1. Outside the Ivory Tower:
Science Writing, Social Media,
and Non-Painful Networking
Melanie B. Tannenbaum, M.A.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2. Introduction
• Melanie Tannenbaum, M.A.
• Doctoral Candidate in Social Psychology
• Blogger for Scientific American

3. Slide via Eva Amsen

4. Slide via Eva Amsen

5. Slide via Eva Amsen

6. My Path
• Spring 2011: Writing & Speaking For A General Audience class.
• May 2011: Class ended; I (nervously) started PsySociety.
• March 2013: After 2 years, PsySociety picked up by SciAm.

7. Many options, many cool paths...
• Today we will be focusing on science writing...
• Because that’s the path I’m most familiar with.
• And because we only have 1 hour!
• Specifically, we’ll focus on the growing field of
science blogging and how this can help you
launch your own career.

8. Why Blog?

9. Slide via Eva Amsen

10. Why Blog?
• For Others
– General public & science literacy
– Outreach & broader impacts of work
– Sharing ideas with other researchers
• For Yourself
– Practice analyzing research & thinking critically
– Improve writing skills
– Create a writing portfolio

11. Who Am I Blogging For?
• Younger kids & families
• Other scientists in your field
• Adults with little science background
• Specific populations
– Parents, female academics, etc.

12. How Do You Even Start?

13. What do you need to
become a science writer?
• A computer
• Electricity
• The Internet
• Knowledge of something scientific

14. What do you need to
become a science writer?

15. What do you need to
become a science writer?
All started out as unknown personal blogs, turned into group blogs, added
functionalities that let readers contribute, and are now major media
organizations that make money, hire and pay editors, and more!

16. But first...
• To be a writer, you have to write.
• Start by taking those long Facebook
updates, e-mails, and Twitter
conversations, and organizing them in a more
serious way.

17. How To Write?
• Think of having a blog like having your own
writing laboratory. You can experiment – find
your voice and style!
• It’s okay if your early posts are clumsy.
Everyone’s are. You can always delete them
later. Or look back and laugh. 
• But first...what should you write about?

18. Finding Your Beat

19. Finding Your Beat
• What is your expertise?
• What do you love?
• What could be your niche?
If you were to become the “go to” person on
any topic, what do you think it should be?

20. Finding Your Beat
• More Specific
– Dog Spies
• Explore the science behind the dog in your bed
– The White Noise
• A hit of addiction and mental illness, chased by chemistry and culture
– Budding Scientist
• Everything you wanted to know about raising science literate kids
– Beautiful Minds
• Insights into intelligence, creativity, and the mind

21. Finding Your Beat
• More General
– Streams of Consciousness
• The scoop on how we think, feel, and act
– The Scicurious Brain
• The good, bad, and weird in physiology and neuroscience
– Doing Good Science
• Building knowledge, training new scientists, sharing a world
– Not Exactly Rocket Science
• The awe-inspiring, beautiful, quirky world of science

22. Finding Your Beat
• The more specialized you are, the more you come to be
seen as an “expert” on that topic, and the more name
recognition you can build for yourself (ironically).
• But, specializing too narrowly could prevent you from
being able to write about some things when “inspiration”
strikes elsewhere.
Specialize enough to find a niche, but not so much that
you place too many limits on what you can cover.

23. Me?
• Started out at IonPsych, where I had no real “beat.”
• When I went to start my own blog, I knew I had to
become a little more focused/targeted.
• I looked at everything I had written over the few
months I was at IonPsych and thought, “What do all
of these posts have in common?”

24. Me?
• 1: Love & Hate being very similar emotional
experiences, using examples from HIMYM & Friends
• 2: Loving the Royal Wedding, with an explanation of
the different types of power
• 3: March Madness, with several posts on social
psych studies that could be related to basketball

25. Me?
• 1. Social Psychology
• 2. Pop Culture
– Broadly defined as celebrities, movies, music, TV, and
also current events, holidays, and news stories

28. Me?

29. What’s My Beat?
• Now, I can comfortably say it’s...
• Psychology
– Specifically social psychology
– Very specifically persuasion & communication
– “Science of Science Communication”
• Saw this was a growing trend/concern, ran with it
• + Pop Culture
– Friends send articles about funny stuff they see in
the news, ask me to explain certain things about
celebrities – they know to come to me with this.

