Social Media in Research Support ARMA 2012, Southampton, 12th - 13th June

Adam Golberg (Nottingham), Julie Northam (Bournemouth),

Phil Ward (Kent), David Young (Northumbria)

#arma2012

Outline

1. Introduction

2. What is Social Media?

3. Why social media is to blame for this session

4. Case study 1: Individual research support

blogs

5. Case study 2: Institutional research office

blogs

6. Conclusions/Questions

7. Optional demonstration: Blogs and Twitter

Getting to know each other...

What is social media (not)?

‘Social media’

methods of internet communication that allow the exchange

of ideas, sharing and collaborative creation of resources,

and making new contacts with people with common

interests.

Social

Media

Myths

http://xkcd.com/386/

How difficult is social media to use?

Information overload (filter failure)

Why social media is to blame for this session...

Why social media is to blame for this session...

Why social media is to blame for this session...

Why social media is to blame for this session...

Why social media is to blame for this session...

Case Study: Individual blogs

Motivations

and

origins

Research Fundermentals

• Started in September 2009

• Originally modelled on Lincoln Blog

• Intended to develop inclusive

community

o noticeboard

o notes

o shared frustrations

o humour

• Internal/external

• Had to be easy to update and

(ideally) free from 'party line'

Research Fundermentals

• Visits

o c100-200 a day; took c1 yr to get double figures

o NB doesn't record RSS feed traffic/emails

• Posts

o 498 posts so far. Most popular:

anything European

• 6 of top 10 posts EC related, eg 'How to Fail at FP7'

bizarre anomalies

• eg 'RCUK Moon Rocks Kidnapped'

• Sources

o Kent, IP Pools, NERC, BBSRC, Cambridge, Oxford, Essex,

ESRC, Opal, Comcast

o UK (55%), USA (9%), DE (3%), BE (3%), ES (3%), FR, IT, NL,

AUS, CAN (all 2%)

Cash for Questions:

Social Science Research Funding

• Started July 2011

• Was aware of

institutional blogs

• Motivations:

o LSE Impact event

o Communities/influence/connections

• Found 'Fundermentals' via google

Cash for Questions:

Social Science Research Funding

Benefits/Successes

• Testing ideas and understanding

• Blog posts picked

up elsewhere

• Expanded

professional

network

• Understanding of

social media

• Increased internal profile

Case Study: Individual blogs

Benefits:

• creating/joining a community

• making new contacts

• influencing and being influenced

• outlet for ideas, frustrations, creativity

• career profile

Individual blogs

Challenges:

• time commitment

• consistent valuable content

• confidence

• professional boundaries

• tone and attitude

• oversharing/giving away too much to people

who aren't paying

"The heart of blogging is linking...

linking and commenting,

connecting and communicating."

George Siemens

Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute

Athabasca University, Canada

Marketing department set up the original

blog using a standard BU blog template

using WordPress. Lots of IT problems!

Later custom designed by CEMP at BU

to give a unique look and make it more

user friendly. CEMP now maintain it.

Launched in March 2011 as the primary

means of internal research

communication at BU.

Immediate buy-in and support from the PVC and senior

academics.

All major research communications were channelled

through the Blog from the start, e.g. internal funding

competitions, studentship competition, etc.

Lots of promotion, e.g. All Staff email,

promotional cards, launch event, Staff

Intranet, emails to new academics,

USBs, even Research Blog cakes

hand-delivered to academics!

Academics can

subscribe to the Blog

via RSS or email.

Daily Digest email sent

at 10am every day.

c. 60% of academics

currently subscribed.

What makes our Blog unique and work well?

1. Primary source of information about research at BU,

ensuring clarity of key messages.

2. Sense of community - we encourage all academics to add

their own posts and encourage peer-to-peer learning.

3. Empowers and engages academics with research strategy.

4. Regularly feature posts about BU research - sharing success

internally and increasing the visibility of our research

externally.

The Blog recently won a

gold Heist award for the

Best Internal

Communications

Campaign.

Feedback from academics has been positive, primarily

because this is the first time that all information can be found

in one location that is easily searchable.

To date there are c. 60 group members.

The group is still active and members contribute occasional

stories, but we don't use it for research support.

Facebook for research

support?

We explored using Facebook for research

support by setting up BUResearch as a

private group.

First post...

Buddypress allows you to create a private, work-based social network... Working together is better...

"Infinitely extensible..."

Moving to Northumbria: Pilot first

Moving to Northumbria: Taking control

Moving to Northumbria: Buy-in and promotion

Moving to Northumbria: Sharing the load

Case Study: Institutional blogs

Benefits:

• one place and one means of communication

• easy for academics to access

• acts as a searchable archive

• subscription delivers posts to readers

• promote research externally

• saves duplication of effort

• content can be used elsewhere

Case Study: Institutional blogs

Challenges:

• institutional buy-in (ICT, management)

• self-hosting vs external hosting

• time commitment

• proving added value

• professional vs conversational

• training and sharing workload

• you can't take it with you

Questions and Conclusions

• Why should I? o yours has plenty of info

o knowledge is power...

• Is it inevitable?

• What are the barriers?

• We're not experts

o Ongoing debate: join in!

Institutional blog demo - website

Institutional blog demo - WordPress

#ff

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/

http://research.northumbria.ac.uk/support/

http://fundermental.blogspot.co.uk/

@frootle

http://socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk/

@cash4questions