1. Twitter
what, why, how
18.6.2019
Satu Kantti #
@

2. 15.9.2021
@SatuKantti @TampereUni | 3
Benefits?
What does it take?
Social media platforms for a researcher
Twitter profile
Hashtags and mentions
Anatomy of a tweet
How to use Twitter
What to post
What not to post
Who to follow
How to get followers
Examples
CONTENTS

3. Social media presence offers many
benefits to you
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
Building contacts, finding
new cooperation partners
Interaction, dialogue
Sharing and finding
information
Visibility for your research
and publications
Growing your reputation
as an expert
Staying up to date

4. Your audience benefits too!
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
Scientific knowledge
instead of fake news
and nonsense
Publicity to research
and science as a job
Making science
understandable
Easy to connect with a
researcher
Visibility for your field and
for your organisation
Twitter is an important
tool for journalists

5. What does it take?
1. Be enthusiastic about what you do
2. Motivation to tell others about it
3. Courage to engage in public dialogue
4. Accept that communication is part of your work
5. A bit of planning and investigation to get you started
6. Patience – it takes time to grow your network and build a professional reputation
7. Be active: post regularly and participate in conversations
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
Social Media Guidelines
(intranet)

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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

7. Social media platforms for a researcher
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni | 8
Sharing information
Finding information
Networking
Visibility, interaction
Your message can spread
further than just your own
network
Save your materials
Visibility in search engines
Share to other platforms
Group
conversations
Networking
Academic visibility

8. • What comes up when someone googles your name?
• Can you be found if someone is looking for an expert on your field of research?
• Publications (academic visibility)
• University website: profile card, research database, projects, research groups…
• Social media profiles (previous slide)
• Other websites
Online discoverability
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
No Twitter profile yet?
Create one!

10. Twitter profile
• 1 email address = 1 Twitter profile
• Name max. 50 characters
• Username = handle (begins with @)
max. 15 characters
• Recognizable profile picture
• Description about you = bio
max. 160 characters
• Mention your organisation in the bio!
(@TampereUni, @ENS_TampereUni)
• Background picture (1500x500 px)
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
name
username
bio
website

11. Hashtags
• Hashtag = topic of the tweet
• It also works as a clickable search word
• Create a hashtag for your project and
your conference!
• Remember: can’t own it, can’t control it
• Use with moderation, 1-3/tweet
• Any punctuation mark will cut it, except
underline character
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
#
#robotics
#EUelections2019
#solarenergy
#climatechange
#gamification
#landscape_captures
#bodyonchip
#MondayMotivation

12. Mentions
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
• Username can be used to mention other
accounts in your tweet
• They will be notified, and might react by
liking, sharing or commenting
• Punctuation mark cuts, except underline
• If a tweet begins with a @username,
Twitter thinks it’s a reply. The tweet does
not show up in your normal timeline and all
your followers will not see it
@ @TampereUni
@ENS_TampereUni
@_mariwalls
@SuomenAkatemia

13. Anatomy of a tweet
15.9.2021
@SatuKantti @TampereUni | 14
mentions
hashtags
Retweet with
a comment
Original tweet
Reply Retweet Like Send as direct message
Add to bookmarks
Copy link to this tweet
Mute
Block
Report

14. • Search with keywords, hashtags or username
• Clicking the icon you will see all search results
• Choose from the top menu what you’re looking for:
• Advanced search: https://twitter.com/search-advanced
Twitter search
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni | 15

15. Now let’s tweet!
• Retweet (RT) = sharing the tweet to your followers as it is
• RT with comment = you can add your own comment to the RT (recommended)
• You can fit 280 characters in one tweet. A link always takes up 23 characters
• Mention @TampereUni or your faculty, if relevant
• Add pictures! (max. 4). You can also use mentions in the picture.
• You can create your own lists or subscribe to a list. Personnel and units of Tampere
University are collected in this list.
• Go through all the settings of your profile
• Report and block trolls, unwanted bots and fake profiles
• You can also mute a profile whose tweets you do not want to see
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
Twitter
Help Center

16. • You can follow anyone, and anyone can follow you (public profile)
• Following does not have to be mutual, but it often is
• Private messages also possible
• Sometimes nobody will see your tweet – sometimes a tweet may spread quickly and wide
• Behave nicely and observe the laws (eg copyrights and privacy)
• Be authentic and show your personality – it creates trust
• Stay calm, don’t be provoked
• Choose your role: do you concentrate on work, or do you also share things about your
personal life?
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni | 17

17. Content is king
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni | 18
Before sending the
tweet:
Would you like?
Would you click?
Would you follow?

