My talk for the British Ecological Society careers conference 2013 (28th November).

1. Social media
How it can help you do science
Ross Mounce
@rmounce
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3520-2046

2. Talk structure & content
* A short introduction to the social web
* Simple generic points, widely applicable
* Mode & tool specific tips
- mostly on Blogging, Tweeting & GitHub
Disclaimers (many): This is a 20min talk. I can’t cover everything. What I’m going to say is based mostly upon just opinion.

3. Most of the ‘ideas’ in this talk are not original, nor mine. Propagate as you wish!
This is a standard open science slide I’ve adapted from Cameron Neylon.
Use it when giving talks to make your preferences known to your audience.
Source:
http://cameronneylon.net/blog/some-slides-for-granting-permissions-or-not-in-presentations/
Tip #1:
include
*clickable* links

4. What is social media?
Interaction among people in which they
create, share, and/or exchange information
and ideas in virtual communities and
networks…
...exchange of user-generated content
* Blogging
* Microblogging
* Social Networking Sites
* Content Communities
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

5. Examples of the social web
Don’t worry about all the different networks/tools
These are just some of many
Source:
http://arbent.net/blog/social-media-circles-icon-set

6. The focus of this talk
Twitter
YouTube LinkedIn
Google+ WordPress GitHub
Tip #2: Always label/explain images if possible
Many web-users & academics are blind or visually-impaired

7. Choose the right tool for the job
Each social network/tool has its strengths and weaknesses:
Twitter is great for quick real-time discussion & sharing links
- but it’s not a platform for detailed debate or lengthy code.
LinkedIn is good for reaching a more senior / higher-up
audience, and also job recruiters. Awful for discussion.
Youtube + Soundcloud are brilliant for second by second
analysis, discussion & sharing of audio/video, but little else.

8. Different people use things differently
Sounds simple, but it’s important to bear in mind.
1.) Personally, I use Facebook exclusively just for friends.
It’s a closed-ish private-space for me.
2.) But others happily use it as a public-facing profile to
interact with anyone and everyone.
3.) Others still maintain a separate ‘personal’ & ‘public’ fb
persona.
Be conscious that other people may do things differently...

9. Be nice. Be careful what you say
Social media has the power to immense good and bad
(Both for yourself and others)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_Joke_Trial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Evans
RT’s != endorsement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Miller_
(psychologist)#Twitter_obesity_controversy

10. Always remember your purpose
The social web, networks and tools are there to
help people interact and communicate
No one tweets for the sake of tweeting
Or blogs for the sake of blogging
Do it to communicate your work,
and raise your profile. Help and be helped.

11. Twitter
Twitter is an invaluable tool for academics
e.g. #icanhazpdf
When you can’t
access a paper
just tweet the
URL + #icanhazpdf + your email address
(someone kind will then email you the paper)
Delete your tweet after you receive what you need
http://www.samuelpean.com/icanhazpdf-reddit-scholar-pirateuniversity-org-aaaaarg-org-how-scientist-community-bypasses-journals-paywalls/

12. Twitter
It’s fantastic at meetings & conferences
Send tweets with the meeting hashtag e.g. #MastEcoBES13
so others can find/interact on the meeting ‘tweetstream’
Retweet (RT) things you agree with / or want others to read.
Add your own comment to a RT if there’s space.
My comment on this
Original tweet

13. Twitter
Meetings & conferences
It enables useful and frank
discussion of talks
It empowers remote following
& remote participation.
Good panel sessions will take
questions from Twitter as well
as the in-house ‘live’ audience
of conference goers.

14. Twitter
Getting help and helping others (mutual benefits!)
A recent example (26th Nov 2013)
I have 10,000+ DOI’s and I want to get BibTeX -> how?
Step 1.) Ask Q on twitter
Step 2.) Read near-instant replies from clever people
Take a bow @neilfws @invisiblecomma @egonwillighagen
Step 3.) Try suggested solutions… Encounter extra problem...

15. Twitter
https://twitter.com/rmounce/status/405290108989214720
Tweet the new problem
(special characters in the DOI were
screwing-up my curl request)
Problem solved!
Important sidenote: Twitter fosters brilliant cross-disciplinary communication.
Dan is a QMUL postdoc at the Centre for Digital Music. w/o Twitter this interaction would NEVER happen

16. Twitter
More than just solving my problem though…
Helping me do that curl
request had mutual benefit
for Dan -> awareness
of an automated method
to get bibdata given DOI’s
...and also two of
Dan’s followers
https://twitter.com/mclduk/status/405293960597209088

17. Twitter
Twitter is simply brilliant.
I won’t force you to join-up…
but if you don’t, I think you’re missing out

18. Blogging
Twitter is limited to just <140 character messages.
For extended discussion, incorporating multiple media,
the blog post is a much better form and longer lasting
You can embed code, audio, video, pictures, GIF’s…
Try and always include at least 1 picture to break-up your text
Wordpress, Blogger or Tumblr are good platforms to start with

19. Blogging
Blog posts can be and *are* cited in the literature.
It’s an excellent space to rapidly communicate new ideas.
(Incidentally, Rod Page first dragged me on to Twitter - thanks Rod!)
http://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/dark-taxa-genbank-in-post-taxonomic.html
http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=%22dark+taxa%22&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

20. Blogging
Impact
Blog posts on popular platforms can receive more attention
than your average Nature News article
Easy steps towards open scholarship
(LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog)
published 24 May 2013
Patients leave a microbial mark on hospitals
(Nature News, 23 May 2013)
http://www.nature.com/news/patients-leave-a-microbial-mark-on-hospitals-1.13057
http://blogs.lse.ac.
uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/05/24/easy-stepstowards-open-scholarship/
Data source:

21. Google+ & YouTube
Google+ has a lot of critics… “ghost town” etc
But I’ve got 15,000+ followers (circlers) there, so I like it :)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RossMounce/posts
It’s great for paper discussions
See here for a 14 comment thread! https://plus.google.com/+RossMounce/posts/BfeU1Tt8oGU
Also for journal clubs via Google+ Hangouts
http://breakingbio.com/
Hangouts can be recorded and automatically made available at
YouTube after the event
e.g. The Phylo / Macro Journal Club http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmf7eKk23Gc

22. LinkedIn
A horribly creepy network
- be careful what permissions you grant LinkedIn
http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/254094/wtf-linkedin-doing-my-data
I suspect it’s one of the few online networks
that more ‘senior’ academics use - so you need a presence here
It’s also really important for keeping connections and
job prospects for beyond academia
Make sure you upload your CV here

23. GitHub
Social coding has arrived! Try it!
Why use Git? ->
http://www.scfbm.org/content/8/1/7
Pearse & Purvis. 2013. phyloGenerator: an automated
phylogeny generation tool for ecologists. MEE
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.12055
Code openly available on GitHub both pre- and post-publication
Enables ‘pull requests’ (suggest code changes) ‘forking’ and ‘issue tracking’

24. GitHub

25. Any questions?
If there’s time…
ask me how I got on BBC Radio 3 for a live panel discussion
on open access with David Willetts MP
http://www.bbc.co.
uk/iplayer/episode/b01n1rth/Night_Waves_Open_Accesss_Anne_
Applebaum_Berenice/
(that wouldn’t have happened without Twitter!)
Communicate and interact - it’s good for science!