LOOSE CONNECTIONS AND THE

STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES: HOW TO USE TWITTER AND BLOGS TO ENHANCE

YOUR PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC PROFILE

Philip H. Mai, M.A., J.D. Academic Communications Manager,

Ryerson University

• Communications, Government and Community

Engagement (CGCE), Ted Rogers School of

Management (TRSM) & Office of the Provost

Research Collaborator

• Ryerson University Social Media Lab Twitter: @phmai

WWW.SOCIALMEDIALAB.CAA NEW @TRSMRYERSONU RESEARCH LAB

@RYERSONU

Twitter: @phmai

SOCIAL MEDIA =

WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST? Twitter: @phmai

SOCIAL MEDIA =

CUTE CAT PICTURES? Twitter: @phmai

SOCIAL MEDIA IS

MORE THAN JUST

CUTE CAT PICTURES!

Twitter: @phmai

OUTLINETwitter: @phmai

Wired Academia: Social Media & Scholars

How to Use Twitter

Why you should join Twitter?

Loose Connections and the Strength of Weak Ties

What to put in your profile?

Whom to follow?

What to tweet about?

Some common Twitter questions.

Blogging

Why you should consider blogging?

How to set up your own blog?

What to blog about

Things to keep in mind

WIRED ACADEMIA:

SOCIAL MEDIA & SCHOLARS Twitter: @phmai

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Discovering new funding

Garnering mass media attention

Publishing findings

Maintaining professional image

Soliciting advice from peers

Collaborating with other…

Making new research contacts

Promoting current work/research

Discovering new ideas or…

Following other researchers'…

Keeping up to date with topics

SSHRC Funded Research 2010-13 (Select) Research Questions (SocialMediaLab.ca online survey: Based on 315 respondents)

• Why are some scholars using social media?

• What are the perceived utility with using social media among

scholarly users?

RECAP: TOP 3 REASONS WHY

SCHOLARS USE SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter: @phmai

1. Information gathering,

2. Information dissemination (raising

awareness of research and

building a following)

3. Identify Peers & Potential

Collaborators

POPULAR SOCIAL NETWORKING

SITES FOR SCHOLARS Twitter: @phmai

Academia.edu – “A place to share and follow

research.” 15 million researchers.

ResearchGate.net – “Access scientific knowledge,

and make your research visible.” 5 million researchers.

Twitter.com – “Connect with your friends — and

other fascinating people.” 284 million users.

OUTLINETwitter: @phmai

Why Scholars & Other Professionals Are Using Social Media

How to Use Twitter

Why you should join Twitter?

Loose Connections and the Strength of Weak Ties

What to put in your profile?

Whom to follow?

What to tweet about?

Some common Twitter questions.

Blogging

Why you should consider blogging?

How to set up your own blog?

What to blog about

Things to keep in mind

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN TWITTER?

TWITTER FACTS

284 million active Users (December 2014)

Generating 1 billon new tweets every 2

days.

40% of Twitter users don't share any

information. They consume.

Twitter: @phmai

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN TWITTER?

-#SERENDIPITY TO THE MAX

Twitter is known for fostering weak

ties…but there is strength in weak ties!

It’s the perfect medium for making

serendipitous connections to people and

ideas.

Twitter: @phmai

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN TWITTER? LOOSE CONNECTIONS & THE

STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES

In a landmark1973 study (30K+ citations), Mark Granovetter, a sociologist and professor at Stanford wanted to know how people found jobs in communities around Boston.

Granovetter found that over 80% of the people in his study did not find a job through close friends – but though distant acquaintances—friends of friends. He called the phenomenon ’the strength of weak ties.’

People close to us in our peer group tend to have the same limited knowledge, share many of the same personal relationships, have similar experiences and face similar challenges. They are not an ideal source for new info.

The global information that we need to stand out among our peers usually lies outside of our local network.

Twitter: @phmai

CREATE AN ACCOUNT AT TWITTER.COM

Twitter: @phmai

WHAT TO PUT IN YOUR PROFILE?Twitter: @phmai

1. Your picture – Use a picture that is clear, smiling, welcoming, no sun glasses

2. Your areas of expertise – Are you an expert? A researcher? Do

you have a professional degree? List them.

