CORBEL and EOSC-Life organise the webinar series "Engaging with your community through events and training". The series continues with a panel discussion between Caitlin Ahern (BBMRI-ERIC), Katri Ahlgren (ICOS ERIC), Stefan Swift (European Social Survey), and Luiza Fundatureanu (ZN Consulting).
Join us for an interactive discussion with science communicators who will share concrete examples and tips for improving your scientific communications – especially when budget and time resources are limited! The speakers come from a range of fields and will have plenty of time for Q&A and discussions.
This webinar includes an audience Q&A session during which attendees can ask questions and make suggestions. Please note that all webinars are recorded and available for posterior viewing.
CORBEL/EOSC-Life webinar Practical Tips for Stepping Up Your Science Communications
1. Practical Tips for Stepping Up Your
Science Communications
Speakers: Katri Ahlgren (ICOS-ERIC), Luiza Fundatureanu (ZN Consulting) and Stefan
Swift (European Social Survey)
Moderator: Caitlin Ahern (BBMRI-ERIC)
Host: Marta Lloret Llinares (EMBL-EBI)
CORBEL/EOSC-Life joint webinar series:
Engaging with your community through
events and training
4. CORBEL and EOSC-Life bring together biological
and medical research infrastructures
2015-2020 2019-2023
5. CORBEL
Modern biological and biomedical research involves complex projects and a
variety of different technologies.
Some of the most important discoveries are made at the interface between
different disciplines.
CORBEL will harmonise access and services for complex research projects
involving more than one RI that offer:
• biological and medical technologies
• biological samples and
• data services
6. EOSC-Life: Building an open collaborative space
for digital biology in Europe
The mission of EOSC-Life, a European Union Horizon 2020 project, is to:
• Establish EOSC-Life by publishing FAIR life science data resources in EOSC
• Create an ecosystem of innovative life science tools in EOSC
• Enable groundbreaking data-driven research in Europe by connecting life scientists to
interoperable European clouds via open calls for participation
The same 13 BMS RIs (now referred to as Life Science Research Infrastructures, or LS RIs) from
CORBEL continue their collaboration in this project, along with 46 partners & 17 LTPs.
7. Today’s speakers
Caitlin Ahern is Communications Officer at BBMRI-ERIC, a European Research
Infrastructure for biobanking and biomolecular resources. She is involved in several
EU projects, such as CORBEL and EOSC-Life; for the latter she is work package
co-lead for Outreach and Dissemination. Before joining BBMRI-ERIC in 2019, Caitlin
spent over a decade as a self-employed communications specialist and
German-English translator for the public and private sectors.
Katri Ahlgren is Head of Communications at ICOS ERIC. Katri has over 20 years of
experience in managing various communications matters, projects and teams. In the
context of ICOS, her key competences are understanding on how international
organizations operate, strong skills in internal and external communications both in
terms of digital and printed materials and strategies, and ability to create
communications that support the realization of organization’s strategy.
8. Stefan Swift became the first Media and Communications Officer at the European
Social Survey ERIC in April 2016. Initially brought in as part of a Horizon 2020
project aimed at increasing the number of participating countries, he has spent much
of the past four years aiming to promote the data to a non-academic audience.
Before joining the European Social Survey, Stefan worked in public and private
sector communications roles.
Today’s speakers
Luiza Fundatureanu is Account Manager at ZN – the leading digital agency in
Brussels, with a deep and proven understanding of communications. At ZN, she has
conceived and implemented successful communication for many demanding clients,
from European associations to major corporate customers, not forgetting the largest
group in the European Parliament and the award-winning #DiscoverEU campaign.
