Knight life & other medieval fun times: using
social media to tell research stories
Liz McCarthy
Web & Digital Media ManagerBodleian Libraries
Why?
Why?
What profit is there in those ridiculous monsters, in that marvellous and deformed beauty, that beautiful deformity? To what purpose are those unclean apes, those fierce lions, those monstrous centaurs, those half-men…
Bernard of Clairvaux
How?
Tell the story
Dozens of options
What to choose?
What do you want to do?
• What aspects of your research or work would you like to promote?
• What do you want to achieve?• Who are your target audiences? • What value is there for your audience in
engaging with you online?• What kind of information do you want to
exchange?• What tensions and conflicts might you
encounter?
Who is your audience?
Who are you talking to?What do you want them to
do?How will this help you?
What resources do you have to work with?
Look around
Define and articulate your goals
Interact with academic
communityBoost awareness of
researchDrive traffic to papers,
blogsShare information
??
Ground rulesSocial media policy• Allow and encourage
debate• Don’t censor
comments (unless they’re offensive or spam)
• Be transparent• Respect the law• Remember you’re
representing your professional self
So what are your options?
Blogs
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/blogging-and-tweeting-about-research-papers-worth-it
Videos & podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ8ztH6qzKM
(you might also like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNt7ZLY0Kc, in which Emily talks about being a female researcher online)
Slideshare
Wikipedia
If you're serious about ensuring public engagement in your research then you need to make damn sure your work can be incorporated into Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the most important engagement channel for your research.
—Cameron Neylon (Public Library of Science) Wikimedia UK Annual Review 2012-13
Learn More: Engage
http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/23things
.uk
@bodleianlibswww.facebook.com/bodleianlibraries
Credits• Monkey owl - http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_42130_f013r • Arbre genealogique – BN, La Sommerural, Français 202, fol. 9r• Trumpet bunny: Breviary Renaud de Bar, Verdun, MS. 107• Scary god: http://www.reddit.com/r/MedievalThings/ • Nuns behaving badly:
http://the-history-girls.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/nuns-behaving-badly-by-karen-maitland.html
• Scribe: Topographia Hiberniae, NLI ref. Ms. 700• Vitae Researcher Development Framework:
https://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-publications/rdf-related/introducing-the-vitae-researcher-development-framework-rdf-to-employers-2011.pdf
• War bonds rally: Wikimedia• Monopoly houses: Images_of_Money (Flickr)• Binoculars: Gerlos (Flickr)• Social media icons: Jason A Howe (Flickr)• Melissa Terras ‘What happens when you tweet an Open Access Paper’