Research Management and the Use of Social Media Dan Nordquist,
Director Office of Grant and Research Development Washington State
University
Slide 2
A Retrospect I 1971: the first Email was sent 1994: GeoCities
was born 1997: SixDegrees was launched AOL Instant Messenger was
launched 2000: The.com bubble bursts 2002: Friendster is launched,
gathering 3M+ users in the first 3 months 2003: MySpace is launched
(by 2006 it had grown to be the most popular social network in the
world) Linked-IN is launched (one of the first mainstream social
media networks dedicated to business) Facebox and Bingbox (yet
known as Netlog) are launched
Slide 3
A Retrospect II 2004: Facebook is launched (originally as a way
of connecting college students) 2005: Youtube was the first major
video hosting and sharing site 2006: Twitter is born (a
micro-blogging website, 140 caracters of less) 2008: Facebook
overtakes MySpace as the leading social-networking site (with
currently over 600million users) 2010: Google launches Google Buzz
2011: Spling is born. (within the first 4 days, the site generated
1M+ hits, boasting 5,000 unique visitors and 125,000 page views)
October 2011: Launch of Google+ (integrating Google Buzz) 2012:
Facebook files for an IPO. At its premiere in the stock trading
floors, the network aims to collect 10 billion dollars. Its value
is estimated between 75 and 100 billion dollars. Twitter generates
12,233 tweets per second during the Super Bowl
Slide 4
Market Share of Visits [August 2012] for the top 5: Facebook
62.62% (+) Youtube 20.16% (-) Twitter 2.03% (-) Pinterest 1.08% (+)
Google+ 1.03% (+) Source:
http://www.dreamgrow.com/http://www.dreamgrow.com/
Slide 5
Potential Audience Research Admins Faculty Graduate Students
Potential Benefits Mentoring Collaboration Diversity Dissemination
of Information Community building Sharing Ideas Q&A
Slide 6
Social Media and Research Administration What we have explored
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Groups Google+ Time invested
Adding a personal touch A Minute with Derek E-Rex Tip - 149 hits
Santa - 116 hits E-Rex Tip - 100 hits Cost Sharing - 40 hits Grant
Opportunities 259 hits
Slide 7
Facebook Insights Who You Reached How You Reached People Visits
to Your Page
Slide 8
Student Communication Class Led Survey & Focus Group Is
Facebook effective as social media tool for Research Administration
& Faculty in their pursuit of sponsored programs? Faculty 55%
Female 45% Male Age 37% 55+ 30% 45-54 33% 44- Appointment 32%
Tenured 15% Tenure Track 15% Non-T/T Teaching 9% Non-T/T Research
29% Other Res. Admins
Slide 9
Results 33% of faculty and 44% of research admins saw privacy
as a very important factor in their decision to participate in
social networks. 21% of research administrators say Facebook is
prohibited in their workplace. 49% of faculty and 24% of research
admins saw little to no potential for social networking,
facilitated by our office, to benefit their work efforts. 20% of
faculty said they never use the social media sites they subscribe
to.
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Potential Pitfalls Privacy concerns/vulnerability Personal
& institutional Intellectual property Reputation Information
overload A good website is better Doesnt want more sites to check
Resistance to engage new media Faculty prefer face-to-face personal
touch someone they can trust. Duplication of work what is the added
value?
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The right tool for the right task & audience Social
Networks directional, information gathering Twitter directional
& short concepts YouTube Training but keep it short,
informative & fun Social Bookmarking create subject tailored
bookmarks for sharing (e.g. Grant Writing Skills, NIH useful sites)
Face to face nothing can replace the value of relationship
Slide 12
Engage Your Audience Be interesting funny, controversial,
thought provoking Be personal congratulate, invite, ask Be relevant
listen, ask, research Be consistent monitor, post regularly Be
responsive monitor, respond and provide help
Slide 13
Being Effective Write (Post) For Your Reader In translation
this is simply known as target language. In localization it is
known as target audience. The same rules apply. If you are talking
to your audience of 18-24 year old females, writing for them is
very different than writing for faculty. This case applies for all
segments, audiences, and markets. Write for the Medium Just like in
all media, we need to write for the medium. Nike will have
different advertisement in their business newspaper advertising
when compared with the advertising they will place in a male
orientated lifestyle and entertainment magazine. The same goes with
social media marketing. Facebook is a medium, LinkedIn is another
medium, and each site and network will have its own suitability.
The 1-2-3s (E-E-E) to Increase Traffic in Social Media Educate -
Ideally your audience should come away with a lesson they feel is
so valuable and useful they cannot help but share their newly
obtained knowledge with other students and or faculty alike. (In
our office this is Grant Opportunities, eREX tips, Self-care
Fridays) Engage Try to leave your topic open for discussion by
asking a specific question as a call to action to generate comments
from your followers. Some of my best content comes from questions
asked by readers, because it gives you a better perspective on what
my audience wants to know and allows one to respond directly to
their needs. Entertain Entertaining your audience is as easy as
being yourself, and remembering to keep your stories real, and
personal. (TED videos, Trends in Education, Economic Outlooks,
Wellbeing)
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Recent & Next Steps: Exploring ResearchGate
http://www.researchgate.net/ Live feed (share notes) Follow Topics
Select Discipline(s) Share: Pubs; links; images; files Search for:
Researchers; topics; questions; pubs; journals; jobs Start a
Project (visible to all within that institution: E.g., WSU 332
members by 10.10.12) Start a bench to share files and comments with
project members RG score (measures scientific reputation)
Slide 15
Recent & Next Steps Potential to Beta Test a closed
LinkedIn group for a specific project (e.g., grant competition)
Effectiveness of Twitter to disseminate funding opportunities
compared to FB Challenges Increasing expectation of faster response
by users Resources (staff) needed Browsing How can users
effectively find valuable information that is not easily
accessible/searchable? (e.g., In a FB timeline)
Slide 16
Opportunities & Future of Social Media 1 in every 13 people
on Earth is on Facebook 35+ demographic represents more than 30% of
the entire user base 71.2 % of all USA internet users are on
Facebook 48% of young Americans said they found out about news
through Facebook Average user is connected to 80 community pages,
groups and events More than 2.5 million websites have integrated
with Facebook, including over 80 of comScores U.S. Top 100 websites
and over half of comScores Global Top 100 websites People that use
Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook
than non-mobile users.
Slide 17
Discussion It takes time. Is it worth it? Where do we go from
here? Personal & private interaction National interaction What
has your institution implemented? Will social media change
university research and research administration? What are the
implications of these changes for research administration? Is there
a need for an institution-wide social media policy? CAP
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