This document discusses how academics can use social media like Twitter and blogs to enhance their professional profiles. It highlights that scholars use social media primarily for information gathering, dissemination of their research, and identifying peers and collaborators. The key aspects covered include how to create accounts, build networks through weak ties, engage in discussions, and write blogs on research and field developments. Regular updates and interactions are emphasized for maximizing the benefits of social media.

1. LOOSE CONNECTIONS AND THE
STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES:
HOW TO USE TWITTER AND BLOGS TO ENHANCE
YOUR PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC PROFILE
Philip H. Mai, M.A., J.D.
Academic Communications Manager,
Ryerson University
• Communications, Government and Community
Engagement (CGCE), Ted Rogers School of
Management (TRSM) & Office of the Provost
Research Collaborator
• Ryerson University Social Media Lab Twitter: @phmai

2. WWW.SOCIALMEDIALAB.CA
A NEW @TRSMRYERSONU RESEARCH LAB
@RYERSONU
Twitter: @phmai

3. SOCIAL MEDIA =
WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST? Twitter: @phmai

4. SOCIAL MEDIA =
CUTE CAT PICTURES? Twitter: @phmai

5. SOCIAL MEDIA IS
MORE THAN JUST
CUTE CAT PICTURES!
Twitter: @phmai

6. OUTLINE
Twitter: @phmai
 Wired Academia: Social Media & Scholars
 How to Use Twitter
 Why you should join Twitter?
 Loose Connections and the Strength of Weak Ties
 What to put in your profile?
 Whom to follow?
 What to tweet about?
 Some common Twitter questions.
 Blogging
 Why you should consider blogging?
 How to set up your own blog?
 What to blog about
 Things to keep in mind

7. WIRED ACADEMIA:
SOCIAL MEDIA & SCHOLARS Twitter: @phmai
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Discovering new funding
Garnering mass media attention
Publishing findings
Maintaining professional image
Soliciting advice from peers
Collaborating with other…
Making new research contacts
Promoting current work/research
Discovering new ideas or…
Following other researchers'…
Keeping up to date with topics
SSHRC Funded Research 2010-13 (Select) Research Questions
(SocialMediaLab.ca online survey: Based on 315 respondents)
• Why are some scholars using social media?
• What are the perceived utility with using social media among
scholarly users?

8. RECAP: TOP 3 REASONS WHY
SCHOLARS USE SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @phmai
1. Information gathering,
2. Information dissemination (raising
awareness of research and
building a following)
3. Identify Peers & Potential
Collaborators

9. POPULAR SOCIAL NETWORKING
SITES FOR SCHOLARS
Twitter: @phmai
 Academia.edu – “A place to share and follow
research.” 15 million researchers.
 ResearchGate.net – “Access scientific knowledge,
and make your research visible.” 5 million researchers.
 Twitter.com – “Connect with your friends — and
other fascinating people.” 284 million users.

10. OUTLINE
Twitter: @phmai
 Why Scholars & Other Professionals Are Using
Social Media
 How to Use Twitter
 Why you should join Twitter?
 Loose Connections and the Strength of Weak Ties
 What to put in your profile?
 Whom to follow?
 What to tweet about?
 Some common Twitter questions.
 Blogging
 Why you should consider blogging?
 How to set up your own blog?
 What to blog about
 Things to keep in mind

11. WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN TWITTER?
TWITTER FACTS
 284 million active Users (December 2014)
 Generating 1 billon new tweets every 2
days.
 40% of Twitter users don't share any
information. They consume.
Twitter: @phmai

12. WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN TWITTER?
-#SERENDIPITY TO THE MAX
 Twitter is known for fostering weak
ties…but there is strength in weak ties!
 It’s the perfect medium for making
serendipitous connections to people and
ideas.
Twitter: @phmai

13. WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN TWITTER?
LOOSE CONNECTIONS & THE
STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES
 In a landmark1973 study (30K+ citations), Mark Granovetter, a
sociologist and professor at Stanford wanted to know how
people found jobs in communities around Boston.
 Granovetter found that over 80% of the people in his study
did not find a job through close friends – but though distant
acquaintances—friends of friends. He called the
phenomenon ’the strength of weak ties.’
 People close to us in our peer group tend to have the same
limited knowledge, share many of the same personal
relationships, have similar experiences and face similar
challenges. They are not an ideal source for new info.
 The global information that we need to stand
out among our peers usually lies outside of
our local network.
Twitter: @phmai

