These are the slides I used on a workshop given to researchers and doctoral students at the University of Bristol, UK on 17th June 2015.
The aim of this practical 2-hour workshop was to help researchers engage with social media more effectively to support their research and career.
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Developing a social media strategy to enhance your research profile
1. Developing a social media strategy to
enhance your research profile
1
Gilles Couzin
17th June 2015
xkcd.com/1239/ (CC BY-NC 2.5)
2. About this workshop
Do I really need a social media ‘strategy’?
Developing your strategy: asking (and
answering) the right questions
Measuring and evaluating success
5 suggestions for getting started
Case study: PolicyBristol (Kat Wall)
Q&A
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3. 3
18 June 2015
Photo by Mariano CC BY-SA 3.0
Show of hands…
How many people in this room are currently usingTwitter?
LinkedIn? Facebook? others?:
For personal use?
To support their research/professional activities?
4. 4
Do I really need a social media ‘strategy’?
Photo by kdee64 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
5. 5
carefully consider what you will do before
investing time and resources;
prioritise your effort;
plan content and a schedule for releasing it;
avoid the “shiny object syndrome”;
identify who will do what, when and how
often, when in a group setting;
assess what works and what doesn’t;
manage expectations.
…well, it’s up to you, but having a plan will
help you…
7. Who are you and where you want to be?
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JISC Developing Digital Literacies guide (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies)
8. Who are you and where you want to be?
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Beetham and Sharpe ‘pyramid model’
of digital literacy development model (2010)
Listening
Participating
Creating
Leading
JISC Developing Digital Literacies guide (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies)
9. Activity 1
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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In pairs: use these models to discuss a) where you
see yourself now in terms of your social media use,
and b) where you would like to be.
10. 10
Developing your strategy: asking (and
answering) the right questions
Photo by Brian Koprowski (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
11. Questions that need answers
What do you want to achieve?
Who do you want to reach?
What conversation is already taking place?
Where is it taking place?
Who is involved?
What tools will you use?
What content do you want to share?
How will you measure and evaluate success?
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15. Activity 2
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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In pairs:
1. Explain what you do and why it matters.
2. Listen to your partner explaining back to you
what your key skills are.
16. What do you want to achieve?
Define your primary goals, e.g.:
stay up to date
build connections
promote my work
raise my profile
find potential collaborators
learn from others
publish my ideas
communicate research results
attract job offers
a mix of the above?
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17. Who do you want to reach?
Identifying your audiences will help you tailor
your content and also choose the right tool(s).
List your primary audiences, e.g.:
other researchers in your field
potential employers
journalists
the general public
funders
etc…
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18. Activity 3
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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In pairs:
1) Discuss what you want to achieve through social
media and make a note of 1 to 3 goals.
2) Start profiling 1 or 2 target audiences.
19. What conversation is taking place?
Identify the “thought leaders” in your field -
start with Twitter, Academia.edu or ResearchGate
What are they talking about?
Where are they saying it? What tools are they
using?
Keep track (“follow”) the topics, people and
sites that are leading the conversation that is
relevant to you.
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20. What tools will you use?
To start with, pick 1 or 2 core tools (e.g.
LinkedIn, Twitter) and concentrate on doing
them well.
Plan to add new tools as you grow in
confidence.
Map out which tools you will use now and
which you will work towards using later.
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22. What content will you share?
Identify the content you already have to share,
as well as the content you plan to develop.
Is it primarily news updates, research
developments, networking information,
opinion pieces? Images? Videos?
List the content you are planning to share via
your social media outlets.
Also think how often you will publish content.
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23. Activity 4
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Photo by Guy Mayer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In pairs:
1) Discuss the social media tools that you think
may be most relevant to you.
2) Identify the content you already have.
25. Possible measures of success
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Web analytics
Mentions
Likes
Followers
Retweets
Comments Downloads
Shares
Bookmarks
However, remember that engagement is
more than just numbers!
Connections
Views
26. 26
Useful tools for measuring success
“Klout is a website and mobile app that uses
social media analytics to rank its users
according to online social influence via the
"Klout Score", which is a numerical value
between 1 and 100.” Wikipedia
klout.com
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Useful tools for measuring success
“Hootsuite is a social media management
tool that allows you to manage multiple
social profiles, schedule messages, track
brand mentions, analyze social media traffic
and more.”
hootsuite.com
28. Evaluate your activities
Set a timeline for evaluating your social media
activities.
As part of your evaluation, consider:
What is working.
What is not working.
What changes you need to make.
New tools you could be using.
On-going evaluation should be part of your
strategy.
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30. 1: Create a professional profile
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Use your own name
or choose a simple
and descriptive
name that clearly
identifies your
affiliation with the
University, research
project or
organisation.
Write a short
biography (including
your skills and
expertise) of
yourself or your
group/project.
Prepare a
professional looking
photo of yourself or
use a group/project
logo.
31. 2: Join LinkedIn
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1. Create a
LinkedIn profile
2. Consider your
skills and add
keywords
3. Add a photo to
your profile
4. Edit your public
URL and add it
to your email
signature
5. Join groups of
interest to you
6. Add projects to
your profile
7. Link SlideShare
to your profile
8. Add
publications to
your profile
9. Blog good
practice and
tips
10.Connect with
people!
32. 3: Join Twitter
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1. Read the LSE Twitter guide
(goo.gl/Sg6ST).
2. Create a Twitter profile.
3. Consider your skills and add
keywords.
4. Add a photo to your profile.
5. Find and follow some relevant
people.
6. Search (use twubs.com) for
relevant hashtags* and save
them.
7. Use Lists to organise people and
organisations you follow.
8. Use hootsuite.com to view and
manage your lists and saved
hashtags.
9. Re-tweet relevant tweets so
your followers can see them.
9 tips to develop your Twitter presence:
* Start with these hashtags: #phdchat, #ecrchat, #scitwittips,
#acadtwitter, #digitalacademic, #phdadvice, #research
33. 4: Join an academic social network
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researchgate.net
www.academia.edu
34. 4: Join an academic social network
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researchgate.net
www.academia.edu
www.piirus.com
35. 5: Start blogging
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1. Read other people’s blogs and
learn from them.
2. You don’t have to start your own
blog, you can be a guest
blogger - e.g. theconversation.com,
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk,
www.theguardian.com/science/blog
3. Use wordpress.com to set up
your own blog.
4. Limit yourself to a maximum of
500 words (at least to start
with).
5. Write regularly.
6. Monitor and reply to comments
when appropriate.
7. Decide what you are going to
blog about – e.g. research progress,
opinion piece, book review, test new
ideas, publications, etc.
8. Make use of your About page to
tell who you are and the
purpose of your blog.
9. Write in plain English.
10.Share writing with colleagues if
the blog is for a group.
10 tips for blogging:
39. Where to find more information
List of resources: bundlr.com/b/developing-a-social-media-
strategy-for-researchers
Connect with Bristol: www.bristol.ac.uk/connect/
UoB Social media directory:
www.bristol.ac.uk/connect/directory/
How to maintain social media channels at UoB:
www.bristol.ac.uk/style-guides/web/how/social/
Research Information Network – Social Media: A guide
for researchers
rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-
research/social-media-guide-researchers
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40. Credits and licence
Some of the ideas in this presentation are based on the
work of others:
“Who do you really think you are?” UCISA keynote, by Sue
Beckingham, Sheffield Hallam University (http://goo.gl/RCQc1S)
“Social Media for Research” CAURA 2013, by Krista Jensen, KMb
Unit, York University (http://goo.gl/ORXqRW)
This presentation is licenced under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-
NC-SA 4.0) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
sa/4.0/).
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