3. Inject your personality – It is what makes you unique and sets

you apart

4. Include your interests - Hobbies and experiences. Listing them

will most likely attract followers who share the same interests.

5. Embrace adjectives – Be truthful but shameless!

6. Keep it short – You only have 160 characters. Use short phrases,

not full sentences.

7. Add a link or 2 – Add your personal/work website

TWITTER PROFILE EXAMPLE #1Twitter: @phmai

Why it works: It’s witty and humorous. Hillary needs no

introduction. But modifiers like “pantsuit aficionado”

allows us to see a new side of Hillary. It makes her

sounds funny and human.

TWITTER PROFILE EXAMPLE #2 Twitter: @phmai

Why it works: WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get!

TWITTER PROFILE EXAMPLE #3Twitter: @phmai

Why it works: Keywords-friendly!

WHOM TO FOLLOW? Twitter: @phmai

Use the Twitter search feature to find

1. Colleagues

2. Co-authors

3. Professional organizations

4. Journalists

5. Graduate students

6. Friends

7. People tweeting about topics you are interested in

WHAT TO TWEET ABOUT?

Nothing!*

*Use it as your ‘Personal Learning Network. Just read and learn. Join the 40% who are using it

to consume free information.’

Twitter: @phmai

WHAT TO TWEET ABOUT? Twitter: @phmai

1. Useful links/resources you’ve found/your own research results - news article, an upcoming event, a new resource. If your followers find it useful they might pass it on, introducing you to more followers.

2. Reply/respond to another person’s tweet - Twitter is a social medium. Develop relationships with people & have a real conversation.

3. Retweet - share interesting tweets from other people to your followers

4. Tweet a photo -show something interesting you have seen

5. Tweet a live event – conferences, seminars etc…

6. Tweet a quote - someone else’s or one of your own. Heard/read/thought of something interesting or profound ? Tweet it!

7. Initiate a call to action - Twitter is great for organizing events and causes. (ex. Call for Papers, conference announcements, recruiting subjects, research assistants etc…)

8. Ask a question/take an impromptu survey – crowdsourcing the solution. Somebody out there has the answer!

9. Tweet about your new blog post

COMMON TWITTER QUESTIONS &

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

1. What is Best time to tweet? Depends on when your followers are online. (Use Twitter analytic tools like Followerwonk.com or socialbro.com to find out)

• 6-10 am- Commute

• Noon - Lunch time

• 3-6pm - Before going home

• 8-10pm - After dinner

• 11-12am – Before bed

2. 140 Characters is too short…Yes…but you can add a link!

3. What is a # (hashtag)? (ex. #TOpoli, #cdnpoli, #immunizations, #GlobalWarming, etc…)

4. Is it OK to unfollow someone? (Twitter = weak ties -> YES!)

5. When should I block someone?

6. Get to know your community, ask them their needs, & communicate with them often.

7. It’s not a popularity contest! The end goal is to build a micro-community of people who can help you and whom you would want to help.

Twitter: @phmai

@PHMAI TWITTER NETWORK (1 MONTH)

(NETWORK VIZ CREATED WITH NETLYTIC.ORG) Twitter: @phmai

Twitter: @phmai

#SERENDIPITOUS CONNECTIONS

A RE-TWEET OF ONE TWEET LEADING TO…

Twitter: @phmai

#SERENDIPITOUS CONNECTIONS

A RICH CONVERSATION & NEW CONNECTIONS

IF YOU FIND TOO MANY OF THESE IN

YOUR TWITTER STREAM, IT MIGHT BE

POLLUTED! TIME TO FIND A NEW

TEACHER. Twitter: @phmai

GO TO TWEETDECK.TWITTER.COM

& SIGN IN WITH YOUR TWITTER

ACCOUNTTwitter: @phmai

TWEETDECK DASHBOARD EXAMPLE Twitter: @phmai

You can create a custom information dashboard with: Home Timeline,

Notifications, Mentions, Favorites, + subjects you are interested in following.

(Ex for me, it’s…..Social Media, Big Data, etc…)

GO TO TWEETDECK.TWITTER.COM

& SIGN IN W/ YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT Twitter: @phmai

1. Schedule Tweets to be posted in the future.

2. Manage multiple accounts, Tweet and follow from

one or all.

3. Monitor multiple timelines (Accounts) in one easy

interface

4. Turn on alerts to keep up with emerging

information.

