Social Network Site Guidelines

1. Guidelines on how to use this site.............................................................................. 1
Introduction........................................................................................................... 1
Social Media ......................................................................................................... 1
Key aspects of being online ................................................................................... 2
Identification ..................................................................................................... 2
Netiquette.......................................................................................................... 2
Ethics ................................................................................................................ 3
Use of images and other types of digital content .................................................... 4
Using Blogs........................................................................................................... 4
Customisation.................................................................................................... 4
Blog comments.................................................................................................. 5
Tags & Categories ............................................................................................. 5
Participating in Discussion Fora & writing on people’s wires (personal pages) ...... 6
Documents ............................................................................................................ 6
Formatting......................................................................................................... 6
Guidelines on how to use this site
Introduction
As part of the virtual Doctoral School we have developed a set of guidelines for all
the members of this network. These guidelines provide advice and practical hints on
how to use social media in an academic context.
Below you will find the current version of those guidelines. The guidelines will be
revised and updated as necessary to keep up with the developments of the
participatory web.
Social Media
Social Media refers to interactive web-technologies which enable individuals to create
and disseminate information widely and in an interactive way. It consists of a set of
tools and approaches to produce and share content, collaborate, and also record this
process as part of a shared “journey”. Social Media allows the individual to take part
in a wider context, where they can make their work more available and open to
discussion. It can also facilitate opportunities to create new forms of professional
networking and participation in distributed learning communities, which will
ultimately help raise one’s professional profile.
The decision to use social media should always be based on the goals set out by the
individual and/or their team. Decisions regarding the use of social media should never
be driven by the wish of ‘playing’ with any currently fashionable application, but
rather by the need to complement or provide alternatives to face to face networking
and collaboration across time and space. Hence, it’s crucial to clearly define goals and
purposes for its use, as well as identifying its potential and added value even before
starting using these technologies.
For those facilitating group activity within the Virtual Doctoral School, we strongly
advise you plan for a medium-term member activity strategy and keep updating it
based on the group’s response. Finally, we recommend facilitators ease the
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2. introduction of their peers onto this space by providing guidance and promoting
engaging dialogues.
Key aspects of being online
Anything we publish online becomes part of our digital footprint, which inevitably
has an impact on our Digital Identity (reputation). That is not to say that having an
online presence is negative. These days we could argue just the opposite.
Nevertheless, we do need to consider the pros and the cons of being online. Below we
list some of the key aspects to bear in mind when venturing into the social media
world.
Identification
Use your name. Do not create several online ‘personas’ as part of your professional
profile. Be consistent. It will help people recognise you across networks and
communities. It also helps with the google search!
Make sure the profile name being publicly displayed in the network is your real name,
even if your username is a set of numbers and/or letters (eg. Sal74). After all, you are
not a robot!
Fill out your personal profile page with relevant information. Sharing your research
interests helps others identify a connection with you.
Add a face to your name. Pictures are nice!
Do not publish any personal information you don’t wish others to have access to. Not
everyone needs to know your mobile phone or home address!
Netiquette
Make relevant and respectful contributions to the network using the different
communication tools available: blogs, discussion fora, member’s wires (personal
pages), etc. Try to add value to those environments, by sharing meaningful
information and insights.
Communicate with care. In this space your writing will portray you and your work.
So, develop a voice that represents you as an approachable individual. Do not use this
space to ‘push information’ on to other members, but rather to engage in
conversations and create collaborative links. Disseminating information online
effectively requires the development of such synergies. Just think about it: even
broadcast TV is interactive these days!
Adopt an accessible writing style. It should be less formal than academic writing, but
also not as colloquial as street talk. Find a balance that reflects your personality.
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3. Do not tolerate any kind of abusive or aggressive language/behaviour in this space,
nor react to it by using the same register. Yet do not ignore it either; rather report it.
Remember: we are all humans. Online interaction is not that different from face to
face contact. Yet the computer screen may convey a sense of a shield. It should not be
an excuse to post inconsiderate remarks or comments about other people or their
ideas.
Provide and allow critical feedback from your peers. This is probably the greatest
added value of connecting to like-minded people. However there’s a fine line between
constructive and patronising feedback. Always reflect about what you are about to
publish. Ask yourself: Would I reply in the same way in a face to face context? How
would I feel if I got the same kind of feedback?
Be aware of possible cultural differences and linguistic styles amongst members.
Distinguish between ‘flaming’ and lack of linguistic sensibility.
Do you understand what I’m saying? (I’m not calling you stupid! This is just an
expression commonly used in my native language to check you are still with me ;-))
Avoid writing entire phrases in upper case. It means YOU ARE SHOUTING! To
highlight any given chunks of content use bold or *asterisks*. Use it with moderation
though. Do not underline words. People will think it is a link. Use italics instead.
Keep your comments in blogs and discussion fora focused. Try not to go off-topic. It
doesn’t help the discussion and discourages other people from participating.
Furthermore, it doesn’t increase your credibility amongst your community either. You
do have a (digital) professional reputation to keep!
Share your expertise. Everyone in this network will have something to contribute to
others’ learning. Everyone will have different experiences, ideas and opinions to
share. Don’t hold it back. The more you share, the more you’ll receive, and the more
you will learn. Communication is a two-way road.
As for the full script of your PhD dissertation, do share it too, but only after you have
passed the Viva please!
Ethics
Be aware of the ethics. If your research deals with sensitive information, make sure
everything you make publicly available does not infringe any ethical agreement or
jeopardise your research. This site offers spaces for private/closed communication for
such cases. If you are unsure about the ethics of publishing any given content, contact
your supervisor before you hit the ‘publish’ button.
