social media for researchers
DESCRIPTION
Social Media for researchers - slides updated with local resources for UC Davis.TRANSCRIPT
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Social Media for Researchers �#UCDSocMed
@hollybik Eisen Lab, UC Davis Genome Center
April 10, 2014
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“Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
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Social media tools & their uses Professional Profiles (Public info about your job & achievements)
• Professional Website – What you should maintain AT MINIMUM. Necessary to curate your own Google Search results! Register your own domain and install the Wordpress platform using your web hosting service – easy to use with many flexible layout options. – My example: http://www.hollybik.com
• Google Scholar – Keep track of your publications and citations. Also allows you to get literature recomendations based on your research interests. – My example: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=armU0SkAAAAJ&hl=en
• LinkedIn – Potentially important for job applications where HR departments pre-screen candidates. Update occasionally (major milestones or new jobs), but for scientists I’ve found no need for regular engagement. – My example: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=68993705
• Communities for Scientists – Academia.edu, ResearchGate, Mendeley; you may decide to use these too. But beware of having too many profiles to maintain!
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Social Media tools & their uses Short-form (more ephemeral, minimal time investment)
• Twitter – messages <140 characters, can post thoughts, soundbytes, links, pictures, videos.
• Facebook – personal profiles (pictures, status updates, etc.), groups and “pages”. But people can be wary about privacy settings (not accepting friend requests professional colleagues, or eschewing Facebook altogether).
• Microblogging – Tumblr (photos, quotes), Pinterest (visual ‘pinboard’ of images)
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Social media tools & their uses Long-form (more longevity, but more time investment) • Blogs – independent (e.g. a free Blogger/Wordpress
account) or linked to an established blog network (Scientific American, Nature Network)
• Video content – Youtube. Catchy visuals can be more effective than long written pieces. Difficult and time consuming to achieve high production quality.
• Podcasting – iTunes. Another different media form. Also can be just as time consuming to produce as video content.
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How do I start? • Define your goals – What do you want to achieve?
• Define your audience – Who do you envision talking to? Other scientists
(inside/outside your discipline)? Journalists? Educators? The general public?
• Choose specific platforms which help you achieve your goals – How much time do you want to invest? – What medium is best for conferring your message?
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Research
– Professional Networking – Build your “brand” and reputation by connecting with colleagues
– Content curation/creation – Blogging about research, linking to
and amalgamating media sources, e.g. news articles, videos, Storifys
– Community building - Particularly relevant for niche topics or interdisciplinary research
Outreach
– Increasing the visibility of scientists (and branding them as ‘experts’)
– Cutting out the middleman - scientists can communicate directly with interested members of the public. Conversations are also archived for future reference (dependent on platform)
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a Tweet, dissected Hashtag
Save Share Later
Twitter Handle
Share Now, Rebroadcast
Respond
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Let’s Tweet!��
#UCDSocMed
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Primary ways I use Social Media • Blogging about my own publications – provides a
reference for journalists, disseminates my research
• At Conferences/Meetings/Workshops - taking notes and socializing
• As a personalized information filter – staying informed of grants, research opportunities, new papers
• As an excuse/motivation to expand my knowledge and develop writing skills – blogging about marine genomics research at http://deepseanews.com
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Conference Tweeting • Tweeting soundbytes from talks – taking
notes, disseminating conference content
• Discussing talks with other audience members (and remote participants) during conference sessions
• Networking - interactions on twitter can introduce you to new people, and also serve as icebreakers before you meet other conference participants in real life
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Storify
http://storify.com
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Tips and Guidance • Scientific benefits can result – new collaborations – manuscripts – research funding – interactions across the boundaries of your discipline, – increased efficiency (e.g. obtaining PDFs, getting
quick answers to questions) – obtaining samples or leveraging others’ fieldwork
• Online interactions will BROADEN your real life professional networks
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Tips and Guidance • Social Media requires an initial time investment
– Setting up accounts, exploring features, connecting with others – OK to initially observe and "lurk” – Explore different tools and decide what works best. Consistent
use of fewer tools is better than spreading yourself too thin.
• Don't be afraid to ask for help – There are many established and friendly communities online
where people are always willing to help
• Social Media will save you time in the long run – Provides filters and customization for information – Many existing tools for aggregation and cross-platform
synching (see last slide)
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Perils – external perceptions • Perception and reputation in research – “When do you have time to do science?”
