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I use Twitter a lot.<\/p>\n
I have used it across my various professional faces for over ten years now.<\/p>\n
I get invited by other institutions to give masterclasses and invited workshops about creating and managing digital identities.<\/p>\n
I teach workshops about \u2018researchers and social media\u2019 every semester. I\u2019ve written quite a few blogposts about social media, including\u00a0what I like seeing researchers post<\/a>,\u00a0how to run a shared social media account<\/a>,\u00a0what is your social media \u2018voice\u2019<\/a>,\u00a0what I tweet<\/a>,\u00a0why I\u2019d unfollow you<\/a>\u00a0(and\u00a0why I\u2019d follow you<\/a>), and posts on\u00a0livetweeting<\/a>. And I\u2019m still learning a lot about its use and flexibility.<\/p>\n I recently started participating in a social media challenge, and I\u2019m having a great time and feeling rather enlightened about my own practices. I thought I\u2019d share them with you (now, ten days in) and compare my thoughts with when the challenge is over at the end of September.<\/p>\n I saw that Melanie \u201cThe Leveraged PhD\u201d Bruce was running a\u00a0social media challenge in September<\/a>\u00a0(across Instagram and\/or Twitter), I got excited enough about it to join up.<\/p>\n I think this is because I\u2019ve been interested to join a challenge since the beginning of this year when my fabulous friend and colleague Narelle Lemon ran\u00a0Feb Flourish<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram. For Narelle\u2019s challenge, while my spirit was keen, my post-holiday mind was weak. I enjoyed seeing others\u2019 posts but ended up not participating myself. An additional factor was that, while I\u2019m on Instagram, it\u2019s not a commonly frequented platform for me and I seem to use it mostly to post images of succulents and textures (and to receive surreal memes from my daughter). As such, it\u2019s not a presence that does much \u2018professional\u2019 work for me.<\/p>\n I also saw Melanie\u2019s first month-long challenge earlier this year and RW Jonathan participated in that one. Again, it was focused mostly on Instagram (I think!) but I was almost tempted to break my non-professional, moseying Instagram presence to participate.<\/p>\n So, third time lucky!<\/p>\n First things first:\u00a0What\u2019s a social media challenge, you ask?<\/p>\n Well, there are many flavours of challenge on various social platforms. Melanie\u2019s description is: \u201cA fun way to develop your social media presence. You\u2019ll have a daily prompt to inspire you to create a post for your feed. It\u2019s a great way to expand your network by finding and interacting with others doing the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n On a slightly more academic note, George Veletsianos has said:<\/p>\n \u201cScholars use social media for nonprofessional purposes, revealing multiple dimensions of their selves. For example, scholars have shared not just their scholarly successes, but their vulnerabilities and struggles (eg, with a divorce) and sought help with personal issues and causes that they are passionate about (eg, equal rights legislation and raising awareness concerning debilitating diseases). Importantly, it appears that engagement with and sharing about issues unrelated to the profession is a value that is celebrated by this community\u201d \u2013\u00a0Veletsianos, \u201cOpen practices and identity\u201d 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Social media challenges fulfil the aims outlined by Veletsianos, when done well, and certainly \u2018reveal multiple dimensions of academic selves\u2019. I often find myself saying that there\u2019s nothing wrong with wanting to be \u2018professional\u2019 but don\u2019t be a robot, and by that I mean don\u2019t be boring as and only foist your papers, projects, and presentations on others. If there\u2019s no human in there, you\u2019ve lost me (and probably many others\u2026or maybe you wouldn\u2019t have gained followers in the first place).<\/p>\n Onto the main purpose of this post: what am I learning to date?<\/p>\n 1)<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s really satisfying to participate alongside colleagues<\/strong>\u00a0who\u2019ve also done the \u2018Researchers and social media\u2019 workshops I run, or been at other events focused on research communication (e.g. #EspressoRW). Being able to see their practice clearly on display and get to know their multidimensional selves, as well as see their interactions with others in the challenge, is a lot of fun. It\u2019s fascinating to see what they share of themselves, and how. It gives me insight into what researchers who are newly on Twitter might be happy to share.<\/p>\n 2)<\/strong>\u00a0Being given the premise to interact and the diverse prompts means that sifting through others\u2019 engagement is very good insight into what they\u2019re like online<\/strong>\u00a0(and, hopefully, a good indicator of what they\u2019d be like offline). Unlike glad-handing a range of people at (always) forced networking events, which I don\u2019t attend, this mode of meeting new people is easy, low-stakes, and so much less awkward. It could also mean that the \u2018weak\u2019 ties may be so weak that they don\u2019t last beyond the challenge \u2013 but that\u2019s something I\u2019m interested to see after it\u2019s over. A big bonus is meeting colleagues who are friends of friends and having them join your online circle.<\/p>\n For me, one of the things that\u2019s essential to this kind of challenge is, if someone you don\u2019t know makes a comment on your update and wants to engage, ENGAGE. It\u2019s not that hard. If it\u2019s a buddy, it\u2019s OK not to respond to every single thing, but if it\u2019s a potential new colleague and they\u2019ve never reached out to you before, ignoring them seems counter-productive.<\/p>\n 3)<\/strong>\u00a0The organisation that\u2019s necessary to participate well has made me reflect much more on where I draw the boundaries around what I post.\u00a0<\/strong>It has made me reflect anew on why I\u2019m even in the space and what I want to do there. I tell my workshop participants all the time that that\u2019s a crucial part of having a meaningful presence online. I realised when I was a few days in that I had been on Twitter so long, and have been across so many other accounts, that I had stopped thinking about why I was there. Or, indeed, why I had built such an invested online identity in the first place. Now, I remember. It was to find and grow an intellectual community (not only of academics) in which I could find fellow travellers for the things I wanted to do, the conversations I wanted to have, and the perspectives I need to hear about.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be reporting back post-30 September on how the entire challenge has gone for me.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, if you feel the urge, you can join in Melanie\u2019s challenge now, even though the month\u2019s already started:\u00a0theleveragedphd.com\/social-media-challenge<\/a>\u00a0(thanks for hosting it, Melanie!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"