14. CREATE AN ACCOUNT AT TWITTER.COM
Twitter: @phmai

15. WHAT TO PUT IN YOUR PROFILE? Twitter: @phmai
1. Your picture – Use a picture that is clear, smiling, welcoming, no
sun glasses
2. Your areas of expertise – Are you an expert? A researcher? Do
you have a professional degree? List them.
3. Inject your personality – It is what makes you unique and sets
you apart
4. Include your interests - Hobbies and experiences. Listing them
will most likely attract followers who share the same interests.
5. Embrace adjectives – Be truthful but shameless!
6. Keep it short – You only have 160 characters. Use short phrases,
not full sentences.
7. Add a link or 2 – Add your personal/work website

16. TWITTER PROFILE EXAMPLE #1 Twitter: @phmai
 Why it works: It’s witty and humorous. Hillary needs no
introduction. But modifiers like “pantsuit aficionado”
allows us to see a new side of Hillary. It makes her
sounds funny and human.

17. TWITTER PROFILE EXAMPLE #2 Twitter: @phmai
 Why it works: WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get!

18. TWITTER PROFILE EXAMPLE #3 Twitter: @phmai
 Why it works: Keywords-friendly!

19. WHOM TO FOLLOW?
Twitter: @phmai
Use the Twitter search feature to find
1. Colleagues
2. Co-authors
3. Professional organizations
4. Journalists
5. Graduate students
6. Friends
7. People tweeting about topics you are interested in

20. WHAT TO TWEET ABOUT?
Nothing!*
*Use it as your ‘Personal Learning Network. Just
read and learn. Join the 40% who are using it
to consume free information.’
Twitter: @phmai

21. WHAT TO TWEET ABOUT?
Twitter: @phmai
1. Useful links/resources you’ve found/your own research results - news
article, an upcoming event, a new resource. If your followers find it
useful they might pass it on, introducing you to more followers.
2. Reply/respond to another person’s tweet - Twitter is a social medium.
Develop relationships with people & have a real conversation.
3. Retweet - share interesting tweets from other people to your followers
4. Tweet a photo -show something interesting you have seen
5. Tweet a live event – conferences, seminars etc…
6. Tweet a quote - someone else’s or one of your own.
Heard/read/thought of something interesting or profound ? Tweet it!
7. Initiate a call to action - Twitter is great for organizing events and
causes. (ex. Call for Papers, conference announcements, recruiting
subjects, research assistants etc…)
8. Ask a question/take an impromptu survey – crowdsourcing the
solution. Somebody out there has the answer!
9. Tweet about your new blog post

22. COMMON TWITTER QUESTIONS &
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. What is Best time to tweet? Depends on when your
followers are online. (Use Twitter analytic tools like
Followerwonk.com or socialbro.com to find out)
• 6-10 am- Commute
• Noon - Lunch time
• 3-6pm - Before going home
• 8-10pm - After dinner
• 11-12am – Before bed
2. 140 Characters is too short…Yes…but you can add a link!
3. What is a # (hashtag)? (ex. #TOpoli, #cdnpoli,
#immunizations, #GlobalWarming, etc…)
4. Is it OK to unfollow someone? (Twitter = weak ties -> YES!)
5. When should I block someone?
6. Get to know your community, ask them their needs, &
communicate with them often.
7. It’s not a popularity contest! The end goal is to build a
micro-community of people who can help you and whom
you would want to help.
Twitter: @phmai

23. @PHMAI TWITTER NETWORK (1 MONTH)
(NETWORK VIZ CREATED WITH NETLYTIC.ORG) Twitter: @phmai

24. Twitter: @phmai
#SERENDIPITOUS CONNECTIONS
A RE-TWEET OF ONE TWEET LEADING TO…

25. Twitter: @phmai
#SERENDIPITOUS CONNECTIONS
A RICH CONVERSATION & NEW CONNECTIONS

26. IF YOU FIND TOO MANY OF THESE IN
YOUR TWITTER STREAM, IT MIGHT BE
POLLUTED! TIME TO FIND A NEW
TEACHER. Twitter: @phmai

27. GO TO TWEETDECK.TWITTER.COM
& SIGN IN WITH YOUR TWITTER
ACCOUNT Twitter: @phmai

28. TWEETDECK DASHBOARD EXAMPLE Twitter: @phmai
 You can create a custom information dashboard with: Home Timeline,
Notifications, Mentions, Favorites, + subjects you are interested in following.
(Ex for me, it’s…..Social Media, Big Data, etc…)

29. GO TO TWEETDECK.TWITTER.COM
& SIGN IN W/ YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT Twitter: @phmai
1. Schedule Tweets to be posted in the future.
2. Manage multiple accounts, Tweet and follow from
one or all.
3. Monitor multiple timelines (Accounts) in one easy
interface
4. Turn on alerts to keep up with emerging
information.
5. Mute users or terms to eliminate unwanted noise.
6. Filter searches based on criteria like engagement,
users and content type.

