quick introduction to social media (blogs and twitter)

#ouhscnrSocial media for academic purposes:Quick introduction to social media

www.slideshare.net/dougclow

Doug Clow

HSC Nations & Regions Conference, 25 June 2013

This work by Doug Clow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Quick Quiz: Blogs

a) I’ve heard of them

b) I have an idea about what they’re like

c) I have a blog

d) I have blogged a fair bit

e) The Huffington Post want me to write

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Swaminathan: http://flickr.com/photos/araswami/2168316216/

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Mike Baird: http://flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/398077070/

• Blogging: keeping an online blog – a log, or diary: originally ‘weblog’

• Short-ish blog posts (ca. 50-2,000 words)• Bloggers update rarely to many times a day• Often links to interesting websites

Places to set up a blog• OU VLE if directly teaching-related• OU official blogging platform

– Intranet > blogs (at top) > Request blog• www.wordpress.com• Blogger (Google)• edublogs.org• Your ISP• Many others

Quick quiz: Twittera) I’ve heard of it

b) I have an idea about what it does

c) I have a Twitter account

d) I have Tweeted a fair bit

e) I am Stephen Fry

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Cris: http://flickr.com/photos/chrismatos/6917786197/

• You can see the Tweets from people you follow, gathered in to your timeline

• Following isn’t mutual: You (can) get a message when someone follows you but you don’t have to follow back

• Short (140-character) Tweets• Often what you’re doing, or links• Not (just) what you had for breakfast• Usernames start with @ e.g. @dougclow

• Hashtags start with a #• Collect together Tweets about a topic or

event, e.g. #OUHSCNR, #bbcqt• And/Or indicate e.g. #sarcasm, #silly

(cc) Jefferyw http://www.flickr.com/photos/7927684@N03/7789223820/

• @replies are Tweets that are replies to a specific Tweet (start with @username)

• You can easily see your replies and mentions

(when someone uses your @username in a Tweet)

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by LASZLO ILYES: http://flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/4093575863/

• Retweeting passes on a tweet to your followers– Starts ‘RT @username …’

or little double-arrow icon• URLs are often shortened

t.co bit.ly owl.ly goo.gl– Twitter will do this for you

• Best way to learn is to start using it• Look at other people’s ‘following’ to

find people to follow• You don’t have to follow back• It’s Ok not to read it all

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Vince Alongi: http://flickr.com/photos/vincealongi/2537227873/

#ouhscnr

• Doug Clow @dougclow• Kythé Beaumont @KytheBeaumont• Sara Mackian @Squeaksthoughts• Christine Taylor @acroliths• Beyondmalerolemodels @beyondmaleroles (Martin)• Online CYP resources @CYPmedia (Tony)• OU Health and Social Care @ou_hsc• … many others!

(cc) gareth1953 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gareth1953/5477477947/

Doug Clow

@dougclow

dougclow.org

doug.clow@open.ac.uk