#sotondiglit

Social Media for Researchers

#sotondiglit workshop7th November 2012

Nicole Beale - @nicoleebeale

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research

cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Strategic Approaches– Evaluating credibility; Analytics; Digital

professionalism; Ethical Considerations

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Strategic Approaches– Evaluating credibility; Analytics; Digital

professionalism; Ethical Considerations• Spreading the word

#sotondiglit

What is social media?

• Decide on a definition for social media in your group

• Identify key terms

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Social media is…

• “Internet services where the online content is generated by the users of the service.”

– Quinnell, 2012• “Social media are online communications in which

individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.”

– Thronley, 2008

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research

cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Strategic Approaches– Evaluating credibility; Analytics; Digital

professionalism; Ethical Considerations

#sotondiglit

Why use social media?

• Identity• Connection• Sharing expertise

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Social media can…

• Expand your research network to increase opportunities for collaboration, employment, funding, discussion and research

• Access collective intelligence to become more knowledgeable about your own fields of research

• Establish a reputation that demonstrates your expertise and the significance and relevance of your research

• Practice your debating, discussion and thinking skills• To conduct research

-- Gillaspy, 2012

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research

cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Strategic Approaches– Evaluating credibility; Analytics; Digital

professionalism; Ethical Considerations

#sotondiglit

How do you do it?

1. How do you make sense of your academic / professional practice? i.e. what do you do?

2. How can social media support what you do? 3. How can social media disrupt what you do?

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Research cycle

Knowledge

Identification

Creation

Quality Assurance

Dissemination

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Knowledge identification

• Sharing information with many networks simultaneously and consistently will help to identify, manage and sort relevant knowledge – Audience– Wider dissemination– Many to many networks– Manage and organise– Quality of access for others

-- Nelson, 2012

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Research cycle

Knowledge

Identification

Creation

Quality Assurance

Dissemination

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Knowledge creation

• Utilizing and engaging multiple tools to create knowledge and develop skill sets to manage the information that has been identified.– Gathering information for collaboration– Build something– Create original content– Use different networks

-- Nelson, 2012

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Research cycle

Knowledge

Identification

Creation

Quality Assurance

Dissemination

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Qualifying Knowledge

• Overcoming unknown hurdles of quality(REF for current reference), which is in flux, and validating its use and quality for knowledge.– Ownership / Access– Authorship, social media footprint - expert? Publishing

record? – What determines experts or measuring quality– Seeing comments then sharing that information – Integration and interaction between author and comments

-- Nelson, 2012

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Research cycle

Knowledge

Identification

Creation

Quality Assurance

Dissemination

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Knowledge dissemination

• Engaging with a range of social media tools and censoring ideology, knowledge and content amongst a variety of audiences in and outside of academic institutions.– How you spread information and how it is framed. – How is knowledge discussed – legal considerations– Exchanging information in the social sphere. - anonymous

sources. – Terms and conditions on the social networks – Who owns the

content?– Blogging as a way of individualizing yourself– Branding / social media strategy

-- Nelson, 2012

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research

cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Strategic Approaches– Evaluating credibility; Analytics; Digital

professionalism; Ethical Considerations

#sotondiglit

(Some) Social Media Tools

• (Micro) Blogging• RSS• Social Bookmarking• Social Citation Sharing• Media Sharing• Collaborative Writing• Synchronous Meetings• Academic Networks• Content Curation• Open Access

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Private vs. Public

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(Micro)Blogging

• Blogger • Plurk • Posterous• Tumblr• Twitter• Typepad• Wordpress• Yammer (University of Southampton)

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Using Twitter

• IN YOUR GROUP: 5 ways academics can use Twitter

• BY YOURSELF: Your research in 140 characters• IN YOUR GROUP: Read out your research in

140 characters to your group. Any changes suggested?

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Blogging

• Regularly– Become disciplined

• Informality– Opportunites to explore different writing forms

• Generality– Conveying complex information to non-specialists

• Contexts– Risk (free)?– Shape ideas and formulate thoughts and concepts– Work in progress– Raw material for thesis/conference/journalpapers– Emphasis on personal experiences/perspectives/opinon

– Quinnell, 2012

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RSS

• Google Alerts• Google Reader• Google Analytics• NetVibes• FeedDemon

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Wisdom of the crowds

Surowieck’s principles essential for wisdom of crowds: 1. Independence – Everyone’s working on their own project

2. Diversity– Drawn from a range of different backgrounds/disciplines

3. Decentralisation– Bringing people together who are funded and managed

in different ways

-- Surowieck, 2004

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Social bookmarking

• delicious• Digg • diigo• Reddit• StumbleUpon• Pearltrees• PinBoard• Pinterest

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Wikipedia

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Social citation sharing

• CiteULike • Connotea• Mendeley • Zotero• Bibsonomy• Google

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Media sharing

• Listening Dashboards • SlideShare• YouTube• Vimeo• Scribd• Flickr• SoundCloud• AudioBoo• (Google Play / iTunes)

