Sides for talk on "Using social media to build your academic career" given by Brian Kelly, Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton on 11 September 2014 at a symposium on “How to Build an Academic Career” in the Maria Baers Auditorium, Brussels, Belgium. See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/using-social-media-to-build-your-academic-career/ and http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/using-social-media-to-build-your-academic-career/

1. Presentation by Brian Kelly, UKOLN on 25 October 2012
for an Open Access Week event at the University of Exeter
Talk by Brian Kelly, Cetis, Bolton University on 11 September 2014 at a symposium on
“How to Build an Academic Career” held in the Maria Baers Auditorium, Brussels
1
Using Social Media to Build Your
Academic Career
Event hashtag:
#tbc

2. Using Social Media to Build Your
Academic Career
Brian Kelly
Innovation Advocate
Cetis
University of Bolton
Bolton, UK
Contact Details
Email: ukwebfocus@gmail.com
Twitter: @briankelly
Cetis Web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
2
Slides and further information available at http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
events/using-social-media-to-build-your-academic-career/
The slides are available with a Creative Commons CC-BY licence
with some exceptions for images

3. 3
3
You are free to:
Idea from Cameron Neylon
copy, share, adapt, or re-mix;
photograph, film, or broadcast;
blog, live-blog, or post video of
this presentation provided that:
You attribute the work to its author and respect the rights and
licences associated with its components.
Slide Concept by Cameron Neylon, who has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights. This slide only CCZero.
Social Media Icons adapted with permission from originals by Christopher Ross. Original images are available under GPL at:
http://www.thisismyurl.com/free-downloads/15-free-speech-bubble-icons-for-popular-websites

4. About Me
Brian Kelly:
• Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton since
October 2013
• Was UK Web Focus at UKOLN, University of Bath from
1996 until July 2013
• Long-standing Web evangelist (since 1993)
• Prolific blogger (1,300+ posts since Nov 2006)
• User of various social media services to support
professional activities
• Prolific speaker (450+ talks since 1996)
Research profile:
• Peer-reviewed papers published on Web accessibility,
standards, preservation, …
• Largest no. of downloaded papers from Bath IR
• Highly-cited papers in Web accessibility (e.g. W4A)
4

5. PAPER
Accompanying
paper available at:
• Opus, University of
Bath IR
• ResearchGate
• Academia.edu
5
Share with colleagues
and provide ‘real-time
peer-reviewing’:
http://bit.ly/sra13-
kelly
Using Social Media to Enhance Your Research Activities, Kelly,
B. 3rd annual Social Media in Social research conference, 2013

6. Summary of this Talk
Q. Should you use social media to support your
research career?
A. Yes, but for particular purposes i.e. in order to:
1. Develop your professional network (potential
colleagues, co-authors, funders, …)
2. Engage in discussions and exchange of
ideas with your peers
3. Disseminate your research ideas to a wider
audience
Q. How should I do this?
A. To be revealed!
6

7. An Alternative Perspective
Social media:
• It’s full of trivia
• You’ll embarrass yourself
• You’ll undermine your future
career
• It’s a time-sink
• They (Facebook, Google, Twitter, …)
will steal your intellectual property
• They (your peers) will steal your ideas
• What else?
7
x
Let’s explore the parallels of new media with
traditional media

8. • xx
8
x
Print media (newspapers)

9. Chick lit
9 x Print media (books)

10. Reality TV shows
10
x
Media:
TV and Internet

11. What Can We Conclude?
The following media have no relevance to researchers:
• Newspapers: full of junk
• Books: inconsequential ‘chick lit’
• TV: Reality TV
• Internet: trivia about ‘celebrities’
And neither does a popular media access point:
• Libraries: where you can read the newspapers,
borrow the books and the DVDs
11

12. Science Journals
Science Journals
x
12

13. BBC Documentaries
BBC Documentaries
x
13

14. The ‘Tools’ to Support Our Research
The Library, where we access resources (physical and
electronic)
14
x

15. The ‘Tools’ to Support Our Research
The conferences where we present our ideas and
discuss them with our peers
15
x

16. The ‘Tools’ to Support Our Research
The conference dinner (and the bar) where we
strengthen our connections
16
x

17. The Tools to Support Our Research
Social media complements these
(and related) real-world ‘tools’:
• Twitter: chat to your peers at
conferences; share your research
outputs with others
• LinkedIn: the electronic replacement
for business cards
• ResearchGate: the repository with
additional features
• Facebook: if you are happy
combining your social and
professional life
17
x
Conclusions Social media is similar to
traditional media: can be useful to support your
professional activities and your social interests,
but much will be irrelevant. Use wisely!

