Social Media to Promote Research: Twitter
This guide shows examples of how you can use social media tools and networks to promote your research
Why use Twitter?
- Discover & “filter” new research & keep up to date with emerging trends
- Connect with new people and potential contacts
- Find out about funding opportunities, conferences, calls for papers etc. before others
- Increase the visibility of your research online
- Communicate with audiences outside academia e.g. practitioners, policy-makers, the media etc.
- Discover how people are engaging with your research, what they are interested in & get feedback
- Use Twitter analytics to help track and monitor which tweets generate most interest/attention
- Twitter for scientistsFreely accessible online book by Dan Quintana @dsquintana
What makes a good tweet?
- Include an image / infographic etc. if possible
- @ mention any relevant people/organisations to alert them
- Use relevant hashtags to improve visibility to those not following you
- Post an interesting or thought-provoking quote/comment
- Try to encourage engagement/discussion
- Use Twitter Analytics to help you identify the best times to tweet (i.e. tweets which get most impressions) and the type of content that gets most attention (i.e. tweets which have most engagement)
Key concepts
- Messages are called ‘tweets’
- 280 characters or less
- Topics are referred to by using a hashtag #
- Refer to someone by using @ before their username
- Can ‘retweet’ (RT) – send on/share tweets from others to your own followers
- Try to engage with people rather than just broadcasting information
What can I tweet?
- Links to your own research (include an image if possible, @ mention relevant co-authors, funders, publishers etc.)
- Share what you are reading with your follows (@ mention the author)
- Comment on news/key developments in your field or share research insights (include relevant hashtags to improve visibility)
- Promote seminars/conferences you are holding/attending
- Share links to media appearances, newspaper articles, blog posts etc.
UCD Researchers on Twitter
- Dr Shane BerginPhysicist & Assistant Professor in Science Education at at UCD School of Education
- Dr Muireann Ní RaghallaighAssistant Professor in Social Work, University College Dublin
- Dr Aidan ReganAssistant Professor at UCD School of Politics and International Relations