After using Twitter in a professional capacity for one year, here are 10 tips that have helped me to realise many of the benefits of Twitter for researchers and academics.

1. Top Twitter Tips for researchers
Tanya Williamson @TanyaLibrarian

2. Do you already know why Twitter
can be useful for researchers?
First things first…

3. Consider why you’re using Twitter
Professional capacity
Social/personal?
Bit of both? How much of each?
On behalf of a team, or even a concept or
issue?
1

4. Keep your profile up to date
Add a picture, a bit about yourself/the
account and if possible a link (e.g. to a blog)
2

5. Follow, and be followed
To be truly useful as a source of
information you need to follow accounts
based on what you want to find out about,
not necessarily who you’re friends with!
Check out who other people follow and are
followed by for ideas
3

6. Understand how it works!
Are you replying or just mentioning?
When you retweet, are you endorsing?
Do you want to modify before you retweet?
Where will your tweet appear?
What do those abbreviations mean?
Twitter might operate differently through
apps4

7. Get involved
If you are just broadcasting about yourself,
you’re probably not getting the most out of
it.
Ask, answer, respond, retweet, thank and
‘mention’ to include others in the
conversation.
5

8. Use (but don’t abuse) hashtags
To add your voice to a conversation, group
tweets on the same topic together, reach out
beyond your own followers.
6

9. Do Don’t
Search for hashtags first to
make sure they’re broadly
relevant (or at least not nasty)
Add punctuation, spaces or
only use numbers.
Use Title Case if your hashtag
is made up of many words
#ReadThisItsBrilliant
Inadvertently spell something
inappropriate or use a hashtag
that brings back pornography!
Use the established hashtag for
a conference or tweetchat
Use tons of hashtags in one
tweet
Have a go! Hashtag words #that aren’t
meaningful

10. Add links and images/videos to
your tweets
Adding links is useful.
Adding media, such as images and video will
attract attention, add meaning and enable you
to say more.
7

11. If you’re managing multiple accounts
use Tweetdeck or Hootsuite
Schedule tweets in advance
Construct and save useful searches
See you accounts alongside one another and
easily switch between them
8

12. Make use of lists and favourites
Create your own lists to group accounts in a
way that’s useful to you and/or your
followers
Subscribe to other people’s lists so you can
see what’s going on without necessarily
following each account
9

13. Don’t even try to understand why
some people follow you!
If they’re spammers then yes, block them.
But most people are just like you – curiously
tapping into conversations and connections.
10

14. Ask me a question!
Or tweet! @TanyaLibrarian

15. Useful things to look at:
LSE (2011) Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/files/2011/11/Published-
Twitter_Guide_Sept_2011.pdf
Mashable (2013) Twitter lingo guide
http://mashable.com/2013/07/19/twitter-lingo-guide/
Potter, N. (2014) Twitter for Researchers: Improvers Tips and Tricks:
http://www.ned-potter.com/blog/twitter-for-researchers-improvers-tips-
tricks?rq=twitter
Lupton, D. (2014) 'Feeling Better Connected’: Academics’ Use of Social Media.
http://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/arts-
design/attachments2/pdf/n-and-mrc/Feeling-Better-Connected-report-
final.pdf

16. A tweet
Tells you this was
re-tweeted, and who by
Author
Mention others to
include them in the
conversation
Twitter abbreviation
for ‘Modified Tweet’
Lingo guide
Date
How many times this
has been re-tweeted
or ‘favourited’
Hashtag brings
together related
posts
Shortened URL to
maximise use of 140
characters e.g. using
tinyurl, bitly or ow.ly