18. Using the Tools
Personal examples of use of popular social media tools
to extend my professional network and enhance the
visibility of my research outputs:
• Twitter
• My UK Web Focus blog
• LinkedIn
• ResearchGate
• Slideshare
18

19. The Evidence
19
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF
BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

20. Developing New Connections (1)
Developing New Connections
• Tweet asked researchers to complete
survey on use of Web 2.0 in research
• Response from @slewth
• Who is she?
 Twitter bio: disability researcher
 Link in bio to her blog
 Blog gives insights which
complement my research
• Follow @slewth and have Twitter chat
Follow-up
• Shall we write a paper?
• Paper written and then accepted
• Paper wins prize for best paper 
20
See blog posts on “It Started With A Tweet”
“You Have 5 Seconds to Make an Impression!”
“Winner of John M Slatin Award at W4A 2010”

21. Developing New Connections (2)
Invited speaker at OzeWAI
2009 conference in Melbourne.
Tweets received after talk:
@RuthEllison: “Enjoyed
your presentation this
morning about a holistic
approach to accessibility”
@scenariogirl: “Fantastic talk this morning, I will
come up and say hi at lunch ;)”
We spoke, and they agreed to contribute to a paper.
Paper published 6 months later 
21
From Web Accessibility to Web Adaptability, Kelly, B., Nevile, L., Sloan,
D., Fanou, S., Ellison, R. and Herrod, L. Disability and Rehability: Assistive
Technology, Volume 4, Issue 4, July 2009, pp. 212-226

22. The Evidence
22
BEING PRO-ACTIVE:
AN IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

23. W4A 2012 Paper
Case study:
• Paper on “A challenge to web accessibility metrics
and guidelines: putting people and processes first”
given at W4A 2012 conference in Lyon in Apr 2012
Four co-authors agreed:
• To collaborate in raising awareness of paper and
presentation of the paper
How:
• Writing blog posts on or just before conference with
links to paper in repository
• Participate on conference Twitter hashtag (e.g.
responding to comments while speaker is presenting)
Benefits:
• Reaching out to a wider audience based on our 4
professional networks
23

24. Paper in Repository
Paper uploaded to Opus repository
24
Note limited social
features for repository:
no discussions or ability
to embed content and
limited metrics
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/29190/

25. Slideshare
Note:
• Sharing icons
• Discussion
(not shown)
• Related content
• Metrics
• Embeddability
(not shown)
25

26. Final slide provides (active) links to related work 26

27. TOPSY AND EVENT HASHTAG
27
Buzz around event
hashtag captured
by Topsy+

28. TOPSY & DISCUSSION ABOUT
SLIDES
28
Topsy recorded
discussions about slides
Twitter names
suggest interest
in accessibility:
• They’ll raise
visibility of my
research
• I should follow
them

29. TOPSY & DISCUSSION ABOUT
PAPER
Note tweets
about event
(25) and
slides (20)
more popular
than paper (7)
29
Topsy recorded
discussions about paper
Link to paper posted after event
Tweets during conference

30. Use the Usage Statistics
On 18 Apr 2012:
• 1,391 views on
Slideshare
• Other slides had 3
and 311 views
By 6 Sept 2014:
• 10,074 views on
Slideshare (up to ~3.8K
from embeds)
30
“Lies, damned lies &
statistics” but:
• My third most
downloaded paper in
2012
• 3 citations in July 2013
and 12 in Sep 2014
(Google Scholar Citations )

31. The Evidence
31
AGGREGATE LINKS TO YOUR
PAPERS (GOOGLE VALUES LINKS)

32. Have Links to Your Papers (1)
LinkedIn
32
LinkedIn is popular, so links
from LinkedIn may be highly
ranked. Therefore motivation to
include links to papers as well
as my CV.
LinkedIn is popular, so links
from LinkedIn may be highly
ranked.
Therefore motivation to include
links to papers.

33. Have Links to Your Papers (2)
ResearchGate
33
ResearchGate users may
find my papers here and
LinkedIn users in LinkedIn.
Why would I not use RG
and possibly miss out on
10K views?

34. Have Links to Your Papers (3)
Academia.edu
Maintenance:
• Change profiles when new job
• Add new papers when they’re published
• Switch off email notifications (305)
34
My approach:
• Initial experimentation
• Provided links to IR
Subsequently:
• Uploaded papers to both
• Low maintenance effort
Academia.edu users may find my
papers here. ResearchGate users
in RG and LinkedIn users in
LinkedIn. Why would I make it
difficult for them to find my papers?

