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Using Social Media to
Disseminate Research
COU Symposium
March 5, 2012
Krista Jensen
Knowledge Mobilization Officer
York University

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Agenda
1. What is Social Media or Web 2.0?
2. An Overview of Select Tools
3. Developing a Social Media Strategy
4. “Gone Phishing” and Other Dangers
5. Top tips for Using Social Media
6. Resources
7. Q and A
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Social Media- Some Definitions
• “A group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange
of user-generated content”
• “Includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into
interactive dialogue”
• “Online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between
the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that
enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or
mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.”
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010).Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business
Horizons,53(1), 59-68
Social media. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 10, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Thornley, J. (2008, April 8). What is “social media?”. Retrieved January 10, 2012 from ProPR blog http://propr.ca/2008/what-is-
social-media/
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Social Media: Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0
http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/08/18/web-10-vs-web-20-the-visual-
difference/
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Social Media: 5 Cs of Social Media
Adapted from http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/the-four-cs-of-social-media-marketing/
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Social Media Landscape
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Social Media Tools for Collaboration
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Blogging with Wordpress
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Blogging with Wordpress
Highlights
• Allows you to share stories and information with
wider audience
• Way to promote your services, events and activities
• Wordpress.com is free, web accessible and easy to
use
Tips:
• Information you would put into a newsletter can go
into a blog
• Aim for at least one post a week
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Microblogging with twitter
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Microblogging with twitter
Highlights
• Send out short (140 character) messages called tweets
• Allows you to share updates, opinions, resources and
information with followers
• Good way to connect with other people with shared interests
and build communities of practice
Tips:
• Use a URL shorten like bitly.com to save on characters in
your tweets and track who clicks on your links
• Back up your tweets regularly with TweetBackup
• Aim for at least one tweet a day
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Collaborative Online Platform othree.ca
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Collaborative Online Platform othree.ca
Highlights
• Suite of social media tools including:
•Document sharing •Member profiles
•Wikis •Forums
•Blogs •Events Calendar
• Free for researchers and their partners
• Software developed by Canadian company (IGLOO), so data
is stored in Canada
Tip:
• A collaborative platform like this great for collaborative
research projects
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Connecting with facebook
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Connecting with facebook
Highlights
• A fan page allows you to share updates, links, resources and
have discussions
• People can follow your updates and activities and post
questions or comments on your wall
• Includes facebook Insights which gives you some analytics
so you can see who is visiting your page
Tips:
• Once you have 25 fans you can set up a vanity URL
www.facebook.com/projectnamehere
• Set up a fan page and post updates there to keep it separate
from your personal facebook page
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Presentation Sharing with SlideShare
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Presentation Sharing with SlideShare
Highlights
• Easy way to store and share your presentations
• Makes them accessible from any computer with an internet
connection
• Share your presentations with others on your website or blog
by embedding
• People can get notified when you upload a new presentation
by following you
Tip:
• Instead of emailing your presentation to people, upload it
onto SlideShare and email the link to the presentation online
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Social Bookmarking with delicious
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Social Bookmarking with delicious
Highlights
• Allows you to save and tag your favourite websites
• Makes your favourites accessible on any computer
• Uses tagging to categorize and organize
• Share your favourites with others, on your website or blog
through RSS or by embedding
• Can be used to create a library of online resources
Tip:
• Other similar sites are http://www.stumbleupon.com ;
http://digg.com ; http://www.reddit.com/
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Developing a Social Media Strategy
• Develop a social media strategy to help guide you and avoid
“shiny object” syndrome
• Think about which tools you will use for various purposes, eg.
Wordpress for blogging, delicious for sharing
resources, eventbrite to manage events, linkedin to connect
with professionals
• Don’t feel that you have to use every tool, especially at the
beginning. Start by picking a few tools that suit your goals and
use them well
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Social Media Strategy Worksheet
• Team: Identify the person or persons who will have primary responsibility for
populating, maintaining and monitoring your site. Ensure they have the time and
enthusiasm to devote to this project. List the team members.
• Primary Goals: Are you trying to communicate a campaign, generally promote
your department, communicate with alumni? Define your goal for your social media
presence.
• Measuring Success: Determine how you will measure the success, or lack of
success, of your site. Increased traffic to your Web site? Better communication with
prospective students? A new network of colleagues? List how you plan to measure
the site’s success, and the tools you’ll use to track that success.
