Social Media has become an important part of academic life, in just a handful of posts, platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn can be incredibly powerful tools to communicate even the most complex of research. Below we share some best practice examples from the UOB Research Community.
Professor Kalwant Bhopal
Professor Kalwant Bhopal is one of our most influential academics at the University of Birmingham – she posts frequently and has authority within her field of interest – social justice within education. Her content is accessible for the fact she is very emotive and personal in tone – meaning her followers quickly make a connection with her passion and honesty. She regularly tweets around trending topics that are relevant to her area of research.
News:
By regularly commenting on news items and features, Kalwant effectively positions herself as an expert and her commentary often receives a higher level of engagement than the original source from the media. She is also able to use these trending articles as a way to further disseminate some of her own research
International Days:
On International Women’s Day Professor Bhopal wished her followers a happy day with an introductory inspirational message and then throughout the day commented on updates from her peers and promoted an event she would be presenting at to mark the day.
This reactive approach to what is happening in your industry does not require any resource or much in terms of visual assets but focuses on having an emotional connection to your topic of interest. A key take away from this example is to invest time in building relationships with those engaging with you.
Professor Nick Loman
Conferences:
Professor Nick Loman recently used a conference he attended as a platform to share a sneak preview of some of his research. Over a course of a week, the hashtag #nanoporeconf received over 1,000,000 impressions so it was an excellent means of expose and a way to develop his network.
Community-building:
Nick regularly retweets with comments, which allows him to share his own thoughts about a tweet or topic. By retweeting with a comment, the original sender is more likely to become aware of your message because it will show up in their @mentions area. By investing time within your network you can open up new opportunities to collaborate with like-minded people and build a community behind some of your critical ideas.