a scientist's view of twitter

A scientist’s view toward

Social Media & Twitter

Craig R. McClain @DrCraigMc

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First Lesson: Have A Slide Like This

Craig R. McClain @DrCraigMc #dukescicomm

slide thanks to @ethanwhite

Deep Sea News

Deep SeaNews

DSN

Chief Editor DSN#deepsndeepseanews.com @deepseanews

scienceofthesouth.com

storyofsize.com

Why Should I Even Give A Flying Flip?

More than half of the human race is under the age of 30,

they've never known life without the internet.

Guess how they feel about social media?

3 out of 4 Americans use social technology -Forrester, The Growth of Social Technology Adoption, 2008

All media is now social media

Technology is shifting the power away from

editors, the publishers, the establishment, the

media elite.

Now it's the people who are in control.

-Rupert Murdoch

If Facebook were a country it would be the most populated in the world

In Billions

Facebook 1.49 China 1.36 India 1.25 U.S. 0.32

http://news.yahoo.com/number-active-users-facebook-over-230449748.html

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/02/15/new-facebook-statistics-show-big-increase-in-content-sharing-local-business-pages/

Every minute:Facebook users share nearly 2.5 million pieces of content.

Twitter users tweet nearly 300,000 times. Instagram users post nearly 220,000 new photos.

YouTube users upload 72 hours of new video content

http://www.dailyillini.com/features/health_and_living/article_323b7fd8-966a-11e2-b435-001a4bcf6878.html

1/3 of women aged 18-34 check Facebook when they first wake up

...even before going to the bathroom

Of all the social media venues,why should scientists focus on Twitter?

1.Easy to start and use

2.Massive usage

3.Scientific community is already engaging

4.Clear benefits for scientists

316 million active users on Twitter

anatomy of a tweet

#hashtags

#rstats

#conferences

#hashtags

#molluscmonday #wormwednesday #fossilfriday#scicomm#icanhazpdf

#academia #highered #phdchat#figureclub#sciart

http://librarianbyday.tumblr.com/post/93243914600/10-must-have-academic-twitter-hashtags-for http://www.academiaobscura.com/essential-hashtags-for-academics/ http://sylvaindeville.net/2014/10/24/top-10-twitter-hashtags-for-scientists/

Assignment Check out a #hashtag. Tweet something to it.

Tweet something to #dukescicomm

economy of space

140 characters

Twitter Extenders

Shortening URLs

MT (modified tweets) and the quote tweet

Use MT and rewrite a RT to save words

Also HT for heard through or hat tip

MT (modified tweets) and the quote tweet

1.Don't Multi-ReTweet 2.Contractions 3.No More "And", & 4.Drop Pronouns: One of the easiest to lose is "that." So "the website that I love"

becomes "the website I love". 5.Omit Needless Words 6.Kill "I": You can make your tweets more declarative and shorter if you

occasionally drop the "I" 7.Turn Words into Numbers 8.Remove Extra Spaces: Twitter counts double spaces between words. 9.Drop the period 10.Use Word Shortcuts: "With" becomes "w/." "Love" becomes "Luv." 11.Drop Vowels: e.g. "classroom" into "classrm".

Assignment: Compose A Tweet #dukescicomm

The relationship between scientists and journalists has evolved in recent years with the advent of numerous sociocultural changes and drastic shifts within the media ecosystem. Media professionals have traditionally been the gatekeepers of scientific information, but new media technologies grant scientists more power than ever before to be proactive about their public communication. In this article, I provide an overview of the science–media relationship and scientists as public communicators. Specifically, I recount the relationship that has traditionally existed between scientists and media professionals, explain how this relationship has evolved over recent years, and highlight what I believe are some of the most salient and exciting areas for future research examining scientists' efforts to engage with the public.

Scientists, the Media, and the Public Communication of Science Anthony Dudo Sociology Compass http://goo.gl/9yNZKj

what do I tweet

Social media is a tool like a microscope. It can be used well and badly.

It can be used to do a lot of different things -Jon Eisen

•Eavesdropping:  follow  informa4ve  people  to  get  informa4on  and  learn  

•Dialogue:  exchange,  discuss,  and  debate  informa4on  (Asking  specific  ques4ons?)  

•Broadcast:  used  by  news  organiza4ons  and  businesses  to  inform  audience  about  news  or  products/services,  outreach  

•Data  collec4on:  e.g  fishermen  using  TwiJer  to  monitor  fish  popula4ons.  

•Impromptu  journalism:  e.g.  landing  on  Hudson  river,  Mumbai  aJacks,  Iran  post-­‐elec4on  protests  

•Mindcas4ng:    following  a  single  story  or  topic,  with  links,  for  a  period  of  4me,  e.g.  like  my  ongoing  coverage  of  the  #oilspill

“To  do  science,  you  have  to  know  what’s  going  on  in  science.  I  found  Twi9er…most  useful  for  becoming  informed  of  what  other  people  are  doing  in  science.  By  sharing  comments,  links,  informaAon,  and  notes  about  new  scienAfic  developments  with  trusted  sources  I  am  be9er  able  to  keep  up  with  the  vast  amount  of  informaAon  in  my  fields  of  interest.  Social  networks  enable  real-­‐Ame  highlighAng  and  ranking  and  tracking  of  what’s  going  on  in  the  world  of  science.”    -­‐Jon  Eisen

Inreach versus

Outreach

*

*Mr. T has nothing to do with this. I simply have always wanted to put a photo of Mr. T in a presentation.

followers and lists

How do I get followers

This is largely out or your control but….

1. Be patient 2. Follow people yourself 3. Engage people on Twitter 4. Tweet to popular hashtags 5. Tweet interesting content 6. Be famous (online or offline)

How do I find followers

1. Search for specific people and topics 2. Follow people under a relevant hashtag 3. Follow people who are following you

Lists

A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users

on that list.

Note: Lists are used for reading Tweets only. You cannot send or direct a Tweet to members of a list, for only those list

members to see.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460

Assignment Create A List

profiles

Profiles

Assignment Create/Update Your Profile

popularity and virality

Berger and Milkman (2012)

• The  results  indicate  that  posi4ve  content  is  more  viral  than  nega4ve  content  

• Virality  is  par4ally  driven  by  physiological  arousal.    

• Content  that  evokes  high-­‐arousal  posi4ve  (awe)  or  nega4ve  (anger  or  anxiety)  emo4ons  is  more  viral.    

• Content  that  evokes  low-­‐arousal,  or  deac4va4ng,  emo4ons  (e.g.,  sadness)  is  less  viral.

Whether things go viral is related to physiological arousal

Do not be too popular if you want to be seen as credible

Networks

managing the stream

Twitter is the equivalent of drinking out of firehose

Tweetdeck

Storify

https://storify.com/DrCraigMc/wood-fall

Assignment Download Tweetdeck

& Explore

tweets gone wrong and trolls

Subtweets & Trolls

subtweet: (on Twitter) a post that refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism.

internet troll: a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion, often for their own amusement