1. Is social media worth it?Alan CannUniversity of Leicester.Internet Consulting EditorAnnals of Botany.bit.ly/AJCann

2. Be where the conversation istwitter.com/annbotwww.scoop.it/annbotaobblog.com plus.google.comwww.facebook.com/AnnalsOfBotany 3. Write once, publish everywhere mobilepinterest.com/alancann/aob-plantsiPad 4. Why?The article as homepageDavid Weinberger: Small pieces loosly joined"When I was struggling to position the website I made a mistake... Ithought we should do the same online as we did in print, simplytransferring from one platform to the other. But we carried out researcharound the world among educated people who didnt read the Economistand discovered, to our surprise, that it wasnt what they wanted. Hecame to realise that there was a distinction between what he calls the"lean-back, immersive, ritual pleasure" of reading the Economist in printcompared to the "lean-forward, interactive" way people used the site. Itwas, says Rashbass, the difference between "snacking on the net asagainst the gourmet meal of reading in print". That convinced him and histeam to offer an entirely different experience to website users. Ratherthan lecturing the audience, they set out to build a community of peopleeager to participate in discussions with the magazines journalists andwith each other."Andrew Rashbass, chief executive of the Economist grouphttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/27/andrew-rashbass-economist-group-interview 5. Does it sell subscriptions?However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally lookat the results. Winston Churchill Branding vs. marketing vs. science educationThe Annals of Botany Company is a non-profit educationalcharity. What are we selling? 6. How are we doing? 7. Look over your shoulderarXivhttp://arxiv.org/JISC: Economic implications of alternative scholarly publishing models: Exploringthe costs and benefitshttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/economicpublishingmodelsfinalreport.aspxF1000 Research join us and shape the future of scholarly communicationhttp://f1000research.com/2012/01/30/f1000-research-join-us-and-shape-the-future-of-scholarly-communication-2/Melissa Terras: What happens when you tweet an open access paperhttp://melissaterras.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-happens-when-you-tweet-open-access.htmlChris Willmott: Institutional repositories, social media and academic publication:a simple experimenthttp://lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/institutional-repositories-and-academic-publication-a-simple-experiment/ 8. altmetrics delicious.com/ajcann/altmetricsaltmetrics: a manifestoaltmetrics.org/manifesto"Right now were going through a Cambrian explosion of metricswww.nature.com/news/2010/100616/full/465864a.htmlYour correspondents advice: the only way to go is to take the plunge and starttalking, loudly and often. Well, not too often. Babbagewww.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/05/social_networking Edupunk motto "Just do it". 9. CreditsPat Heslop HarrisonDavid Frost & Alex BunningAlun Salt, creative geniusAoB Editorial Board, especially NigelChaffeybit.ly/AJCann