Thing 5

Twitter is important for research, learning and revolutionising academic research (I believe). I have used it previously to recruit participants for my PhD research and publicise my publications (to my few but growing followers). While others may prefer to tweet about their personal lives, I prefer to keep it professional although the two get mixed up sometimes. PS: I am yet to tweet about my breakfast.

Some have suggested thinking about twitter as a newspaper, where you can report about serious events but can add fun bits as well (worth trying out). Also, I have realised that its a conversation and not all about me, so I have started to join in conversations hence using the reply functions, and appropriate terminology from twitter glossary more often.

Twitter is also important for networking, emphasis being on ‘networking’. I have followed a lot of people and have had a few follow me back. Nevertheless, I am engaging more with the conversations (I think) and tweeting more frequently. Frequency currently still stands at once  or twice a day. I anticipate increasing my follower base by tweeting more frequently and following more people (watch this space).

Thing 4

As part of ‘thing 4’ I googled myself to assess my digital footprint and was quite surprised at the result. I know I had deleted all redundant accounts in the past, and kept my professional and personal accounts separate but you never know what you may have missed. I was happy none of my old accounts popped up. So according to Google, I am a researcher at the University of Surrey with 3 publications on Researchgate. I am also working on a project that was approved by the Health Research Authority (HRA). All seemed to be going well until I came across a link to a page that looked like it contained my pictures. I had been clicking away at every other link but hesitated when I got to this one because I wasn’t sure what I might find. My heartbeat quickened at the thought of my Facebook pictures being on full display. My Facebook account is a personal one, hence contained personal pictures. Anyway, with increased anxiety, I clicked on the link to find that it contained nothing, it was an empty page (phew, what a relief!)

So that was the first page. The second page had more links to my publications and poster presentations at the University of Surrey. The second page however contained my twitter pictures which thankfully comprised of a professional profile picture and pictures from previous research-related tweets. My twitter account is a professional one, no sweat there. As I mentioned in ‘Thing 1’ I am a basic twitter user, so looking forward to learning more about it in ‘Thing 5’. The third page was the same and I didn’t go any further. No results were found on Social Mention. As far as this platform was concerned, I didn’t exist.  

Overall I was quite satisfied with my online presence. I have been using Researchgate for a while and have a modest RG score, number of reads and followers, this may have played a role in boosting my online presence. Also, deleting old personal accounts and keeping my professional and personal accounts separate prevented personal profiles from popping up. I would however like to strengthen my online presence and I am currently looking into linking my professional online accounts as suggested by RDP.  

 

Thing 1

This blog was created as part of the 23 things RDP programme and is my first 23 things blog post. Blogging is something I have had on my mind for a while but didn’t know where to start, the 23 things has given me an opportunity to finally get started.

I have some social media experience, mostly with twitter, and recruited participants for my research via  twitter so it can be a powerful tool for research when exploited properly. I am however still a basic user and would like to use it on a more advanced level. I also use both twitter and researchgate for raising awareness of my publications, and for following researchers working in a similar field or on similar projects. 23 things will give me the opportunity to better promote my research and network with other researchers.

I have just developed a mobile health app as part of my project and social media would be an ideal means of raising awareness about its availability. I look forward to fully engaging with the 23 things and learning more about online tools that will be helpful in promoting my research. I am really excited about the 23 things and can’t wait to get started on the other things.