18. Personal or group profile?
Personal profile
• Your expertise
• Reputation & online discoverability
• Your career
• You have the control
• You have to do all the work
• A person is always more interesting
Group profile
• Visibility for the group
• Not permanent
• Shared responsibility
• Shared workload
• Must have common ground rules
• Harder to join conversations
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

19. What to post?
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni
• What you’re working on (remember pictures)
• Research results
• Thoughts, questions
• Links to your own material (newsletter, Youtube,
SlideShare, blog, publications, ResearchGate…)
• Links to your own website
• Links to other interesting sites
• Tell about cooperation (remember mentions!)
• Tell about services
• Inform about upcoming events
• React to other peoples’ posts (RT, quote, like,
reply)
• Take part in conversations
• Did you give a presentation or a lecture?
You can make several tweets about the content
• Did you solve a problem? Tell about it!
• Do you have a problem? Ask your network for help!
• Did you just answer to a student or a colleague?
Could you also tweet the answer?
• If you participate an event, tell about it, take a
picture
• If you found an interesting publication, let others
know and add your own comment
• In your personal profile, you can also share
personal things: your thoughts, opinions, interests
etc.

20. What you should NOT post
• Comments that conflict with the university’s values or interests
• Racism, discrimination…
• Material under copyright restrictions
• Someone else’s photographs or other material
• Pictures of presentation slides without the name of the presenter (and organisation).
• Pictures or other material that puts another person in a harmful or embarrassing situation
• Any material or comment that’s against the law
• Privacy protection
• Secret, sensitive or unpublished material
• Any material that you could not put in a newspaper or website
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

21. Who to follow?
• Experts in your own field
• Colleagues
• People you meet at conferences
• Cooperation partners (people + organisations)
• People interested in similar topics (search with keywords or hashtags)
• Key people/organisations regarding research funding
• Publishers and journals in your field
• Authorities, decision makers, influencers
• People in your other networks (eg LinkedIn groups)
• @TampereUni
• Anybody who seems to post interesting stuff
• Check the ”Following” or ”Followers” of someone mentioned above, and find more
interesting profiles!
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

22. How to get followers?
• Follow others (many of them will follow you back!)
• Retweet
• Comment & participate in conversations
• Like
• Tweet something interesting, significant, useful or funny
• Use relevant hashtags (some people follow certain hashtags)
• Tweet content on specific theme (your field of expertise)
• Tweet regularly, as often as possible
• Use links and pictures
• Mention relevant profiles (@)
• Add your Twitter username to your presentation slides, email signature, tuni.fi person card,
and your other social media profiles
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

23. Examples & more to read
Some researchers on Twitter:
Tuomas Aivelo
Katie Mack
Vaughan Bell
Brian Cox
John Dudley
Dr. David Shiffman
Amy Mainzer
Terry Hughes
Jesse Ehrenfeld
Venk Murthy
Markku Niemivirta
TampereUni personnel & units
• Twitter predicts citation rates of ecological
research (scientific article)
• 5 good reasons why researchers should tweet
(Academy of Finland)
• Social media for scientists
• Why we need scientists on social media, now
more than ever
• sometutkijalle.fi
• Asiantuntija somessa
• Kuusi syytä, miksi asiantuntijan kannattaa olla
Twitterissä (Pekka Isotalus)
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@SatuKantti @TampereUni

24. 15.9.2021 | 25
@SatuKantti @TampereUni
Thanks!
Hit me with questions, comments or feedback
satu.kantti@tuni.fi
@SatuKantti
Satu Kantti