top twitter tips for researchers

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Top Twitter Tips for researchers Tanya Williamson @TanyaLibrarian

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Top Twitter Tips for researchers Tanya Williamson @TanyaLibrarian

Do you already know why Twitter can be useful for researchers?

First things first…

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

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

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

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 apps 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ask me a question!

Or tweet! @TanyaLibrarian

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

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