• Audiences: Identifying your audiences will help you tailor your content and also
choose the right tool. List your primary audiences.
• Current Conversation: This is when the listening begins. Survey the social media
landscape for the “thought leaders” in your field. What are people already saying?
What are people saying about you? Who is saying it? List the topics, people and
sites that are leading the conversations that are relevant to you.
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Social Media Strategy Worksheet
• Content: Identify the content you have to share. Is it primarily news
updates, research developments, or networking information? Photographs? Video?
List the content you will be sharing via social media.
• Name and Design: Identify a simple and descriptive name for your profile that
clearly identifies your affiliation with your university or organization
• Evaluation: Set a timeline for when you will conduct an evaluation of your site’s
success, using the goals and measures identified above. At that time, be prepared
to realign your site’s content. Ongoing evaluation should also be part of your
strategy. Define your timeline.
Adapted from Social Media Strategy Worksheet. (n.d.). In Social Media Handbook. Retrieved January 10, 2012 from
http://web.vanderbilt.edu/resources/social-media-handbook/appendix-a/
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“Gone Phishing” and Other Dangers
• Choose a strong password
• Be careful of scams and phishing- look for suspicious links and make sure you are
on the correct webpage
• Don’t give out your username and password
• Keep your computer and browser up to date and use anti-virus software
Safety: Keeping your account secure. (n.d.). In Twitter Help Centre. Retrieved January 10, 2012 from
http://support.twitter.com/articles/76036-safety-keeping-your-account-secure
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Top tips for Using Social Media
• Develop a social media strategy
• Try to use the same username across various tools and sites
and develop a common look and feel
• Think about how you are going to measure and evaluate
success before you start
• Remember that this does take time and resources
• Have fun with it!
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Resources
10 Ways Researchers Can Use Twitter
http://www.networkedresearcher.co.uk/2011/08/03/10-ways-researchers-
can-use-twitter/
Bit.ly http://bit.ly
• URL shortener that lets you track who clicked on your links and creates a
QR code for your shortened link that you can add to print materials
Cambridge Community Television www.slideshare.net/cctvcambridge
• Good presentations on how to develop a social media strategy
The Conversation Prism www.theconversationprism.com
• Visual of many social media tools for various purposes
HOW TO: Set up a facebook Page http://mashable.com/2011/05/22/how-to-
facebook-page/
• Includes step by step instructions to set up a fan page
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Resources
LSE Guide to Using twitter in University Research, Teaching and Impact
Activites http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-
guide
NameChk http://namechk.com/
• Let’s you see if your username is available on social networking sites
Online Database of Social Media Policies
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
• Links to over 175 social media policies and guidelines in use by various
organizations, including many universities
SlideShare www.slideshare.net
• Post your presentations online and allows you to embed them on your
website
TweetBackup http://tweetbackup.com
• Twitter doesn’t archive tweets but you can backup your tweets and export
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them to Excel with this tool

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Resources
TweetChat http://tweetchat.com/
• Allows you to have a tweetup, a kind of twitter “conference call”, using
hashtags. This tool with show only conversations with your chosen
hashtag
TweetStats http://tweetstats.com
• Show some statistics and analytics on your tweets. Also can create a
word cloud of all the words you tweet
Twuffer http://twuffer.com/
• Allows to you schedule in tweets for a later time. Good to use if you are
going to be away or plan to tweet daily about a resource, eg.
ResearchSnapshots
Twitter Help Center http://support.twitter.com/
• Articles to get you started, as well as information about solving common
problems and how to report a violation
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Resources
Using Twitter for Research https://www.martineve.com/2011/05/23/using-
twitter-for-research/
• A Prezi presentation outlining ways to use twitter aimed at researchers
Vanderbilt University Social Media Handbook
http://web.vanderbilt.edu/resources/social-media-handbook/
• Very good resources on how to create a social media strategy and how
to start using various tools
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Questions?
http://slidesha.re/COUSocialMedia
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Krista Jensen
Knowledge Mobilization Officer
kejensen@yorku.ca x 88847
Website SlideShare
www.researchimpact.ca www.slideshare.net/KMbYork
Twitter YouTube
twitter.com/KMbYork www.slideshare.net/KMbYork
twitter.com/researchimpact
Delicious
Mobilize This! Blog delicious.com/researchimpact
researchimpact.wordpress.com
O3 Space
researchimpact.othree.ca