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Social Media in Research Support ARMA 2012, Southampton, 12th - 13th June
Adam Golberg (Nottingham), Julie Northam (Bournemouth),
Phil Ward (Kent), David Young (Northumbria)
#arma2012
Outline
1. Introduction
2. What is Social Media?
3. Why social media is to blame for this session
4. Case study 1: Individual research support
blogs
5. Case study 2: Institutional research office
blogs
6. Conclusions/Questions
7. Optional demonstration: Blogs and Twitter
Getting to know each other...
What is social media (not)?
‘Social media’
methods of internet communication that allow the exchange
of ideas, sharing and collaborative creation of resources,
and making new contacts with people with common
interests.
Social
Media
Myths
http://xkcd.com/386/
How difficult is social media to use?
Information overload (filter failure)
Why social media is to blame for this session...
Why social media is to blame for this session...
Why social media is to blame for this session...
Why social media is to blame for this session...
Why social media is to blame for this session...
Case Study: Individual blogs
Motivations
and
origins
Research Fundermentals
• Started in September 2009
• Originally modelled on Lincoln Blog
• Intended to develop inclusive
community
o noticeboard
o notes
o shared frustrations
o humour
• Internal/external
• Had to be easy to update and
(ideally) free from 'party line'
Research Fundermentals
• Visits
o c100-200 a day; took c1 yr to get double figures
o NB doesn't record RSS feed traffic/emails
• Posts
o 498 posts so far. Most popular:
anything European
• 6 of top 10 posts EC related, eg 'How to Fail at FP7'
bizarre anomalies
• eg 'RCUK Moon Rocks Kidnapped'
• Sources
o Kent, IP Pools, NERC, BBSRC, Cambridge, Oxford, Essex,
ESRC, Opal, Comcast
o UK (55%), USA (9%), DE (3%), BE (3%), ES (3%), FR, IT, NL,
AUS, CAN (all 2%)
Cash for Questions:
Social Science Research Funding
• Started July 2011
• Was aware of
institutional blogs
• Motivations:
o LSE Impact event
o Communities/influence/connections
• Found 'Fundermentals' via google
Cash for Questions:
Social Science Research Funding
Benefits/Successes
• Testing ideas and understanding
• Blog posts picked
up elsewhere
• Expanded
professional
network
• Understanding of
social media
• Increased internal profile
Case Study: Individual blogs
Benefits:
• creating/joining a community
• making new contacts
• influencing and being influenced
• outlet for ideas, frustrations, creativity
• career profile
Individual blogs
Challenges:
• time commitment
• consistent valuable content
• confidence
• professional boundaries
• tone and attitude
• oversharing/giving away too much to people
who aren't paying
"The heart of blogging is linking...
linking and commenting,
connecting and communicating."
George Siemens
Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute
Athabasca University, Canada
Marketing department set up the original
blog using a standard BU blog template
using WordPress. Lots of IT problems!
Later custom designed by CEMP at BU
to give a unique look and make it more
user friendly. CEMP now maintain it.
Launched in March 2011 as the primary
means of internal research
communication at BU.
Immediate buy-in and support from the PVC and senior
academics.
All major research communications were channelled
through the Blog from the start, e.g. internal funding
competitions, studentship competition, etc.
Lots of promotion, e.g. All Staff email,
promotional cards, launch event, Staff
Intranet, emails to new academics,
USBs, even Research Blog cakes
hand-delivered to academics!
Academics can
subscribe to the Blog
via RSS or email.
Daily Digest email sent
at 10am every day.
c. 60% of academics
currently subscribed.
What makes our Blog unique and work well?
1. Primary source of information about research at BU,
ensuring clarity of key messages.
2. Sense of community - we encourage all academics to add
their own posts and encourage peer-to-peer learning.
3. Empowers and engages academics with research strategy.
4. Regularly feature posts about BU research - sharing success
internally and increasing the visibility of our research
externally.
The Blog recently won a
gold Heist award for the
Best Internal
Communications
Campaign.
Feedback from academics has been positive, primarily
because this is the first time that all information can be found
in one location that is easily searchable.
To date there are c. 60 group members.
The group is still active and members contribute occasional
stories, but we don't use it for research support.
Facebook for research
support?
We explored using Facebook for research
support by setting up BUResearch as a
private group.
First post...
Buddypress allows you to create a private, work-based social network... Working together is better...
"Infinitely extensible..."
Moving to Northumbria: Pilot first
Moving to Northumbria: Taking control
Moving to Northumbria: Buy-in and promotion
Moving to Northumbria: Sharing the load
Case Study: Institutional blogs
Benefits:
• one place and one means of communication
• easy for academics to access
• acts as a searchable archive
• subscription delivers posts to readers
• promote research externally
• saves duplication of effort
• content can be used elsewhere
Case Study: Institutional blogs
Challenges:
• institutional buy-in (ICT, management)
• self-hosting vs external hosting
• time commitment
• proving added value
• professional vs conversational
• training and sharing workload
• you can't take it with you
Questions and Conclusions
• Why should I? o yours has plenty of info
o knowledge is power...
• Is it inevitable?
• What are the barriers?
• We're not experts
o Ongoing debate: join in!
Institutional blog demo - website
Institutional blog demo - WordPress
#ff
http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/
http://research.northumbria.ac.uk/support/
http://fundermental.blogspot.co.uk/
@frootle
http://socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk/
@cash4questions
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