• Aimless interactions or misdirected goals – Lots of information on the internet and its
easy to get overloaded with different tools and lightspeed conversations
– Distraction potential – wasting time
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The Importance of Metrics • Online tools give us metrics to track the impact
and dissemination of online content – Data is critical for quantifying impact and refining
the use of online tools for researchers – Data will also be necessary for promoting
acceptance in academic circles; metrics dispel the perception that online activities are a “waste of time”, e.g. in job searches, tenure review, tracking project outputs
– ImpactStory - http://impactstory.it – Website statistics – StatCounter, Google Analytics
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Bik HM, Goldstein MC (2013) An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists. PLoS Biology, 11(4):e1001535.
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Pre-workshop Questions • Privacy Issues – My rule: never post sensitive information online
(home address, phone number, etc.) – Even email is not private! E.g. a notorious and
contentious point for Gmail…
• Legal and Copyright issues – posting your journal articles online? – Applies to slides you post too; I use SlideShare to
post my talk slides, and have to be careful with pictures (attribution of all sources, making sure pictures are Creative-Commons licensed). Flickr has a good search tool for CC-licenced pictures.
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Pre-workshop Questions • Accepted ways for scholars to promote themselves –
university vs. personal websites – Maintain both; even senior PIs usually have their own
external lab webpages. Link to external site on Univ. page
• When is it OK to share? How to avoid being scooped? – Argument that some online activities make it less likely to be
scooped (e.g. manuscript preprints). Transparency = attribution?
– I think it’s a personal decision about how much/when to share data.
– Remember, conference talks are “public” – people taking notes (or pictures) of your research at meetings
• How to advertise your social media accounts? – I usually put Twitter handles on talk slides, posters,
nametags, and across online professional profiles
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…and now Twitter handles on your papers too!
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Pre-workshop Questions • How to avoid being “stuffy” in your online persona
without being too “goofy”? – Give it some thought: What are you personally
comfortable with, and also unwilling to do? – Experiment! Try different tools and approaches until
you find a combination that works. It’s a long-term process.
• Advice for Shortcuts and Time Management? – Automate social media as much as possible – plugins
that push blog content to Twitter, Facebook; Tweet schedulers like Buffer help with time management
– Limit your social media use so it doesn’t cut into research time – e.g. 10 minutes in the morning, lunch, and evening. I write blog posts in 30-min increments of #madwriting
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Pre-workshop Questions • How do I get more followers?
– Be patient: it takes time – I’ve found that tweeting at conferences is one of the
best ways to get build followers – Make a commitment to post regular content and
engage with online conversations
• Why should researchers use social media? – You may be missing out – many important
conversations happen online (e.g. genomics, where most cutting-edge research is unpublished, or available as blog posts, manuscript preprints)
– A way to distinguish yourself – I think a track record in social media will have long-term benefits for grant applications (e.g. broader impacts), and job prospects
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Pre-workshop Questions General Advice/Guidelines for Blog posts and Tweets
– Evan Bailyn, author of “Outsmarting Social Media”: #1 commandment for building an online presence (a brand, your professional reputation, or an online community)? Create excellent and unique content, frequently: ideally every day.
– Shorter blog posts are often better (400-500 words) – easier to produce on a regular basis, & some arguments that they get more readers. People have limited attention span on the internet (that’s why BuzzFeed is so popular..).
– At Deep-sea News we aim for mixed content – from quick video/picture posts to long, in-depth posts (>1000 words). Pictures are always eye-catching and break up written text.
– Group blogs can save time – less pressure, but blog activitiy also gives you motivation. I blog at too many places, but actually blog most at Deep-sea News (group blog – I always think I’m letting down the group if I don’t contribute for a while). Other people can fill in during hectic times (travel, career transitions).
– Tweeting – usually to advertise an event I’ll tweet far in advance (at 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 week before), and then more frequently just beforehand (1 day, 6 hours, 1 hour, when event starts, & just after event finishes). Tweets get buried quickly, so promoting at different times means different people will see/share it.
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Advanced Tools • Twitter Management Tools – TweetDeck,
Hootsuite
• Feed Aggregators – Feedly for Blogs and RSS feeds (e.g. new journal articles)
• Mobile Apps – Twitter, Facebook, etc. Most companies offer dedicated apps across iPhone/iPad/Android devices
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Local Resources • #UCDavis – hashtag for campus & local
events
• @CapSciComm – Sacramento Area group for science communication and social media; lots of in person networking events
• http://daviswiki.org/twitter – Notable/useful Davis Twitter accounts