This was given as part of a workshop to the MPhil/PhD students and to staff engaged in research at the IOE in March 2014.

1. The Newsam Library
& Archives
Social Media for
Researchers
Nazlin Bhimani,
Research Support
& Special Collections Librarian
Institute of Education, University of London

2. Today’s session
 Introduction to Social Media
 What, Why, How
 Task(s)

3. Source:
Minocha, S. and Petre, M. Handbook of Social
Media for Researchers and Supervisors: digital
technologies for research dialogues Available at
https://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-
publications/reports/innovate-open-university-
social-media-handbook-vitae-2012.pdf/view

4. What is social media?
Definition from the Social Media Handbook:
Social media is an online environment opened for the purposes of mass
collaboration, where all invited participants can create, post, rate, enhance,
discover, consume, and share content without a direct intermediary (Bradley and
McDonald, 2011). The term media in this context is a collaboration environment
characterised by storage and transmission of messages around and about
content, while social describes the distinct way these messages propagate as
one-to-many and many-to-many conversations.
Social media is a new form of communication that is changing behaviour and
expectations of researchers, employers and funding bodies. It is transforming
one-way monologues into collaborative dialogues and interactions thus
democratising information and knowledge.

5. Why use social media?
This quote from an article by G. Small in Nature (2011), v. 479, p. 141
summarises how new technologies are changing the way in which the
research dialogues are being conducted:
The real value of social media for scientists (aside from teaching us to communicate
concisely) may be that we are forced to think about how to share ideas with a
broader audience, one that ultimately pays for most of our research: taxpayers.
Public conversations about our research make [social] scientists accountable for
delivering something of value to those taxpayers. In an era of budget cutting, early-
career [social] scientists will have to be effective ambassadors for the profession. This
might manifest in conversations with family members or with strangers sitting next to
us on a plane, or it might mean posting videos on YouTube or blogging about our
ongoing research. The days of [social] scientists communicating only with each other,
in the languages of our individual disciplines, and relying on [social] science journalists
to translate for the public, are rapidly coming to an end.

6. Cognitive Surplus?
Clay Shirky believes that new technologies enabling shared online work
and loose collaboration and taking advantage of ‘spare’ brainpower will
change the way society works. Cognitive surplus represents the ability of
the world’s population to volunteer, contribute and collaborate on large
scale and sometimes global projects – and that this cognitive surplus can
have societal benefits.
Source: Shirky, C. (2010). Cognitive surplus: creativity and generosity in a
connected age, Allen Lane.

7. ...that if you are passionate about a topic and argue your
perspective in a compelling manner, you can begin to generate
a following...If people find your opinions and perspective
interesting, they will do a lot of the work for you. By design, social
media is a conversation. When you post information, people like,
comment on, or forward your thoughts. This means that not only
can you put ideas out there but you can learn a lot as well.
Source: Boost your career with social media: tips for the uninitiated,
http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/12/boost-your-career-with-social.html
[accessed 16 August 2012

8. Know the basics of putting your professional self online
Social media is not just for socializing. When handled correctly, you can
use it to enhance your personal brand, establish your expertise, or
demonstrate your digital fluency. Commit to using social media for
professional reasons and be proactive about managing your activity and
image. Consider what potential employers or colleagues will see - you
don't want them to discover only pictures of you and your dog, or worse.
Make sure at a minimum you have a LinkedIn account with a completed
profile. Try tweeting or blogging about your area of expertise, thereby
creating content that others can forward, re-tweet, or repost. This can help
you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Source: Harvard Business Review Management Tip, 9 March 2012,
http://hbr.org/tip/2012/03/09/know-the-basics-of-putting-your-professionalself-
online [accessed 16 August 2012]

9. How?

10. Researcher Workflow

11. I’m not an ‘out there’ type
of researcher!
As a researcher, you are reading all the time, you’re evaluating information all
the time, you’re thinking all the time so blog about and use your blog to
reflect and tell the world what you know. You are also publishing in
traditional ways – books, edited books, chapters in books, journal articles,
etc. .
 Only 25% of academic research is published in mainstream avenues
 We now live in a world where we need to have a digital presence in order
to market ourselves – self promotion is a requirement not a choice
(whether we like it or not)
 Impact is no longer about just publishing in peer-reviewed journals but
about ‘altmetrics’ – looking at what’s being talked about on the social web.

12. Digital footprint
Social networking provides you with the opportunity to create a digital
identify for
 Self promotion; to establish yourself as the newcomer and eventually the
expert (see: http://libguides.ioe.ac.uk/socialmedia
 To network and collaborate
 For employers to find you and find out about you
 Reach people you wouldn’t normally e.g. CEOs, funders etc.

13. but ...
Remember – your digital footprint is your
professional identity so keep it PROFESSIONAL

14. Copyright and other IPRs
 Be careful about what you put up – read the terms and conditions of the
site carefully before you give away your life’s work e.g. Instagram,
Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube - find out who owns the copyright
 Do not divulge personal names as you will be in breach of agreements you
have either with individuals or with the institution’s ethics approval process
see: http://www.bera.ac.uk/resources/ethics-and-educational-research to
download the guidelines
 Acknowledge content of others – understand the copyright law, the
creative commons licenses etc. See: http://libguides.ioe.ac.uk/ipr