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Collaborative working

• Who do you collaborate with at the moment? • What collaborative tools do you use and for what

purpose?• How might social media tools improve your

collaborative practice?• Are there any potential risks to using collaborative

working tools in an academic/professional context? – Ethical/Legal? – Practical/Logistical? – Quality assurance? -- Gillaspy, 2012

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Collaborative writing

• Ning• Disqus• Dropbox • Zoho Office Suite • Etherpad:

– sync.in– PrimaryPad

• Google Docs• Wikis (WikiMatrix Wiki Choice Wizard):

– Wikispaces– MediaWiki– Wikia– PBWorks

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Synchronous meetings

• Eventbrite• Google+ Hangouts• Adobe Connect• Bamboo • BaseCamp • BigBlueButton • Citrix GotoMeeting • DimDim • Elluminate• Huddle • Skype

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Academic / professional networks

• What does your research network look like at the moment?• Who are the weak ties?• How do you want your network to expand? • Where are the greatest concentrations of people you want to talk

to? • What value do you bring to the network? • What are the risks of using social networking tools (Ethical/Legal?

Practical/Logistical? Quality assurance?)-- Gillaspy, 2012

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Academic networks

• Methodspace• Researchgate• #phdchat• Academia• LinkedIn

• Meetup• Lanyrd

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Content curation

• Paper.li• Mural.ly• Netvibes• Storify• Scoop.it• PageFlakes• iGoogle

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Open access

• Open access journals• Figshare• Academia• Scribd• Eprints• Nanopublishing

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Using tags

There are some things to consider when using tags:• Personal:

– Personal organisation / management of bookmarks, searchable tag list / cloud

• Group: – Participatory / democratic knowledge base

• Social: – Use as search engine, keyword / user search other user bookmarks,

subscriptions / networks

intrapersonal & interpersonal – Quinnell, 2012

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research

cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Strategic Approaches– Evaluating credibility; Analytics; Digital

professionalism; Ethical Considerations

#sotondiglit

Social media analytics

• Personas• Tiny.ly – real time sharing and usage stats • Bit.ly• Ow.ly• Google Analytics• Klout• TrustCloud• Twuffer• TweetStats

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Digital professionalism

What not to share:• Think of two things that you would share

about your research, and two things that you wouldn’t share about your research.

• Discuss in the group why you made these decisions.

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Ethical considerations

• Intellectual Property• Copyright • Creative Commons Licensing• GNU General Public License

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Evaluating credibility

• Use citation metrics – e.g. Publish or Perish• Use advice – e.g. Twitter Journalism• Use network curated content – e.g.

Public Insight Network

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Social Media Card Game

Acknowledgements: Tim Davies. Originally from David Wilcox: http://socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Communications+game

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Social Media Research Cycle Card Game

Knowledge

Identification

Creation

Quality Assurance

Dissemination

INSTRUCTIONS:1. Select some social media tools2. For each tool:• Write a description of the tool.• Write questions to help the

player think about opportunities/problems with this tool.

• Give the tool a cost score from 1 to 5. Explain that score.

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Card ExampleGroup: Knowledge DisseminationTool: TwitterDescription: Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that provides a way to share news, resources and information quickly and easily in short profile updates. Q: Do you have the time required to update this platform on a regular basis? Are you going to share enough content to make your profile attractive to other users? Score: 3/5Score justification: Requires regular use. Need to collect followers. Requires reading and sharing of other users’ content to achieve full advantage.

#sotondiglit

Social Media for Researchers

#sotondiglit workshop7th November 2012

Nicole Beale - @nicoleebeale

#sotondiglit

Strategy

• Aggregate• Filter• Connect

-- Kastelle, 2010

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Filtering

Amount of information

Judgement Based Filtering:

Mechanical Filtering:

Naive Expert Network

Heuristic Algorithmic

-- Kastelle, 2010

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Strategy

Aggregating

RSS

Academic Networks

Filtering

Social Bookmarking

Social Citation Sharing

Connecting

Synchronyous Meetings

Collaborative Writing

Content Curation

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Strategy

• Team• Primary Goals• Measuring Success• Audiences• Current Conversation• Content• Name and Design – Branding, Affiliation• Evaluation (timeline, realign)

-- Research Impact Project, KMb Unit, University of York, 2012Social Media Governance – social media policy database, including some universities.

#sotondiglit

This workshop

• Define social media• Why we use social media• Social media in the context of the research cycle• Social media tools/platforms• Designing a strategy– Finding and filtering; Evaluating credibility; Analytics;

Digital professionalism; Ethical Considerations• Spreading the word

#sotondiglit

What we could do

• Raise awareness of range of tools and their usefulness for different scenarios

• Examples of successful use and good practice• Guidelines for training, enabling informed decision

making• Standards for and advice on curation and

preservation.

-- University of Bath, The Connected Researcher project

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Get Involved

Email me nicoleebeale@gmail.comTweet me @nicoleebeale