I shared this presentation at a seminar for scholars from Nantong University, which took place at University of Leicester 20 August 2015. It was a great opportunity to consider using tools which are often associated only with trivial and personal use, for use in educational networking and professional profiling.

1. www.le.ac.uk
Sina Weibo and other social media
for academic networking
Terese Bird, Educational Designer and SCORE Research
Fellow, Leicester Medical School
Nantong Scholars Seminar, August 2015

2. What shall we talk about and do today?
• Introduction/Twitter
• Social media metrics
• Research cycle/profile
and other models
• Why social media?
• Social tools
– What they do
– Real life examples
• Do one new thing
Photo by Emma Taylor on Flickr

3. Twitter task
• Log into Twitter
• In the search box at the top, type in one or two
words describing your topic of interest, and have a
look at what comes up
• Click onto the username of a tweet which interests
you, and think: would I like to follow this person or
not?

4. The academic research cycle
(Cann et al., 2011, p. 15)

5. (Garrison et al, 2014)

6. (Bates, 2014)

7. Summary of social media academic uses
Academic activity Tool
Academic and reflective writing Blog
Sharing out publications Academia.edu, Researchgate,
LinkedIn, your own website
Professional discussions Linkedin, Weibo
Your work through video Youku
Your work through images Pinterest, Flickr
Your work through audio SoundCloud, AudioBoo
Finding experts Twitter, Weibo
Curating online articles/news stories Scoop.it
Collaboration All

11. http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2014/04/social-digital-mobile-china-2014/

12. http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2014/04/social-digital-mobile-china-2014/

13. http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2014/04/social-digital-mobile-china-2014/

14. http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2014/04/social-digital-mobile-china-2014/

15. http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2014/04/social-digital-mobile-china-2014/

16. …Because most information is digital – articles, pdf, video
…Because commercial social media sites are better than university’s
…beyond class time and place, and beyond class people.
(Igbrude, 2013)

17. Caveats: burnout, private/professional mix
“The justification for it is bigger than it
ever was, but the problems are bigger than
they ever were.”
- Social media in research early adopter

18. Academic Digital Profile:
Cristina Costa on Flickr

19. Academic digital profile – what I say and
what I show about myself & my work
• What I say about myself – website, blog
• My work –
– Papers: Academia.edu, ResearchGate
– Presentations & Posters: Slideshare
– Video: YouTube, Vimeo
– Photos & images: Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest
• My reflections – blog
• My search & curation – Scoop.it, Twitter
• Facebook & Twitter notify about all of the above

20. University of Leicester advice

21. University
staff 2014 :
various
nations,
various
career stages
N=711
(Lupton, 2014)

22. Weibo http://www.weibo.com/comment/inbox?topnav=1&wvr=6&f=1

23. Twitter – short messages call
attention to other platforms

24. Using Twitter in Media & Communications

25. Current Medical school examples:
Amazing Brain and Nervous System

26. Reilly (2013): YouTube, sousveillance and the
‘anti-Tesco’ riot in Stokes Croft
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPM2NXLK-c
29

27. Overview of study:
• N=1018 comments left under four most commented-upon
videos showing eyewitness perspectives on policing of
disturbances
• Study examines whether commentators perceived this
footage as a form of hierarchical sousveillance (inverse
surveillance)
• Little rational debate about the broader issues e.g.
legitimacy of No Tesco campaign and media narratives
often reproduced by commenters
• Only a very small number of users perceived this footage
as hierarchical sousveillance

28. YouTube – power of video

29. Youku
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTY2MTM0ODY4.html

30. Facebook page – ‘Liked’

31. Facebook
group –
collaboratio
n

32. Blogs – open research notebook,
reflective & academic writing

33. Scoop.it: Research, Curate, and Draw
readers to your study or research topic

34. Academia.edu & Researchgate – your papers

35. LinkedIn – Online CV and discussions

36. Flickr & Pinterest– power of image

37. Pinterest – bookmarking (visual)

38. SoundCloud & AudioBoo - audio

39. Slideshare – elevate your presentations

40. Tip to make a change, add, or begin:
Try one or two for 10 minutes a day
Task Tool
Show yourself as a presenter YouTube, Vimeo, AudioBoo,
SoundCloud, Slideshare
Show yourself as a writer Blog
Share your findings All (match the format!)
Keep up on hot news in your field Twitter, Facebook, Scoop.it
Collaborate with other
researchers
Google Docs, Google Hangouts,
Twitter, Facebook
Organise Storify, Pinterest, Scoop.it
Your online CV LinkedIn, Academia.edu

41. References
• Barnes, N., Lescault, A. and Augusto, K. (2014) ‘2015 Fortune 500 and Social Media - UMass Dartmouth’, UMass Dartmouth Center for Marketing
Research, [online] Available from: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/socialmediaresearch/2015fortune500andsocialmedia/ (Accessed 25 June 2015).
• Bates, T. (2014) ‘2020 Vision: Outlook for online learning in 2014 and way beyond | Tony Bates’, Tony Bates Blog, [online] Available from:
http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/01/12/2020-vision-outlook-for-online-learning-in-2014-and-way-beyond/ (Accessed 19 August 2015).
• Cann, A. J., Dimitriou, K. and Hooley, T. (2011) Social media: A guide for researchers | Research Information Network, [online] Available from:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers (Accessed 6 September 2013).
• Costa, C. (2009) ‘My digital academic profile’, Flickr.
• Garrison, R., Cleveland-Innes, M. and Vaughan, N. (2014) ‘Community of Inquiry Website’, Community of Inquiry Website Athabasca University,
[online] Available from: https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/ (Accessed 19 August 2015).
• Igbrude, C. (2013) ‘Social media in education’, Slideshare, [online] Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/ceelocks/social-networking-in-
education-21754279 (Accessed 19 August 2015).
• Kontopoulou, K. and Fox, A. (2015) ‘Designing a consequentially based study into the online support of pre-service teachers in the UK’, Educational
Research and Evaluation, Routledge, 21(2), pp. 122–138, [online] Available from:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13803611.2015.1024422?journalCode=nere20& (Accessed 26 June 2015).
• Lenhart, A. (2015) Teens, Social Media and Technology Overview 2015, [online] Available from:
http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/04/PI_TeensandTech_Update2015_0409151.pdf.
• Lupton, D. (2014) ‘Feeling Better Connected’: Academics’ Use of Social Media, [online] Available from: http://www.canberra.edu.au/about-
uc/faculties/arts-design/attachments2/pdf/n-and-mrc/Feeling-Better-Connected-report-final.pdf (Accessed 27 June 2015).
• Ofcom (2014) Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report 2014 | Ofcom, [online] Available from: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-
research/other/research-publications/adults/adults-media-lit-14/ (Accessed 25 June 2015).
• Russell, V. (2014) ‘Using Twitter for Research Projects — University of Leicester’, University of Leicester website, [online] Available from:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/cap/marcomms/communications/social/handbook/twitter/using-twitter-for-research-projects (Accessed 25 June
2015).
• Swatman, P. (n.d.) Microsoft PowerPoint - Swatman Ethics & Social Media Research.pptx - Swatman-Ethics-and-Social-Media-Research.pdf, [online]
Available from: http://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/269701/Swatman-Ethics-and-Social-Media-Research.pdf (Accessed 22 June