20/06/2013
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Social science on social media
Dr Robert Ford Politics Lecturer
Why blog? Why tweet?
• Communicate research findings, raise awareness of your work
• Influence audiences outside academia
• Contribute to wider debates
• Write for a different audience – educated non-specialists
• Develop new professional connections, leading to new opportunities
20/06/2013
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20/06/2013
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Tweeted research
Gaby Hinsliff retweets it
20/06/2013
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What I’ve learned about blogging
• Be brief, be clear, be responsive
• Use visuals
• Publicise widely – via social media or email. Especially when starting out
• If writing your own blog, write regularly (every week), and distribute widely
• If you’re not able to commit to this, write for other blogs – Plenty of options, and range growing all the time
• Use twitter and professional networks to publicise your blogs
• Make sure your research is available ungated as soon as possible, and link to it
What I’ve learned about tweeting • Tweet regularly, but keep it professionally focussed
– If you want to tell people about your breakfast or commute, use facebook
• Follow high profile people you like in media/politics/academia
• Get in debates, use the knowledge you have, be provocative – Make your research easy to access, tweet links to it – Powerpoints, blogs, briefing documents do better. People are busy.
• Don’t expect nuance or politeness, do expect to be misunderstood – 140 character limit tends to produce bluntness & misunderstanding – If you want to expand on a twitter discussion, do a blog about it
• Don’t expect instant results. Building up followers takes time, but is worth it in the long run – Twitter provides unprecedented opportunity to directly get attention of
policymakers, other academics, interest groups, media
