1. Using Twitter as a Doctoral
Researcher
#tgsfridays
@bioSimonUoB
Simon Bishop,
Doctoral Researcher,
School of Biosciences

3. What is Twitter?
• Twitter is a short messaging service where users ‘tweet’ short
messages of up to 140 characters (including
letters, numbers, spaces, symbols and links)
Link ‘shortening’ services redirect long URLs

4. • Tweets appear in chronological order on a user’s timeline
http://twitter.com/PlanAustralia

6. #hashtags
• A way to group conversations
• Twitter follows everybody using
the hashtag in real time
• Often TV programmes and
shows use hashtags to
encourage discussion
• Anybody can join in, anywhere
• Great for conferences
• Some examples:
– #bbcqt
– #Xfactor
– #TeamGB
– #GBBO
– #PrehistoricAutopsy

7. Why use social media?

8. • It’s your responsibility as researchers to talk
about your work
• Taxpayer money funds research
• There is a knowledge and trust divide
between scientists and the public which
we, as researchers, need to bridge
“Trust is not about information; it’s about
dialogue and transparency*”
• If you’re not out there talking, nobody will
know about your work
• The best person to explain your research is
you
• Funding often now requires evidence of
outreach
*Managing the Trust Portfolio: Science Public Relations and Social Responsibility – Borchelt, Friedman & Holland, 2010

9. • Social media is an excellent tool for
public engagement, sharing of
literature and ideas, debate and data
collection
• Keep up to date –
news, papers, trends and opinions
• Social media transcends
cultural, geographical, publication and
professional barriers
• Networking opportunities are huge
• Exposure can help with funding and
citations
(Twitter data can be quantified)

13. How to use Twitter (part 1)

15. Points to remember, part 1
• Whatever you post, imagine that it WILL be
read by:
– Your family
– Your boss
– Your competitor
• Always consider your audience, the limitations
of that audience, and your online profile

16. #waitrosereasons

17. • It’s not the campaign, it’s how you respond to it
• Even within academia, branding (of self) is
important: be reputable, show integrity, have
the content to back you (or your work) up
• People can see the real you
(you can keep it formal if you wish)

19. Points to remember, part 2
• Don’t feed the trolls
• Never post when tired or drunk
• Be aware of language issues and loss of language
subtlety
• Be aware of peak times and time zones
• Be polite and give credit
– HT, via, MT, RT
• Never post unpublished data or confidential
information. Ever. Not one bit. No no.

20. tut tut.

21. How to use Twitter (part 2)

22. Crowdsourcing
• “I asked on Twitter if
anyone had experienced
any outrageous sexism
recently, and whilst I was
expecting quite a few,
amusingly stereotyped
clangers, I wasn’t
expecting the deluge that
started 30 seconds after I
inquired, and which
carried on for nearly four
days afterwards.”

23. Datamining
“Reading the Riots”
• Collaboration between
Twitter, the Guardian and
the LSE
• Twitter donated 2.65
million tweets
• Looking for patterns,
underlying reasons for the
riots, and the roles of
individuals in spreading
information (real and
erroneous) about the riots
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/reading-the-riots
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/07/london-riots-twitter

24. Policy and Response
“#qldfloods and @QPSMedia:
Crisis Communication on
Twitter in the 2011 South East
Queensland Floods”
• Analysed Tweet data,
focusing on use of Twitter
by Queensland Police
Service during crisis using
#qldfloods
• New research area into how
social media is impacting
our lives
• Implications in psychology,
IT and social sciences
Arc Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) http://cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf

25. Debate

26. Inspiration
#

27. Final thoughts
• You do have time to use social media as a
researcher
• It’s worth your while
• Go forth and create impact

28. Public engagement triangle
?
#tgsfridays

29. Twitter guide for academics:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-
guide/
Social media for scientists:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-
sushi/2011/09/27/social-media-for-scientists-part-1-its-our-job/
Using Twitter as a research tool:
http://placevalues.org/2012/02/03/using-twitter-as-a-research-
tool/
Analysing Twitter data:
http://theplan.co.uk/cleaning-up-twitter-data-in-excel-for-
analysis/
Handbook of Social Media for Researchers and Supervisors (VITAE)
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/Vitae_Innovate_Open_
University_Social_Media_Handbook_2012.pdf
Thanks to @UoBGradSchool, @unibirmingham,
@AnneOsterrieder, @DrJPritchard, @EmergencyPuppy