10. A European infrastructure producing
standardised, high-quality greenhouse gas data
Measurements at atmosphere,
ecosystem
and ocean stations
Data is free for all, used by
policy makers and scientists
alike
ICOS ERIC established in 2015
21. 13
35 500 to 91 400 “likes”
per picture, with
positive comments on
@kpunkka account
High visibility on
@kpunkka Instagram
22. Videos viewed 6000 times
12 videos, 6000 views in YouTube
Also used in events,
eg. EGU, COP23, GEO
23. It is not over yet
• Exhibitions in the
12 countries
• We still post new
images and re-use
videos in social media
• All ICOS people can
use the images in
their work.
Pictures by Nada Caud / ICOS ATC
24. Conclusions
• Choose your channels to reach your audience
• Tailor the message to speak to your audience
• Think of other ways to convey your message
than the traditional methods-results
• Storytelling
• Science is valued – especially in harsh conditions
• ”Behind the scenes” is interesting
• Important for the internal people as well
28. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
European Social Survey: Overview
• Over 200 questions asked in face-to-face interviews
• 9 rounds completed - every two years since 2002/03
• 38 countries have taken part
• Questionnaire lasts around 60 minutes
• Translated into more than 50 languages
• Over 425,000 interviews completed
• 2,000 people in each country in each round
• Primarily a data provider
• 151,301 registered users (December 2019)
• 4,417 academic articles (2003-18)
29. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
• First funded in 2001
Funded by the European
Commission, following work by
Roger Jowell and Max Kaase at
the European Science Foundation
• Won Descartes Prize (2005)
The first social science project to
win the research prize
• Became European Research
Infrastructure Consortium
(2013)
Currently the highest number of
members (24) of any ERIC
European Social Survey: History
“When considering new policies,
governments in the past were
often ignorant of their citizens’
preferences and needs. Now
European governments have a
source for counteracting that
ignorance.”
31. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
What do we ask?
• Attitudes towards Europe
• Crime and justice
• Democracy
• Discrimination
• Government
• Health and education
• Identity
• Immigration
• Media consumption
• Perceptions of politics
• Political participation
• Political persuasion
• Religion
• Tolerance
• Trust in other people
• Wellbeing
34. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
Raising the profile of the ESS on social media
• Appointment of Media and Communications Officer (April 2016)
• Twitter account launched (April 2016)
• Revised press and communications strategy (November 2016)
• Facebook account launched (April 2017)
• Increased activity on LinkedIn (July 2017)
35. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
• Created in April 2016
• Over 11,000 followers
• Following a similar number
• Post 2-3 updates every weekday
• Retweet when appropriate
• 4 national team accounts:
Austria, Germany, Ireland, Serbia
Channels of communication: Twitter (@ESS_Survey)
36. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
@EuropeanSocialSurvey
• Created in April 2017
• Over 1,500 followers
• More than 1,400 page likes
• Post 1-2 updates every weekday
Channels of communication: Facebook and LinkedIn
@European-Social-Survey
• Increased activity since July 2017
• Over 600 followers
• Post 1-2 updates every weekday
37. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.orgeuropeansocialsurvey.orgPromoting the ESS
11
Content generation
38. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
• ESS events, news and publications
Content produced for the ESS website
and national websites
• ESS in the news
Links to news articles that analyse our
data or reference the ESS
• External reports and websites
Promote the entire report and any
graphs individually
• Academic papers
Use the ESS Bibliography or Google
Scholar listings
• Data analysis
Simple, graphical analysis of ESS data
Social media channels: Content
39. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
Content generation: Sources
• ESS events, news and publications
– ESS website news / blogs
– Publications (graph by graph)
– Internal emails of relevance (partner organisations; national teams;
advisory boards; etc.)
– Data releases; tools; webinars; etc.
