A writeup on the use of social media in research, as the tool for interactive analysis. One of the greatest asset of the internet is tilted towards social networks, so the need for blogs to boost research and development in the society is the propeller of communication and publication...

1. SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH COMMUNICATION
The social media is one of the greatest tools on the internet, today. There are about 3billion
people on the internet, daily and social media accounts for about half of these people. This
is quite disturbing in this jet age, as the technology of the new generation is online, so
researchers need to go online to reach the next generation; in fact, there’s a tool for
everything online from driving lessons to cooking manuals. Now the need for real time
technology has given the social media a boost, thereby giving it an edge over other
communication medium.
It is true that research dissemination is a key bane to the knowledge database, but though
the internet has broken the barrier, the social media is taken it to the next interactive level.
A post in the social media gets likely over hundred times views than any other means of
publication. This is evident when you compare the print media of the newspaper to the
online versions, as also compared to electronic media. Now this is the breaker, when the
newspapers engaged the social media their viewers turned over in hundred folds and that is
the magic wand for Researchers.
Recently, a class was given an assignment to publish the curriculum of their course in any
media of choice, some went to the newspapers, which is now in the archives; some had
radio broadcast/jingles, which has been overtaken by events; others went to Television to
make productions, of which were not mostly aired, but the ones that explored the use of
the social media are still getting views and reviews to the extent that they have formed an
online community.
There are different social media from Networks, News, Media Sharing, Business, Research
etc. The topmost are Facebook, Linkedln, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr etc. These are all avenues
of communicating research, as it cuts across all strata of the society. Not to mention is use
of these in recent developmental phenomenon like the Obama campaign and Jonathan
declaration to mention just a few. Today, both Politicians and Policy makers have recognised
and identified with the social media, as a step ahead. Even Organisations and Parastatals are
exploring the social media to reach their target audience, so researchers need to capitalise
on this trend, for effective communication.