Twitter as a Research Megaphone - How can academics build a Twitter following and use it to promote research to journalists and policymakers - Connecticut Scholars Strategy Network Chapter @ct_ ssn - June 24, 2021
2. Dr. Eladio B. Bobadilla
Dr. Bobadilla is an assistant professor at the University
of Kentucky and a historian of the United States and
Latin America. He earned his PhD at Duke University.
His forthcoming book, “Without Borders”: A History of
the Immigrant Rights Movement, will be published by the
University of Illinois Press as part of the Working
Class in American History series. The book is based on
his dissertation, which was awarded the 2020 Herbert
G. Gutman Prize by the Labor and Working Class
History Association (LAWCHA). He is a leader for the
Kentucky chapter of SSN.
Twitter handle: @e_b_bobadilla
3. Dr. Melissa C. Brown
Dr. Brown earned her PhD in sociology from the
University of Maryland in 2019. She currently
works as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman
Institute for Gender Research at Stanford
University. Her areas of expertise include
intersectionality, digital sociology, social
movements, and sexual politics. Her research uses
intersectionality as an analytical framework to
examine big datasets harvested from social
networking sites to study the formation of
identity and community.
Twitter handle: @Blackfeminisms
4. Dr. Dana R. Fisher
Dr. Fisher is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at
the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on
democracy, civic participation, activism, protest, and
environmental policymaking. She has authored over 65 peer-
reviewed research papers and book chapters, and has written
six books, including Activism, Inc (Stanford University Press
2006) and American Resistance (Columbia University Press
2019). Professor Fisher has appeared on CNN, MSNBC,
and PBS Newshour and has written for the popular press,
including in the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, Politico,
Business Insider and the American Prospect.
Twitter handle: @Fisher_DanaR
5. Twitter as a tool to amplify research
• “Inreach”
• Studies indicate that tweets increase academic article downloads and citations
(Allen et al. 2013; Eysenbach 2011; Shuai, Pepe, and Bollen 2012; Thelwall et al.
2013)
• Though find less association (Haustein et al. 2014; Thomy et al 2016)
• “Outreach”
• Some non-academics tweet scholarly journal articles (Mohammadi et al. 2018)
• Academics’ followers are both academic and non-academic, especially for those
with followings >1000 (Cote and Darling 2018)
6. Twitter: Good, Bad, Ugly
• Phil Cohen (@familyunequal) - Social Media for your Academic Work
• Good:
• “Instant, free, multidirectional communication”
• Bad:
• “Waste of time”
• Risky – “one wrong tweet can get you fired”
• Ugly:
• “Cesspool of noise, hate, and abuse”
• “Targeted harassment of women and scholars of color”
7. Resources
• Getting Started:
• Sarah Mojarad (@Sarah_Mojarad): A Beginner’s Guide to Joining
Academic Twitter (2020)
• LSE Public Policy Institute: Using Twitter in university research,
teaching and impact activities (2011)
• Principles:
• Phil Cohen (@familyunequal) Social Media for your Academic Work
(2021)
8. SSN’s Twitter Tips
• Get your timing right
• 7-9 am and 5-7 pm on week days; lunch breaks
• Events
• Livetweet presentations and use the conference hashtag (e.g. #APSA21)
• Put your slides online (e.g. using SlideShare) and tweet them
• Post a thread when a publication goes online
• Make the most of breaking news
9. SSN’s Twitter Tips – MAXIMIZING IMPACT
• Highlight concepts using charts and graphics
• Photos, videos, quotes, numbers get a boost
• Use hashtags, but not excessively (e.g. #twitterstorians)
• Respond to your mentions
• Quote retweet (vs. reply) to add your expertise to the
conversation for your followers
10. Make Your Point: Threading
Start a thread.
String together a series of tweets by
replying to your own tweets. Threaded
tweets display one after the other, so
people can write a longer analysis than
the character limit on a single tweet
allows.
11. Organizing Your Feed: Lists
Create lists.
Create lists of journalists, colleagues,
and key players that work in your area
of research.
12. Organizing Your Feed: Tweetdeck
Build a Tweetdeck.
Organizing Twitter lists on one
easy-to-view dashboard makes it
simpler to follow many different
tracks at a time and to “listen” to
what is being discussed in your
field.
13. Growing your network
• Have friends and affiliated organizations give you a shout-out when you
join Twitter.
• Follow reporters and leaders in your field and engage with their work.
• Support friends, colleagues, and other researchers in your field with
retweets, quote tweets, and tweets of their articles.
• Engagement beyond promoting your own work makes you worth
following.
14. Wondering who
to follow?
• Scholars in your field
• SSN (@SSNScholars)
• SSN chapters accounts
• Local journalists and publications
• Policymakers
• Official local government accounts
• Local civic organizations
• Academic institutions
22. Twitter as a tool to amplify research
Mohammadi et al. 2018: Some non-academic users tweet scholarly journal articles
Allen et al. 2013: Social media postings increased views and downloads of articles in clinical pain sciences
Cote and Darling 2018: Academics’ followers are both academic and non-academic, especially for those with
followings >1000.
Eysenbach 2011: Highly tweeted articles 11 times more likely to be highly cited than less-tweeted
Thelwall et al. 2013: Higher social media engagement (altmetric) predicts higher citation
Haustein et al. 2014: Finds less correlation between tweets and cites.
Thomy et al 2016: Finds no difference in downloads/citations for those tweeted and those not tweeted.
Shuai, Pepe, and Bollen 2012: Finds relationship between tweets and downloads.