For more information on Research Governance & Ethics at the University of Salford
browse here.
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4. Use of images and other types of digital content
Use images which are copyright free, or which you have been granted permission to
(re)use. The same applies to other forms of (digital) content you may decide to use in
this space. Further information about this can be found here.
Always credit authors for their work. Reference citations (The full reference usually
comes at the bottom of your blogpost). Do not copy information created by other
people as if it were yours, even if it was just published on a random forum/blog
online. In such cases, make sure to always provide a link to the original source. You
also like others to credit you for your work, don’t you? So, remember to credit their
work too!
Using Blogs
Customisation
Give your blog a title and a URL (web address suffix in this case) that relates to you
or expresses your research interests. eg.: johnsmith or urban_regeneration. Keep the
URL short. Don’t try to invent strange URLs. What may be seen as funny now, in a
couple of months down the line might not. And URLs can stay there forever... and
that is a long time!
Personalise your blog. Choose a blog theme that resembles your area of research.
White and dark backgrounds make reading on the screen easier. Always consider your
readership!
Create an ‘About’ page so people can learn more about you as a researcher. Use it to
publish your biography and summary of your research.
Create a ‘Contact’ page to allow people to get in touch with you privately, if they
wish so. Remember, by default your blog is accessible outside the network site. This
means non network members can also read and comment on your blog. Don’t worry;
the chances of you getting hundreds of emails a day are slim! If you do, that’s
probably spam! Add square brackets [ ] around the @ to avoid spam. eg:
username[@]mail.com
Add an “Articles’ page where you can list all your academic publications.
Transform your blog into a ‘blogfolio’ (an interactive e-portfolio)
Link your blog to your other professional network profiles. eg: LinkedIn,
academia.edu. It helps people find you in there.
Write a disclaimer, and add it to your blog. This basically protects you and your
institution from being persecuted. You can opt to add a new page with a full
description. However, for personal blogs, a full sentence or paragraph summarising
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5. the intents of your blog might be easier for readers to engage with. Add your single
line/single paragraph disclaimer to your blog template (through the widget>>text
options in your dashboard). See examples of blog disclaimers here.
Post frequently. At least once a week. It keeps your audience interested.
Write short rather than long blogposts (one screen size posts). But don’t write in post-
it format. You need to engage your audience.
Write from a personal point of view. There is nothing more boring than reading
blogposts which just collect information from other sources. What people will look
for in your blog is your personal, passionate and reflected opinion about a current
event, or any given topic in your research area.
Blog comments
You can choose to hold comments in moderation (default option). It means that you
will receive an email notifying you of it, and asking you to approve it on your
dashboard. This allows you to read comments before they are published for others to
read and decide if it is appropriate for publishing.
Blog comments are used to trigger discussions. Visit other blogs and add your
thoughts to it, if you think you have something meaningful to add. Leave a link to
your own blog (in the respondent’s details box), so others know where to ‘find’ you.
Subscribe to comments to keep up with the discussion.
NB: Saying things like: I like your blog. Nice post! etc is not as productive as starting
a conversation on that topic.
As the owner of a blog, reply to people’s comments, whenever you have something
else relevant to add.
Do not delete or leave comments unpublished if they express an opinion contrary to
yours. See them as an opportunity to explore new ideas and drive new discussions.
Preventing the publication of such comments on your blogposts just annoys people. If
they don’t get it published there, they might publish it on their own blog or
somewhere else, which is far worse!
Some comments are harder to answer than others. It is OK to leave comments
awaiting moderation for a couple of days until you have found the right tone to
answer them. Just don’t forget them!
Tags & Categories
Tags, also called labels, are a kind of micro meta-data often associated with online
user generated content. Tags are keywords created by online users to describe the
contents they create.
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6. Use as many tags as you possible can to classify and describe in detail the content of
individual blogposts. It helps your blog to be indexed higher by search engines.
Develop a set of categories for your blog (max.10). These should give your readers a
general idea about the topics featured in your blog. Categories are useful to organise
the contents of your blog. When users click on one of the categories, your blog with
list all posts which have been categorised with that specific category. It’s a great
feature for blogs’ internal organisation and search of content.
Managing your blogging expectations
Blogs are home for individuals’ public thoughts and ideas. Do not start a blog to
become popular. See a blog as a shared space for reflection and construction of
dialogues. Eventually, it will get known in your area. Until it does, there are some
aspects to bear in mind. Link here for some practice tips and guidance regarding this
issue.
Participating in Discussion Fora & writing on people’s wires
(personal pages)
Make use of the netiquette & Ethics guidelines described above.
Documents
Any document you upload to this Social Network Site should be yours or comply with
copyleft regulations. No copyrighted materials should be uploaded on to this website
without the expressed permission of its author, in which case they should explicitly be
credited for.
Always brand your document. It does not have to be anything fancy, but it helps
people recognise the source. How many time have you come across documents in your
hard drive which you no longer remember where they are from or who they belong
to?
Formatting
Whenever possible pdf your documents before uploading them on to the Network
Site. It is easier to upload. It works practically on every system.
Add a title to your document.
Add a note at the end of the document with your name, and affiliation, etc.
Always number the pages of your document.
Copyright your document with an appropriate license.
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7. Last updated: 02 June 2010
Cristina Costa
C.MendesdaCosta@salford.ac.uk
Research and Graduate College
University of Salford
This work has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-
Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.
More on CC licenses here
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