Why use Twitter?
To enhance researcher’s reputations and build networks
To raise the profile of PSSRU and promote our “brand”
To increase the impact of our research
To identify and acquire future collaborators
To request help – complete surveys, recruit
Tweeting is of importance to the unit and staff should respond and assist the Twitter team. Tweeting is another form of “public writing” which researchers should be encouraged to produce for their own professional development – creating great conversations.
What can I tweet about?
Suggestions for news items are: new publications, publications newly available (eg. now open access) new grants, project milestones, project activity, conference attendance, conference paper, invitations to attend/speak, press coverage, mentions, citations, charity fund raising event, unit social events, awareness weeks
Common sense and professionalism
Everyone should use courtesy, discretion and common sense when tweeting.
There is lots of sensible advice in University of Kent social media guidelines
What can’t I tweet about?
Research findings which are not yet in the public domain. Findings from Department of Health funded research should have been submitted to the Department of Health 28 days before they are made publicly available.
Who can tweet?
Personal Twitter accounts for work are highly encouraged and full support will be given to anyone that needs assistance in initially joining the Twitter world. Creating an individual profile in your field of expertise will continue to help career development as social media becomes increasingly important.
A PSSRU Twitter account exists. Our Twitter name is @pssru_kent. You can see our tweets on the PSSRU website home page and find the link on bottom right of that page. You do not need to have set up a Twitter account to view this.
Amanda, Roz, Ed, Grace and Andrew have access to PSSRU’s main twitter account. These people can tweet/retweet on behalf of the unit.
Anything you would like to tweet from the main account can be given to them (Twitter team).
A separate Twitter account can be used for different projects if you would like – it would be good if this was maintained by someone who knows and enjoys using Twitter.
Finding content
The Twitter team will try to find content to tweet from the unit’s Twitter account. They will use the list above to encourage ideas from colleagues. This will also serve as an informal training exercise if anyone would like more guidance eg. draft messages of 140 characters together, explain a little more about nature of Twitter, de-mystify.
The shared unit calendar acts as an information trigger for the Twitter team. Staff should include a little more information about their activities so we can shout about the interesting things we are doing.
If in doubt…
Check with lead author when tweeting about publications.
The Principal Investigator for each project should guide staff if they feel unsure about a tweet and should be supportive. PI’s can speak to the twitter team if they would like any more guidance.
If you do want to set up a personal Twitter account or one for a PSSRU programme …..
Here is a good intro Getting started with Twitter
Make sure the Twitter team know about your new account. Include our address @pssru_kent in Tweets you write. This way we are alerted to them and can re-tweet if appropriate – increasing the reach of your tweet.
Think of an appropriate # for your programme eg. #pssruascot.
If you attend a conference find out the # for the conference and use it in your tweets.
And some more guidance
LSE’s Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities
A gentle introduction to Twitter for the apprehensive academic
UK Cochrane Centre useful social media resources
Try and use photos and images – your tweet is much more likely to get noticed.
Use photos you have taken yourself –that way you don’t need to worry about copyright. But check you have permission of the people in the photo.
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