A Checklist for Researchers Using Twitter

Transcript:

Hi there rockstars, writers, and bakers! Here’s a quick 6-point checklist for your Twitter. Just to make sure you’re on point with your Twitter account.

The first one is to make sure that you’re regularly checking it. I’ve been working with some people recently who said they wanted to get more out of Twitter, and it turns out they were probably only checking it once a week. Maybe not even that. So, definitely make sure you check it. That means doing things like logging into your account at least every day. It means if someone at you. So, someone tags you make sure you have a look at what they’ve tagged you in, and as appropriate like that content. Share that content. Reply to their message. At the very least, if they’re sharing something about you that’s positive, thank them like you would if they did it in real space. In the real world. So, the first tip, make sure you check it.

The next is to follow interesting accounts. Once again, I’ve seen people say, “Oh! Most of what’s in my Twitter feed is boring or not relevant”. That means that you have created something or curated your own content that is boring, and not relevant or related to what you’re after. So, you can solve that problem. You can go to your accounts, and you can unfollow people whose content you don’t like. You can search for content you do like. Use keywords that you’re interested in, and it doesn’t have to be work related. If you want more interesting content, take it out of the work realm. Or if you want specific content head down that particular track but follow accounts that you like and unfollow accounts that you don’t like.

So, that’s the next one, follow interesting accounts. In terms of curating the content you see, you can also foster that by liking stuff and that’s the third tip. Make sure you’re liking stuff regularly. If you want people to like your content, you need to be active yourself. The algorithm likes active accounts. It promotes them more than inactive accounts. So, if you want people to like your content when you post it make sure you go ahead and like other people’s content. And as I mentioned or alluded to before, if you like particular content, you’ll get served more of that by the algorithm. So, if you want stuff that challenges your thinking, like content that challenges your thinking. If you want content that is the same as your thinking, like content that is the same as your thinking and you’ll get served more of that kind of stuff. 

The fourth tip is to make sure you share content. So, that’s really easy. If you read a tweet and you like the content make sure you hit the heart button like that, but then if it’s that good you should share it with others. If you think I wish someone is here to share this with me then put awesome, share it with Twitter. If you’re reading an article, and you like that make sure you share that article or you know tag the authors or say how great it was in Twitter. So, sharing content is really important.

If you’re up for it, the next tip number 5 is creating content. Lots of people that I work with are really nervous about creating unique content, but you don’t need to be. There’s lots of opportunities out there. You can like and share stuff around your journal articles. I think that’s the easiest thing to do. The next easiest thing is to talk about your research. So, talk about the approaches you use. Who you use it with. Where you collect your data. How you analyze your data. That’s really easy. And finally, the next easy thing to do in terms of creating original content is to ask questions. Twitter has a poll feature. So, if that’s something that you’re up for, I don’t know. If you’re teaching and you want to do a poll on Twitter you can get the results back in 24 hours and provide the results back to your students for example. But you can also ask questions about the research that you’re conducting or the methods that you’re using or the problems that you need solved. Twitter is a great resource in terms of having questions answered.

And then finally, if you want to take your Twitter game to the next level, help people. So, go on over to the search bar in Twitter. Search for key terms or keywords that you feel that you’re relatively knowledgeable on, and just see what people are putting into that area. Into that hashtag. Have a read of the tweets. See if there’s any questions in there. If people are asking for advice, you know you can post a response that puts your spin on things. Don’t be an over explainer in that space, but certainly if someone says I need help don’t be afraid to provide it. And if they ask to send cat videos make sure you do that.

There you go writers, bakers, and rockstars. If you enjoyed this, make sure you like and subscribe. Wherever you’re listening or hearing to this, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

If you’ve got a question about Twitter or about anything to do with research or what to do next as an academic, head on over to my website drrichardhuysmans.com.au. And hopefully, your question can be answered. And if it can’t, hit me up with a DM or hit me up with an email and I’ll be happy to help wherever I can.

Take care.