SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH COMMUNICATION

The social media is one of the greatest tools on the internet, today. There are about 3billion

people on the internet, daily and social media accounts for about half of these people. This

is quite disturbing in this jet age, as the technology of the new generation is online, so

researchers need to go online to reach the next generation; in fact, there’s a tool for

everything online from driving lessons to cooking manuals. Now the need for real time

technology has given the social media a boost, thereby giving it an edge over other

communication medium.

It is true that research dissemination is a key bane to the knowledge database, but though

the internet has broken the barrier, the social media is taken it to the next interactive level.

A post in the social media gets likely over hundred times views than any other means of

publication. This is evident when you compare the print media of the newspaper to the

online versions, as also compared to electronic media. Now this is the breaker, when the

newspapers engaged the social media their viewers turned over in hundred folds and that is

the magic wand for Researchers.

Recently, a class was given an assignment to publish the curriculum of their course in any

media of choice, some went to the newspapers, which is now in the archives; some had

radio broadcast/jingles, which has been overtaken by events; others went to Television to

make productions, of which were not mostly aired, but the ones that explored the use of

the social media are still getting views and reviews to the extent that they have formed an

online community.

There are different social media from Networks, News, Media Sharing, Business, Research

etc. The topmost are Facebook, Linkedln, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr etc. These are all avenues

of communicating research, as it cuts across all strata of the society. Not to mention is use

of these in recent developmental phenomenon like the Obama campaign and Jonathan

declaration to mention just a few. Today, both Politicians and Policy makers have recognised

and identified with the social media, as a step ahead. Even Organisations and Parastatals are

exploring the social media to reach their target audience, so researchers need to capitalise

on this trend, for effective communication.