1. Social Media &
Managing your Online Presence
Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer
http://edina.ac.uk/
Naturejobs Careers Expo, London, 26th September 2012

2. What will be covered here
• What is social media?
• Why should you use social media?
• What tools should you use?
• How to manage and maintain your online identity
and why it matters
• How social media can help you in building your
professional profile
• Cautionary notes
• Examples of good social media practice
• Q&A

3. Introduction

4. What is Social Media?
• Social Media are any websites that allow you to contribute, to
engage, to connect with others and are “Web 2.0” tools
(O’Reilly 2005).
• Relevant examples include:
– Blogs (WordPress, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.)
– Twitter
– YouTube and Vimeo
– Facebook
– Flickr and similar image sharing sites
– Pinterest
– Academia.edu
– FigShare

5. Why Use Social Media?
• Social Media are go-to spaces for expertise and
advice
• Setting up your own professional presence allows
you to build your own profile in the way you want
• Social media sites rank highly on Google, Bing, etc.
• Key figures – Principal Investigators, CEOs, Senior
Managers, Research Councils, Leading Academics
and Researchers, etc. are much more accessible via
social media allowing you to build a great network.
• Social Media can lead to collaboration, employment,
speaking, and other opportunities.
• Social media gives you a way to raise your profile
for engaging, outreach etc.

6. What tools should you use?
• Blogs are a great way to establish yourself as a
knowledgeable credible professional
• Twitter is a highly effective way to build your network,
to connect with leaders in your field, find peer support
and advice, follow key announcements, articles etc.
• Video or Audio are super if you want to build up your
reputation for speaking, events, media, public
engagement, etc.
• LinkedIn lets you build a professional profile, establish
new collaborations and be found by recruiters
• Academia.edu lets you similarly build a professional
profile but with a closer tie to publications, connections to
others in the sector, research interests etc.
• Mendeley and Google Scholar Citations let you raise
the profile of publications and find related publications

7. What should you share?
• Your work/research – to the extent that this is
acceptable
• Quirky or playful content around your work or
research
• Your professional experience – publications,
experience, connections where appropriate (e.g. via
LinkedIn)
• CHECK ANY EXISTING PRIVACY, NON-DISCLOSURE
OR SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES AND ENSURE YOUR
SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE OR ACTIVITY COMPLIES.

8. What should not be shared
• Commercially sensitive data or other material your
employer/PI would not want shared or that might
breach guidelines.
• Personal information that might impact on your
professional reputation – images of drunken parties,
some automatic app updates (e.g. that you are
reading “50 Shades of Grey”), old forgotten
discussion board rants, hate speech, etc.
• Anything you would not want a professional peer,
employer, or future employer to see or read.

9. Blogs: What’s on my Blackboard?
http://whatsonmyblackboard.wordpress.com/

10. Blogs: Cameron Neylon

11. Blogs: Mary Beard
http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/

12. Facebook: Mr Blobby the Blobfish

13. Good Examples: Inside Science
http://blogs.royalsociety.org/inside-science/

14. Twitter: Joe Hanson

15. Reflect on your own identity online
• The first thing to do is Google yourself* and
see what’s out there…
• Are your existing online presences findable
and effective?
• Look for ways to distinguish yourself from
others with similar names/roles.
• Look for colleagues, peers, role models in
your own or related specialisms – what
works well or poorly in their own social
media presences?
* Or use Bing, Whos talkin, Social Mention, IceRocket, Twitter search, etc.

16. LinkedIn: Sandra Chapman

17. Academia.edu: Marta Mirazon Lahr

18. FigShare: Prabhav Kalaghatgi

19. Flickr: Francis Rowland

20. Building your Professional Profile
• Decide which tools suit your style, expertise,
and time availability
• Ensure you complete your profile, use your
real name and connect social media to your
other online presences.
• Share interesting engaging content, use
images, build connections to others, engage
with the community in social media.
• Ensure you keep profiles and presences up
to date and relevant and that they represent
you fairly and as you want to be seen.

21. Managing Your Identity Online
Useful Search Engine
• Google: http://www.google.com and Google Blog Search:
http://www.google.co.uk/blogsearch/
• Bing: http://www.bing.com/ and Bing Social Search:
http://www.bing.com/social/
• Whos talkin: http://whostalkin.com/
• Social Mention: http://www.socialmention.com/
• IceRocket: http://www.icerocket.com/
• Twitter Search: https://twitter.com/#!/search-home
• Topsy: http://topsy.com/
Useful Tools for Automatic Checking and Task Management
• Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts
• Tweetbeep: http://tweetbeep.com/
• IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/

22. Q&A
Questions?

23. Useful Resources
• O’Reilly, T. 2005. What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for
the Next Generation of Software. In O’Reilly, 30th September 2005. Available
from: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
• Patel, S. 2011. 10 ways researchers can use Twitter. In Networked Researcher,
3rd August 2011. Available from:
http://www.networkedresearcher.co.uk/2011/08/03/10-ways-researchers-can-
use-twitter/
Privacy Settings Links:
• Facebook Privacy Settings:
http://www.facebook.com/help/privacy
• LinkedIn Privacy Settings:
http://learn.linkedin.com/settings/
• Guide to Google+ Privacy Settings:
http://lifehacker.com/5827683/a-guide-to-google%252B-privacy-and-
information-control/