35. The Evidence
35
REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE

36. Evidence: Personal
Is use of social media effective in (a) raising visibility of
research outputs and (b) developing my professional
networks?
36
Author Downloads
Bath IR: number
of downloads from
2005-2014

37. Evidence: From Others
Professor Athene
Donald, professor of
physics, University of
Cambridge
concluded:
“isn’t it time you
considered blogging
and tweeting as part
of your professional
activity, not just
something you
ascribe as being only
suitable for
teenagers or those
with time to kill?”
37
x

38. Evidence: From Others
Athene Donald’s article cited evidence from Melissa Terras
experiment in tweeting links to her peer-reviewed papers:
“Most of my papers, before I blogged
and tweeted them, had one to two
downloads, even if they had been in the
repository for months (or years, in some
cases). Upon blogging and tweeting,
within 24 hours, there were, on average,
70 downloads of my papers. Now, this
might not be internet meme status, but
that’s a huge leap in interest.”
38
Note that a researchers’ Twitter followers are
more likely to have related research interests.
There a download from a tweet may more
relevant than a download from a random
Google search for, say, “Digital curiosities” or
“Virtual tomb”

39. Online collaboration: Scientists
and the social network
39
Online collaboration:
Scientists and the social
network, Nature, R. Van
Noorden, 13 Aug 2014

40. Nature article
40

41. The Evidence
41
WHAT CAN I DO?

42. Getting Started
Ways of getting started:
• Get a Twitter account and use it regularly for 2
weeks. Then decide whether to continue.
• Tweet when you’re away at a conference. Follow
other delegates (& don’t miss out on social events).
• Grow your Twitter network (100+). Remember how
@messages work:
@john Have you seen this, it’s interesting. www...
@paul Interesting. It’s amazing!!
If you follow @george but not @ringo you’ll only
see the first tweet.
• Share your papers, slides, data, etc. on service
which are popular and Google-friendly.
42
From @george 
From @ringo 

43. Monitoring Twitter Usage
(Free) analytics tools can help to understand (a) your
patterns of use & (b) how your peers use Twitter.
43
Analytics.twitter.com
Tweepsmaps
Twtrland
Remember that
analytics may provide
a proxy indication of
engagement and
outreach but (a) may
be flawed and (b) are
not an aim in
themselves.
Also see Twitonomy

44. The Evidence
44
MANAGING INFORMATION
OVERLOAD

45. Managing Twitter
45
Managing Twitter
• Remember: it’s a stream you
can dip into
• Use grouping: A-list; B-list;
currently of interest; event
hashtags; topic hashtags; …
• Mute users if they’re too noisy
(e.g. during World Cup)
• Clear tweets after holidays

46. Managing Other Social Networks
Managing notifications
from LinkedIn and
ResearchGate
ResearchGate has notification
settings for Profile, Network, Q&A,
Publications and Job: email alerts
for over 60 activities can be
managed
46
Note that social media services
typically send alerts by default.
They rely on publicity provided
by users who don’t change
default settings

47. What About The Barriers?
Still not for you? Then
consider use of social media
for the research group (and
don’t act as a barrier!)
But what about:
• Legal, ethical & privacy concerns
• My boss doesn’t approve
• My institution doesn’t approve
• It doesn’t work in my discipline, my country, my language
• It doesn’t work for me
47
Risks and opportunities framework:
• It’s not about ‘social media’ it’s about ‘social media
for a particular purpose’
• Be clear of potential benefits & associated risks
• Remember the risks of not doing things
• There will be costs (but may be small)
• Adopt risk minimisation strategies
• Base decisions on evidence (be aware of biases)

48. A Personal Manifesto
I will:
• Learn how social media can enhance my
research activities
• Make use of social media in an ethical fashion
and communicate with an authentic voice
• Support use of social media in my organisation if
it’s not for me
• Gather and interpret social media metrics (but will
be aware of their limitations)
• Be prepared to ‘unlearn’ what I’ve learnt if social
media becomes irrelevant!
48
Does this work for you?

49. Questions?
Any questions, comments, …?
49
Relevant papers and articles cited in this talk:
• Using Social Media to Enhance Your Research Activities, B. Kelly,
Social Media in Social Research 2013 Conference
• Can LinkedIn and Academia.edu Enhance Access to Open
Repositories?, B. Kelly and J. Delasalle, OR2012: the 7th
International Conference on Open Repositories, 9-13 July 2012
• Empowering users and their institutions: A risks and opportunities
framework for exploiting the potential of the social web, B. Kelly and
C. Oppenheim, CULTURAL HERITAGE online conference 2009
• Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network, R. Van
Noorden. Nature News article, 13 Aug 2014
• Tweeting and blogging aren’t wastes of academics’ time – they can
be valuable outreach, A. Donald, Physics Focus, 12 Nov 2013
• The verdict: is blogging or tweeting about research papers worth it?,
M. Terras, LSE Impact blog, 19 Apr 2012

50. Licence and Additional Resources
This presentation, “Using Social Media to Build Your Academic Career”
by Brian Kelly, Cetis is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
3.0 Unported Licence
Note the licence covers most of the text in this presentation. Quotations
may have other licence conditions.
Images may have other licence conditions. Where possible links are
provided to the source of images so that licence conditions can be found.
50
Slides and further information available at:
• http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/using-social-media-to-build-your-
academic-career/
Accompanying blog post:
• https://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/using-social-media-to-build-
your-academic-career/