social media for academics

Enhance your skills in social media

Paul Baker

Wisconsin Center for Education Research

• Why social media?• Your persona• Regular schedule• Content • Credibility• Networking• Evaluate success

Why? What’s your goal?

Why? What will you bring?

Why? Who is your audience?

Why? Add value

Why? Find kindred spirits

Persona: Share stuff.

Persona: Give credit

Persona: Show interest in others’ stuff

Persona: Be credible

Persona: Speak normally

Persona: Forget ‘perfection’

Persona: One good tweet with a link is worth. . .

Persona: Are you writing as you, or on behalf of a group?

Schedule: Budget your time

Schedule: plan ahead

Content: what to write about?

Content: Weed out jargon. Shorten long sentences.

Content: Don’t just cut & paste

Content: Learn the culture before moving in

Content: Let stats be a guide, but don’t let them control you

Content: How might you use photos or video?

Content: It’s OK to change focus over time

Credibility: Avoid self-promotion

Credibility: Create a commons for all your activity

Credibility: It takes time

Networks: Take advantage of them

Networks: Which work best for you?

Networks: Academia.edu

Evaluate, fine-tune, rethink

Thank you