• ESS in the news; External reports and websites
– Google Alerts (“European Social Survey” in all languages)
– Mention Alerts
– Talkwalker Alerts
– City, University of London outsourced media monitoring (Meltwater)
– City’s Library Services (Nexis UK; Factiva; PressReader)
40. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
Content generation: Sources
• Academic papers that analyse data
– Google Scholar Alerts
– ESS Bibliography
– Bibliographic monitoring
– Direct message requests from academics
• Data analysis
– Our own content creation
41. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.orgeuropeansocialsurvey.orgPromoting the ESS
15
Implementation
42. Promoting the ESS europeansocialsurvey.org
Scheduling content
• Schedule social media updates using Hootsuite
– 15 x Twitter posts per week
– 10 x Facebook updates per week (longest posts)
– 10 x LinkedIn posts per week (shortest posts)
• Dedicate Friday afternoons for Monday-Friday next week
• Add images to all posts
• Think about line breaks on Twitter
• Facebook / LinkedIn analytics more reliable
47. 4
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• Before, during, and after
• A hook, a focus, a moment to engage
• Twitter as a key channel
• News-breaking opportunities
• Engage with colleagues, journalists,
and the blogosphere
Events are a key story opportunity
on social media
48. 5
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• With low reach on social media
• Few people talking about it before or after the event
• Often not reaching the big players outside of the
room
• Short-term investment
From a high-potential event, but currently
limited to the people in the room….
49. …to an event trending on Twitter, reaching
hundreds of thousands of people and changing
perceptions
52. 9
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• Create a visual identity for your event
• Event hashtag #EBW2020
• Review the existing communication
materials
• Draft a top-level message house for the
audience groups
Create a strategy & top-line
messages
BEFORE
53. 10
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
Map out people & organisations in
the room or not
BEFORE
• Key target audiences
• Speakers
• Sponsors
• Organisations
• People or organisations you want to get their
attention to
54. 11
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
3. Create content for social
media in advance
BEFORE
• Creating content for your audience to retweet is the
best way to create engagement
• Sharable visuals/content
• Tag relevant people & organisations
• Schedule your content during key moments
57. 14
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
Create live content for your
audience to retweet
DURING
• Participants are much more likely to share content
than to create it themselves
“The ideal biobank is an almost empty biobank
because all the samples have been used for research.”
• Ask your team to engage and amplify
• Tag other accounts & use hashtags
60. 17
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• Because less is more
when it comes
to social media
• People only
remember about 20%
of the information
they see
Quick facts
61. 18
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• ZN social media activation on location
▪ 2 community managers to activate and generate traffic
▪ 1 digital consultant to monitor, alert and
create live reports
▪ 1 graphic designer
▪ 1 live photographer
• Live creation of shareable assets
• Event impact, hashtag and
conversation monitoring
Have a social media team on site
to create valuable content
DURING
66. 23
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• Do not stop abruptly after the event is over
• Publish all the information you didn’t
manage to publish
• Communicate and spread the content
you created
After event communication
AFTER
67. 24
#DIGITALADVANTAGE
• Make the most of your events and give them optimal visibility
through social media
• Expose your products/services/ideas to a wider audience
• Use this event as a starting point for long-term community
engagement: reach out to members, suppliers, commission,
research institutes and trade press with shareable
communication assets
• Extend the communication lifespan after the event
Event communication objectives
70. Questions?
Practical Tips for Stepping Up Your
Science Communications
Katri Ahlgren (ICOS ERIC), Twitter: @ICOS_RI, Instagram: @isocri
Luiza Fundatureanu (ZN Consulting), Twitter: @ZNConsulting, Instagram: @zn_consulting
Stefan Swift (European Social Survey), Twitter: @ESS_Survey, Facebook: European Social
Survey
Caitlin Ahern (BBMRI-ERIC), Twitter: @BBMRIERIC
71. CORBEL/EOSC-Life joint webinar series: Engaging with
your community through events and training
Next webinars:
- Course design and delivery: Guidance and tips for impactful training
(postponed - date TBA)
- Best practice in training and communication
(postponed - date TBA)
https://www.corbel-project.eu/webinars.html
The CORBEL project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon
2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No
654248
EOSC-Life has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020
Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 824087