30. Growing A Niche

31. Growing A Niche

32. Growing A Niche

33. Now that you know what to
write about...
How to write about it?

34. Tone
• Do you want to be...
– Sarcastic?
– Funny?
– Serious?
– Casual?
• Whatever you want, it should be authentic.
– If you’re not funny, please don’t try to be.
– If you’re dry and sarcastic, run with it!

35. Tone
• It can vary greatly.
• Some blogs are written like research papers...
• Some are written like formal e-mails...
• And some say things like “suck” and “stupid”
and have sassy commentary running
throughout the whole post.

36. Tone
• If you want to be able to use your blog as a
professional portfolio (e.g., directing editors to look
there as your “writing sample” when pitching
pieces), you want to have at least some
serious/formal pieces readily visible.
• Casual is good and can even be the most effective
(more people will read it all the way through), but
be prepared for backlash from people not taking
you seriously as a result. (Especially if you’re female.)

37. Blog Formats
• You can practice with...
– Interviews
– Feature Pieces
– Brief News Stories
– Data Blitzes
– Long Form Explainers

38. Blog Formats
• Science Fiction
• Poetry
• Photography
• Drawing or Painting
• Data Journalism
• Cartoons/Comics
• Podcasts
• Infographics
• Videos

39. Alex Wild:
Amazing Insect Photos

40. Beatrice the Biologist:
Science Comics

41. CarinBondar& Joanne Manaster:
Great Science Videos

42. Now that I’m writing...
How do I share my work and
connect with other bloggers?

43. Social Media
”Yes, I’m on Twitter for work!”

44. • You don’t have to be active on every single social
media site, but if you create a blog or website, you
should make an account for yourself on the major
ones and at least provide a link to these sites, so
people can find you.
• What are the major ones?
Social Media
”Yes, I’m on Twitter for work!”

45. Social Media
Yes, I’m on Twitter for work!
• You don’t have to be active on every single social
media site, but if you create a blog or website, you
should make an account for yourself on the major
ones and at least provide a link to these sites, so
people can find you.
• Could also include...
Social Media
”Yes, I’m on Twitter for work!”

46. Social Media
Yes
• Yes, it’s fun for social media to be part of your job.
• But...remember that you should have a
consistent, positive, professional image.
• This doesn’t mean you can never drink or Tweet about your
personal life.It just means that you should be aware of the
public persona that you are constructing, and make it both
consistent and something you are OK being tied to
somewhat permanently.
Image

56. Image
• You don’t need to erase your personality in
order to be “professional” on social media!
• The best approach seems to be to pick 1-2
clear, inoffensive, interesting, unique details
about yourself and stick to “personal life”
tweets (mostly) about those 1-2 things.
• Mine: Cats and Fitness, obviously 

57. Image
• Some adults drink at professional conferences, some don’t.
• No one will judge you poorly for drinking (in moderation...)
• But...the same idea might not go for pictures of kegstands
or shotgunning Natty Lites.
• Just remember, people like having colleagues they can also
enjoy as friends. This can mean grabbing a drink, but it also
means not being a sloppy mess. Use your good judgment.

58. Tweeting Well
• You all likely know how to tweet, retweet, etc...
– If not, you can come ask me afterwards 
• But, how can you use Twitter in a way that is good
for your career & professional image/needs?

