4.2 ‘Non-traditional’ platforms
Social media
Many networking opportunities today are online, through social media websites. Having a presence on these sites can help you to:
- facilitate discussions with your colleagues
- assist you in staying abreast of the latest research
- help you to perform science outreach.
There are also academic and professional social networking sites such as Academia.edu [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and ResearchGate that have grown rapidly, with researchers sharing their work and being able to track work by people that they follow.
The key to being successful in maintaining an online presence, whether for outreach or for networking, is to find the platform or platforms that fit your needs. Table 3 will help you think about which social media platforms are best suited to your communication goals.
| Platform | Description | Your goal | Time commitment | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A social networking site for 280-character messages (tweets). You can ‘follow’ the tweets of your friends or colleagues, and even those of strangers and celebrities. | To send messages or publicise content in 280 characters or less; to stay up-to-date with the news, discussions and issues in your field, and join in fast, pithy conversations. | Medium; aim to tweet almost every day to keep your account active. Serious Twitter users will tweet multiple times a day. | An easy way to connect with diverse people in your field; the ability to share information and follow news in real time. | The fast pace can be overwhelming, and tweets can get ‘lost’ in the crowd. | |
| A social networking site that allows you to post photos, videos, links and messages to your profile. Pages can be created by companies, laboratories or research groups, and followed by anyone. | To share relevant links and information that your audience is interested in. | Low; post links or original content a few times a week. | A familiar platform for most people, with (theoretically) a large audience. A Facebook page for a laboratory group can let you reach people without using your personal account. | It takes a lot of work to reach people outside of your Facebook ‘friends’, so reaching a wider audience can be difficult. | |
| Platform | Description | Your goal | Time commitment | Pros | Cons |
| The world’s largest online professional network. You can build your network by adding professional contacts, and can also follow people, companies or topics. You can create and join professional events, and share your perspective on relevant issues and topics with others. | To advance your career and tap into a network of professionals, companies and groups within and beyond your industry. | Low/medium; ideally, post a few times a week. Creating your profile and building your network can take time. | LinkedIn builds strong networking opportunities, allows you to link your accounts and blogs to share experiences and advice on topics that are important in your industry, and allows people to share their expertise to help others. | It is initially time-consuming; you will need to spend some time building your profile by familiarising yourself with the site’s features and making connections. It has limited interactivity compared with Facebook or Twitter. | |
| Blogging (e.g. with WordPress, Blogger or Tumblr) | Writing and posting content on a dedicated website. Think of it like public journaling on a certain theme (such as marine science, the nitrogen cycle, being a PI, etc.) | To share your thoughts throughout the creation of in-depth, original content. Tumblr is different in that it is primarily image-focused. | High; posts can take anywhere from 30 minutes to many hours, depending on the topic. Posting at least once or twice a week is important for maintaining an audience, but prolific bloggers post most days. | It can reach a wide audience, and works synergistically when promoted through other social media; it has a lasting impact, because posts are available online indefinitely. | It requires a large time investment, especially initially when setting up the website. |
| Platform | Description | Your goal | Time commitment | Pros | Cons |
| A social networking site focused on sharing images and short videos. | To share original images of life in the lab, field or classroom. | Low; ideally, you should post a few times a week. | Visuals can interest a wide audience; it can be used synergistically with other social media. | It may be difficult to regularly update with new photos; there is little opportunity for in-depth interactions with your audience. | |
| Video-sharing (YouTube, Vimeo) | Video-sharing websites where users can upload original videos and watch videos that others have created. | To create and share videos about your research, your lab/field work, or about science in general. | High; although people don’t expect you to post videos all the time, creating high-quality videos takes work. | The potential to reach a wide audience that isn’t otherwise interested in science; once created, a video will be viewed for years to come. | High initial time investment; creating high-quality videos requires equipment and editing software. |
| Platform | Description | Your goal | Time commitment | Pros | Cons |
| A social networking and news website where users submit content and links, and engage in online discussions. | To provide scientific expertise and discuss science issues with scientists and non-scientists alike. | Low/medium; commenting takes little time commitment – setting up an ‘ask me anything’ (AMA) takes more time, but is a one-time thing. | You can reach a large audience; the community is relatively informal and consistent engagement isn’t necessary to have an audience. | In gigantic comment threads, your voice might get buried underneath other comments. |
Tips for using Twitter, Facebook and blogs effectively
- Tweet often. To maintain an active Twitter account, try to tweet every day.
- Use hashtags (a ‘#’ symbol at the start of a word or phrase) to highlight topics, comment on other people’s tweets and respond to comments.
- You can live-tweet events such as workshops, seminars and conferences by tweeting what’s going on using relevant hashtags.
- Use the website Bitly to shorten links.
- Use the Tweetdeck or Hootsuite apps to manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule tweets and search tweets easily.
- Setting up a Facebook Page for your lab or organisation is a great way to reach people without needing to post things from your personal profile.
- Make sure your posts and links are appropriate for your audience. If your Facebook friends are mostly non-scientists, links to journal articles are probably not going to interest many people.
- Be sure to respond to comments that people make on your posts. Start a conversation.
Blogging
- Blogging successfully requires more thought than some other social media platforms, but its permanence and reach can make it more rewarding as well.
- Figure out who you want your audience to be. Write with them (and their interests, education level, etc.) in mind.
- Decide on a theme for your blog and (mostly) stick to it. The theme can be as general as ‘AMR’ or as narrow as ‘preserving antibiotics through safe stewardship’, but a theme gives your blog coherence and helps to build your audience.
- Make sure that your blog site is visually appealing. Even if you have great content, if your website looks cluttered and distracting, people are likely to click away without reading your posts. Generally, minimalism and simplicity should be your bywords.
- Promote your blog on other social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. You can make social media accounts for your blog, which works especially well if the blog is a group effort.
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Interpersonal communication channels
