Social Media: Whats In It For

Me? [#vitaeWIIFM14]
Dr. Paul Spencer, Researcher Development
Manager, UWE, Bristol
@paulspencer42
www.thedigitaldoctorate.com
What do we mean by social
media?
The important thing
is not the tools;
more that social
media is about
people sharing
things
We dont have a choice on
whether we do social media, the
question is how well we do it.
Erik Qualman
Digital literacy survey
n=1301
Age gap
Researcher developers see digital literacy as
important and yet may not be confident users
themselves, and so some targeted training in this
area might be beneficial. - JISC Developing Digital Literacies -
Vitae baselining report (January 2012)

Tell me
Using the Chat Box, tell me what
your main fears are about social
media?

(if you want to, why not tweet those
concerns and use #vitaeWIIFM14 to
tag)
Hopes and Fears
Information overload
Digital Identity
Intellectual Property
Information hydrant by Will Lion at https://flic.kr/p/4XmARC
We need filters
Information management
Microblogging
Discovery and following topics - # (hashtags)
Find and follow colleagues - @paulspencer42
Re-tweeting (forwarding) useful stuff from your
network
#vitaeWIIFM14
Probably the most useful
thing about twitter
The people you
follow are filtering
information for you!
Finding time
Mostly its about
incorporating into daily
routine like checking
the news and
substituting for other
activities
Digital Identity who am I?
Daddy?
Bass Player?
Cheesy DJ?
Microbiologist?

Researcher Developer!
We all have many sides to us
Compartmentalise?
Private self versus Professional?
If I searched for you on the
internet
Google is the New business Card by Will Lion available at Flickr
Think about
How can I use some tools to
enhance my own digital identity?

What should I be concerned about?

Privacy settings?
Intellectual Property
The Bandit by Vinylville available at Flickr
The research cycle
Identification
of knowledge
Creation of
knowledge
Quality
assurance of
knowledge
Dissemination
of knowledge
e.g. undertaking
literature reviews
using peer
reviewed sources
by professional
researchers
usually behind
closed doors
e.g. publication,
presentation
at conference
e.g. peer review,
filtering the
best for
publication
www.vitae.ac.uk/dr12
Collaboration
Collaboration
Academic applications:
Writing a paper
Developing a joint presentation
Grant proposals
Online meetings
Sharing papers with your group
Finding others in your field
Disseminating your work
Etc
Why do I blog?
I write for me
Reflect on workshops I have
run
By-product is it useful for
others
It has become my own
repository
Happy to share!

The Digital Doctorate blog

FlickrID: mararie
Now what?
Further resources
Digital Professionalism what not to share
Social Media A Guide for Researchers
Vitae/Open University Handbook of Social
Media
Vitae Digital Literacies survey report (2012)
The Thesis Whisperer blog
Patter Prof. Pat Thomsons blog