59. Tweeting Well
• Follow The Right People
– ScienceSeeker Members
• https://twitter.com/SciSeeker/scienceseeker-members/
– Young Science Writers
• https://twitter.com/notscientific/young-science-writers
– ScienceOnline 2013 Attendees
• https://twitter.com/seelix/scio13
– SciAm Bloggers & Contributors
• https://twitter.com/sciamblogs/sciambloggers
• https://twitter.com/sciam/sciam-contributors-2
– Bora Zivkovic: @BoraZ
– Ed Yong: @edyong209
– Me!!: @melanietbaum

60. Tweeting Well
• Tweet The Right Stuff
– It’s OK to “butt into” other people’s conversations...
• ...as long as you’re polite, friendly, useful, and constructive.
– Retweeting Others
– Personal, Humanizing Information?
• Just remember the “image” points from earlier!
– Your Own Writing/Posts
– Unique Contributions
• If everyone else is tweeting links to a story, article from the NY Times,
Breaking Bad OMG moment...you don’t have to.
• Set up Google Alerts for terms from your “beat.”
• Link to posts from good-but-less-known blogs in your area
• THIS IS HOW YOU BECOME THE GO-TO PERSON FOR YOUR NICHE!

61. Network, Network, Network!

63. Friends are important.
• Networking is not just about “rubbing elbows”
with big, important people.
• Friends In Low Places
• Horizontal Loyalty

64. Everything I’ve gotten in this field,
I’ve gotten by networking.

65. Everything I’ve gotten in this field,
I’ve gotten by networking.

66. Everything I’ve gotten in this field,
I’ve gotten by networking.

67. Networking
• Doesn’t have to be
disingenuous, inauthentic, annoying “small
talk,” or anything awful.

68. Networking
• Doesn’t have to be
disingenuous, inauthentic, annoying “small
talk,” or anything awful.
Hey! I just wanted to come say hi really
fast...I’m Melanie, I study X, and I totally
agree with what you said about Y. Here, I
need to go refill my coffee, wanna come?

69. Networking
• Doesn’t have to be
disingenuous, inauthentic, annoying “small
talk,” or anything awful. HEY GUYS
WHO WANTS TO SPLIT SOME NACHOS

70. Networking
• Doesn’t have to be
disingenuous, inauthentic, annoying “small
talk,” or anything awful.

71. Networking
Generally, people like being able to work with
other people they actually like.
You need to do good work and be good at your job,
but it helps to get along well with your potential colleagues, too.

72. Networking
When SciAm goes to fill a spot on the network, of all of the good, hard-
working science writers out there, who do you think will get that spot:
The person that no one’s hung out with,
or the person that everyone in the network is already friends with?
Description of the underlying ethos of a blog network by Bora Zivkovic, Blog Manager at Scientific American

73. Networking
But PLEASE DON’T take this to mean thatnewcomers aren’t welcome.
The registration process for ScienceOnline is specifically designed to
keep it from being the same people year after year.
It’s just that being friendly and well-liked is (or can be) just as
important as the actual work that you do.
Even (especially) when you’re new
and it’s your first time meeting people.

74. Networking
• The one most commonly held opinion is that it
is just as important to form strong bonds
with your peers as it is to meet the “big guys.”
• Find bloggers you like – follow them, read
their stuff, run in the same circles on Twitter!
• Takeaway Point: Write good content, get on
Twitter, talk to people, share cool stuff – your
own and/or other people’s stuff.

75. Conclusions
• Find a “niche”
– What do you want to be the “go-to” person on?
• Experiment with style & voice
– Feel free to be creative – find what works for you.
• Use social media (appropriately)
• Network, network, network!

76. Thank you!
Melanie Tannenbaum
www.melanietannenbaum.com
www.twitter.com/melanietbaum
www.facebook.com/melanie.tannenbaum
www.facebook.com/psysocietyblog
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/

77. Sources
Bora Zivkovic: How To Break Into Science Writing
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/incubator/2013/04/02/how-to-break-into-science-writing-using-your-blog-and-social-media-sci4hels/
SciCurious: 8 Tips On Starting a Science Blog & More
http://scienceofblogging.com/8-tips-on-starting-a-science-blog/
http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/scicurious-on-scicomm/
Catherine de Lange: How To Get a Job in SciComm
http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2013/09/25/how-to-get-a-job-in-science-communication
Eva Amsen: You’re All Different: Creating Your Own Career
http://www.slideshare.net/easternblot/career-talknatjobs-forupload