5. Mute users or terms to eliminate unwanted noise.

6. Filter searches based on criteria like engagement,

users and content type.

OUTLINETwitter: @phmai

Why Scholars & Other Professionals Are Using Social Media

How to Use Twitter

Why you should join Twitter?

Loose Connections and the Strength of Weak Ties

What to put in your profile?

Whom to follow?

What to tweet about?

Some common Twitter questions.

Blogging

Why you should consider blogging?

How to set up your own blog?

What to blog about

Things to keep in mind

WHY YOU SHOULD

CONSIDER BLOGGING? Twitter: @phmai

1. Help you to reflect

2. Build personal reputation & gain global impact

3. Increase your engagement with your subject area/academic peers

4. Provides you with a centralise place to record and share your work

and those of your collaborators

5. Recruit students/Research Assistants

6. Funders are increasingly mandating a knowledge mobilization plan as

part of your work

7. Helps to demystify:

1. what you do

2. Why do you do what you do?

3. Why does it matter to you?

4. Why should it matter to anyone else?

CREATE AN ACCOUNT AT

WORDPRESS.COM Twitter: @phmai

GETTING STARTED ON

WORDPRESS.COM Twitter: @phmai

Twitter: @phmai

HELP IS AVAILABLE AT

EN.SUPPORT.WORDPRESS.COM

OTHER POPULAR BLOG

PUBLISHING PLATFORMS Twitter: @phmai

1. Medium.com

2. Linkedin.com

3. Ghost.org

4. Typepad.com

5. Tumblr.com

6. Blogger.com

WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT? Twitter: @phmai

1. React to current developments in your field

2. Describe and reflect your own research or area of interest

3. Publicise your own publications and those of your peers

4. Inform your community about an upcoming event/talk and other activities

5. Create a profile of people and researchers in your own group

6. Talk about an upcoming conference you are attending

7. Etc…

A PROFESSIONAL BLOG EXAMPLE #1: JULIA HANIGSBERG,

FORMER V-P, ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE @RYERSONU

HTTP://VPAF.BLOG.RYERSON.CA/ Twitter: @phmai

A PROFESSIONAL BLOG - EXAMPLE #2:

HTTP://SOCIALMEDIALAB.CA/Twitter: @phmai

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

IF YOU DO DECIDE TO BLOG Twitter: @phmai

1. Be clear about what your blog is for

2. Reuse/repurpose your other writings

3. Properly Frame every post so that it reflects/reinforces what your blog is about

4. Blog from a first person perspective

5. 500-1500 words in length

6. Casual in tone

7. Regular updates are important

8. Multi-authors blogs are OK

9. Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn to drive traffic to your blog

10. Include pictures, videos and audios

11. Interactive comments should be encouraged but moderated

12. Decide how controversial do you want to be (Be bold, not reckless. If you’ll

say it in person, then go ahead and say it online.)

13. Most importantly… Blog because YOU want to!

WIRED ACADEMIA PROJECT PUBLICATIONS

SOCIALMEDIALAB.CA

Twitter: @phmai

Gruzd, A., & Goertzen, M. (2013). Wired Academia: Why

Social Science Scholars Are Using Social Media. The 46th

Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

(HICSS): 3332-3341, DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2013.614

Gruzd, A., Staves, K., Wilk, A. (2012). Connected Scholars:

Examining the Role of Social Media in Research Practices of

Faculty using the UTAUT model. Computers in Human

Behavior 28 (6), 2340-2350, DOI: j.chb.2012.07.004

Gruzd, A., Staves, K., and Wilk, A. (2011). Tenure and

Promotion in the Age of Online Social Media. Proceedings

of the American Society for Information Science and

Technology (ASIS&T) Conference, October 9-13, 2011, New

Orleans, LA, USA. DOI: 10.1002/meet.2011.14504801154

LOOSE CONNECTIONS AND THE

STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES: HOW TO USE TWITTER AND BLOGS TO ENHANCE

YOUR PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC PROFILE

JANUARY 27, 2015

Philip H. Mai, M.A., J.D. Academic Communications Manager,

Ryerson University

• Communications, Government and Community

Engagement (CGCE), Ted Rogers School of

Management (TRSM) & Office of the Provost

Research Collaborator

• Ryerson University Social Media Lab Twitter: @phmai