30. OUTLINE
Twitter: @phmai
 Why Scholars & Other Professionals Are Using
Social Media
 How to Use Twitter
 Why you should join Twitter?
 Loose Connections and the Strength of Weak Ties
 What to put in your profile?
 Whom to follow?
 What to tweet about?
 Some common Twitter questions.
 Blogging
 Why you should consider blogging?
 How to set up your own blog?
 What to blog about
 Things to keep in mind

31. WHY YOU SHOULD
CONSIDER BLOGGING? Twitter: @phmai
1. Help you to reflect
2. Build personal reputation & gain global impact
3. Increase your engagement with your subject area/academic peers
4. Provides you with a centralise place to record and share your work
and those of your collaborators
5. Recruit students/Research Assistants
6. Funders are increasingly mandating a knowledge mobilization plan as
part of your work
7. Helps to demystify:
1. what you do
2. Why do you do what you do?
3. Why does it matter to you?
4. Why should it matter to anyone else?

32. CREATE AN ACCOUNT AT
WORDPRESS.COM Twitter: @phmai

33. GETTING STARTED ON
WORDPRESS.COM Twitter: @phmai

34. Twitter: @phmai
HELP IS AVAILABLE AT
EN.SUPPORT.WORDPRESS.COM

35. OTHER POPULAR BLOG
PUBLISHING PLATFORMS Twitter: @phmai
1. Medium.com
2. Linkedin.com
3. Ghost.org
4. Typepad.com
5. Tumblr.com
6. Blogger.com

36. WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT?
Twitter: @phmai
1. React to current developments in your field
2. Describe and reflect your own research or area of
interest
3. Publicise your own publications and those of your
peers
4. Inform your community about an upcoming
event/talk and other activities
5. Create a profile of people and researchers in your
own group
6. Talk about an upcoming conference you are
attending
7. Etc…

37. A PROFESSIONAL BLOG EXAMPLE #1: JULIA HANIGSBERG,
FORMER V-P, ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE @RYERSONU
HTTP://VPAF.BLOG.RYERSON.CA/ Twitter: @phmai

38. A PROFESSIONAL BLOG - EXAMPLE #2:
HTTP://SOCIALMEDIALAB.CA/
Twitter: @phmai

39. THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
IF YOU DO DECIDE TO BLOG
Twitter: @phmai
1. Be clear about what your blog is for
2. Reuse/repurpose your other writings
3. Properly Frame every post so that it reflects/reinforces what your blog is about
4. Blog from a first person perspective
5. 500-1500 words in length
6. Casual in tone
7. Regular updates are important
8. Multi-authors blogs are OK
9. Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn to drive traffic to your blog
10. Include pictures, videos and audios
11. Interactive comments should be encouraged but moderated
12. Decide how controversial do you want to be (Be bold, not reckless. If you’ll
say it in person, then go ahead and say it online.)
13. Most importantly… Blog because YOU want to!

40. WIRED ACADEMIA PROJECT PUBLICATIONS
SOCIALMEDIALAB.CA
Twitter: @phmai
 Gruzd, A., & Goertzen, M. (2013). Wired Academia: Why
Social Science Scholars Are Using Social Media. The 46th
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
(HICSS): 3332-3341, DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2013.614
 Gruzd, A., Staves, K., Wilk, A. (2012). Connected Scholars:
Examining the Role of Social Media in Research Practices of
Faculty using the UTAUT model. Computers in Human
Behavior 28 (6), 2340-2350, DOI: j.chb.2012.07.004
 Gruzd, A., Staves, K., and Wilk, A. (2011). Tenure and
Promotion in the Age of Online Social Media. Proceedings
of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology (ASIS&T) Conference, October 9-13, 2011, New
Orleans, LA, USA. DOI: 10.1002/meet.2011.14504801154

41. LOOSE CONNECTIONS AND THE
STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES:
HOW TO USE TWITTER AND BLOGS TO ENHANCE
YOUR PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC PROFILE
JANUARY 27, 2015
Philip H. Mai, M.A., J.D.
Academic Communications Manager,
Ryerson University
• Communications, Government and Community
Engagement (CGCE), Ted Rogers School of
Management (TRSM) & Office of the Provost
Research Collaborator
• Ryerson University Social Media Lab Twitter: @phmai