CPUT Teaching and Learning Day Workshop, 6 Nov, 2013 HOT training for staff on setting up an Academia.edu profile and understanding the social networking and research analytics functions.

1. Your Digital
Presence
Redefining your online
scholarly identity
Daniela Gachago and Noëlle Cowling
Workshop, CPUT
6 Nov 2013

2. Boyer (1990): Scholarship Reconsidered
(Social Media and the Digital Scholar, Sue Beckingham)
• advancing
knowledge
• synthesising
knowledge
Discovery
advancing/
applying
knowledge
about how to
teach/
promote
learning
Integration
Teaching
Application
• advancing/
applying
knowledge

3. PRESENCE
SHARING
Extent to
which you
allow users to
exchange and
distribute your
information
CONVERSATI
ONS
Extent to
which others
engage with
you and you
with others
Extent to
which you as
the scholar are
visible to
others online
IDENTITY
The extent to
which others
can identify
you online as
a scholar
GROUPS
The extent of
your
engagement
with
communities
CONNECTION
S
The relevance
and appeal of
your work to
others
Building
Blocks of the
Networked
Scholar*
• The honeycomb of
building blocks can be
used to assess your level
of online connectivity as a
scholar.
• They are not exclusive and
neither need all be present.
REPUTATION
Your online
standing and
the extent to
which you
influence
others
* Laura Czerniewicz,
Academics’ online visibility ,
CET, UCT
ADAPTED FROM
Social media? Get serious!
Understanding the
functional building blocks
of social media
Jan H. Kietzmann,
Kristopher Hermkens, Ian P.
McCarthy, Bruno S. Silvestre
Business Horizons (2011)
54, 241—251

4. Your Online Research Profile
Google Yourself. What are your
results? Your professional identity
should rank first.
 Is your identity as a researcher and a
scholar clear on the first page of
results?
 Don’t forget Google images (in other
words check the searchable images of
yourself often)
 You never get a second chance to
make your first impression!


5. Intentional Web Presence
Academics need to be intentional about how,
when, and what shows up when someone
uses a search engine to search their name or
area of research.
 If Google cannot find a scholar's work then it is
essentially irrelevant because people will not
find, read, apply, or build on the work if they
cannot locate it via a quick Google search.
 Building a web presence can make the
difference on your visibility to the desired
audience and opportunities for new projects
and collaborations.


6. Know and understand your
Digital Identity
Your identity represents the extent to
which you reveal your identity in a
social media setting. This can include
disclosing information such as name,
age, gender, profession, location, and
also information that portrays you in
certain ways. (Kietzmann et al, 2011)
 In order to build networks effectively
you need to have a robust and
dynamic online presence.


7. Your Profile is your Brand
Own your brand
Market your brand
Understand the difference between your
Digital Footprint and your Digital Shadow
 Be Intentional about SEO
 Track your traffic
 Link, Link, Link…
 Be consistent
 Be current
 Be giving (and be nice….)




8. Creating and Maintaining your
Online Profile
Basic guidelines for retooling your profile
would include:
 Consistency: Keep a common identity
throughout various platforms
 Participating: Social networking is a gift
economy
 What gets posted on Facebook stays on
Facebook
 Link your various profiles to one another
wherever possible


9. Popular Tech Tools for
Scholars
Twitter
 LinkedIn
 Slideshare
 Prezzi
 Google Scholar
 Mendeley
 ResearchGate
 Academia.edu


10. The affordances of
technologies
Each technology offers a number of
different affordances
 Choose a combination of tech tools
which will assist you in achieving your
desired outcomes
 Think in terms of these affordances:

◦
◦
◦
◦
Sharing
Collaboration
Communication
Dissemination

11. Some suggested affordances
Dissemination (Twitter, Slideshare,
Academia)
 Sharing (Slideshare, Google+,
Academia)
 Marketing (Blogging, Slideshare,
Twitter)
 Collaborating (Academia, Mendeley,
Research Gate, Google Drive)
 Impact Assessment (Google Scholar,
Impact Story, Academia.edu)


12. Academia.edu
Sometimes described as a
combination of Facebook for
Nerds and LinkedIn in for
Geeks!
 Academia.edu is an online
social network for academics
to share papers, monitor their
impact, and follow research
and researchers in a
particular field.


13. Why Academia.edu?
4.3 million scientists have been
actively using Academia.edu (25 % of
17 million academics globally).
 Academia’s platform isn’t merely a
repository for papers, it’s also a social
network for academics.
 Academia.edu’s new profiles let
researchers showcase their best work
and track analytics on views and
followers


14. Academia.edu Advantages
Free advertising/Free Web Site
 Excellent SEO (NB!)
 Access to Articles
 Connections do not have to be
reciprocal
 Connectivity between researchers but
also between other technologies
 Clean easy to use interface


15. The Affordances of
Academia.edu
“Academic and Scientific discourse is
mediated by paper supremacy. Over the
last ten years, the landscape has
changed to the point that most
academics review research online.”
 “What hasn’t caught up is the way to
measure the impact of research
uploaded online. We’re in the middle of a
fascinating transition in science to being
a web-native form of communication.”
(Dr Richard Price, Founder Academia.edu)


16. Exploring Academia.edu
Driven by a powerful database of global
Higher Education Institutions
 A free and easy way to publish your bio,
publications, contact information and
post status updates
 Choose to follow people and topics
which are of relevance to your teaching
and learning
 Utilise the analytics dashboard to
understand your research impact


17. Exploring Academia.edu
Academics can now organize their
research into different sections with
places for published papers, drafts,
book reviews and conference
presentations.
 The bio box at the top of the profile
enables you to showcase key career
achievements.
 There is a section where you can link
your profiles on other sites like
LinkedIn or Twitter.


18. Landing Page

19. Profile Page

20. The Interface - academic
departments

21. Your Research

22. Uploading and tagging papers

23. Research Analytics

24. Increase Pageviews





Here are some ways to increase views and
downloads of your Academia.edu profile
and papers:
Link to your page from as many other sites
as possible, especially high PageRank
ones, e.g. university departments. But any
link is better than no link.
Upload as much content as possible.
Google likes lots of content.
Tag your papers with research interests, so
they are distributed through the News
Feeds in Academia.edu
Put your Academia.edu profile in your email
signature

25. Document Views

26. Search Location

27. Can I legally upload my
papers?

28. Can I legally upload my
papers?

29. Remember!
You don’t have to know someone to
follow them!
 The power of social networking lies in
economies of scale
 Follow, participate, give!


30. Closing Thought

“With Academia.edu surfacing at the
top of every Google search on your
name you might as well put something
on the site for people to read.” (Melonie
Fullick, York University, Canada)