Doctoral workshop on using social media to promote research delivered at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, 4th November 2015

1. Promoting your research
using social media
Doctoral workshop presented at McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada 4th November 2015
http://hazelhall.org
http://slideshare.net/hazelhall
@hazelh

2. http://hazelhall.org/about

3. Workshop topics
1. Established and new measures of academic impact
2. Consideration of the range of social media tools available to help promote
your research and increase its potential impact (academic and wide)
3. Recommendations on which tools to use for developing an online presence
as a researcher

4. Established measures of academic impact
Bibliometric indicators measure “academic” impact of individuals’
output
 Quantity and quality of publications
 Quantity and quality of citations to those publications
 Codified in citation databases

5. http://jis.sagepub.com/reports/most-cited

6. Established impact measures
Bibliometric indicators measure “academic” impact
 Quantity of publications
 Quantity of citations to those publications
http://webofknowledge.com

7. Alternative impact measures
Altmetrics assess the impact of individual output using various
criteria across a range of platforms
 recommended by others
 praised by opinion leaders
 mentioned in social media
 etc.
 downloaded
 acknowledged
 included in syllabi
 quoted in the press
 cited in policy documents
 Judgements of esteem rely on more than
“mere” publication record.
 Visibility is becoming increasingly important
for personal research impact and the
reputational benefits that this brings:
 Collaboration approaches
 Speaking invitations
 Committee service

8. files.figshare.com/1067961/56_impacts_preprint_5_26_13.pdf
Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity
(CSID), University of North Texas (2011)

9. http://hazelhall.org/2013/07/14/altmetrics-achieving-and-measuring-success-in-communicating-research-in-the-digital-age/

10. But what about wider impact?
Research reach  policy  action 
improvements
Exploration of the extent to which LIS research projects
influence practice (2011)
Creation of outputs to support the use and execution of
research by librarians and information scientists (2012)

11. http://lisresearchcoalition.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/rilies1_report.pdf

12. Activities to ensure that investment in
research deliver social and economic
benefit
 Ensure project has high level support
 Include target research audience(s) in the execution of the research
 Take into account target audience(s) preferences for consuming research output
 Present output in a way that is accessible to the target audience
Much of this is about how the work is
disseminated, in particular:
 output format (content creation)
 accessibility (sharing)
- and this is where social media come in…

13. There are lots of places “to be”
 (Local profiles)
 CV services
 e.g. LinkedIn
 Resource sharing sites
 e.g. Flickr, Pinterest,
SlideShare, SoundCloud,
Vimeo, YouTube
 ID services
 e.g. Orcid, ResearcherID
 Profile services
 e.g. Academia.edu, Google Scholar,
ResearchGate
 Blogging and microblogging
platforms
 e.g. CoverItLive, Medium, Quora, The
Conversation, Tumblr, Twitter
WordPress
 Impact measurement tools
 e.g. Klout
 Collaboration sites
 e.g. Citeulike, Mendeley
 Social networking sites
 e.g. Facebook, Google+, Lanyrd

14. So where should you be?
For wide dissemination of publications
 ID services (e.g. Orcid, ResearcherID) and research profile
services (e.g. Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ResearchGate)
For wide dissemination of presentations
 Resource sharing sites (e.g. SlideShare, SoundCloud, Vimeo,
YouTube)
If you are interested in tracking your impact
 Impact measurement tools (e.g. Klout)
If you want to keep up to date/others updated
 Twitter
- and to provide a directory of it all
 About.me

15. So where should you be: essentials?
1. Your CV on LinkedIn

16. 16

17. So where should you be: essentials?
1. Your CV on LinkedIn ✓
2. Your academic identity registered on ID services (e.g. Orcid,
ResearcherID)

19. So where should you be: essentials?
1. Your CV on LinkedIn ✓
2. Your academic identity registered on ID services (e.g. Orcid,
ResearcherID) ✓
3. Your publication track record on profile services (e.g.
Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ResearchGate)

21. So where should you be: essentials?
1. Your CV on LinkedIn ✓
2. Your academic identity registered on ID services (e.g. Orcid,
ResearcherID) ✓
3. Your publication track record on profile services (e.g.
Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ResearchGate) ✓
4. Links to the above from About.me

23. Should you set up a personal blog?
1. Do you want/need a full “independent” online profile?
2. Do you enjoy writing?
3. Are you prepared to give up your free time to blog regularly?
4. What will be your communications strategy?
 What will you call your blog?
 What will it cover?
 How often will you post to it?
 How will you direct traffic to it?

24. Some blog examples
Research students in the Centre for Social Informatics
at Edinburgh Napier University
 Iris Buunk: http://theknowledgeexplorer.org
 @irisbuunk
 Lyndsey Jenkins: http://lyndseyjenkins.org/
 @LJenk2015
 John Mowbray: http://johnmowbray.org
 @jmowb_napier
 Frances Ryan: http://justaphd.com
 @cleverfrances

25. 25

26. Blog alternatives
 In-house news platform
 Update function on LinkedIn
 Ad hoc blogging on Medium, guest contributions to The Conversation

29. Resources
For further detail on individual services mentioned in this presentation
see Using social media to promote your research by Hazel Hall.
The London School of Economics blog Maximising the impact of
academic research is well worth following
Sharing the DREaM blueprint gives an account of how social media
extended the reach of an AHRC project in 2011/12

30. social media planning 30
https://theconversation.com/mind-the-gender-gap-why-women-must-still-fight-for-equality-in-science-32923

31. Contact Hazel Hall
http://hazelhall.org
http://slideshare.net/hazelhall
@hazelh
h.hall@napier.ac.uk
+44 0131 455 2760

32. Promoting your research using social
media
Doctoral workshop presented at McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada 4th November 2015
http://hazelhall.org
http://slideshare.net/hazelhall
@hazelh