Importance of Scientific Social Networks

American Association of Anatomists Annual MeetingExperimental Biology 2014

April 26, 2014Mary Canady

Comprendia LLC

comprendia.com/xbio

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Who Am I?•Then

–Trained as a biochemist–Always gravitated to online tools & pretty pictures–Loved bench work and organizing events

•Now–Comprendia/San Diego Biotechnology Network

•Network of 20,000•Marketing, events, writing, speaking•Results

–People find me easily for business (and speaking!)–I have found my niche and am happy

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Charles Darwin’s Social Network

Preliminary draft of figure, all data from the Darwin Correspondence Project. See interactive version

at comprendia.com/xbio

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2012 ScienceOnline Twitter Conversations

Visit scienceonline.com or follow #sciox on Twitter

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Your Personal• Strategy

– What’s your personal brand?• ‘Research’ your interests, goals

– How does your current work translate to the job market?

– What gets you up in the morning?• Tactics

– Follow news, publications in your area• Use RSS, Twitter, Google Alerts

– Share information, build reputation– Network, network, network

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David Shiffman@whysharksmatter Danielle Lee

@dnlee5

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Don’t Forget, Etiquette• It’s not all about you

– Provide resources first, promote yourself second• Consider audience, reach and goals when

communicating– Public? Scientists?– What are my institution’s policies?– “Test the waters” by watching and asking first

• Use “in real life” values when communicating– Don’t rush to judgment or make rash statements– The internet is forever

• Consider pseudonymity fully before deciding

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Statistics from Bioinformatics, LLC

• October 2013 “Digital Marketing to Life Scientists: Social Media and Email Best Practices” Report

• 35% of life scientists use social media constantly or frequently for their work

• Life scientists spend on average about two hours per day engaged in social media for both personal and professional use.

• LinkedIn and Facebook are the top social media applications for life scientists

• Life scientists use social media to•further their professional activities•network with colleagues•make contacts•maintain their professional identities

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What Online Tools Should I Use?

Application

Description Good for How To Use

LinkedIn Professional networking

•Personal brand•Job hunting•Leads

•Complete profile•Join/start groups•Engage

Twitter Sharing information with short updates

•Personal brand•Connecting via content•Events

•Find a niche•Follow hashtags/users

Blog Dynamic website with daily-weekly articles

•Personal brand•Connecting with peers

•Create blog according To brand•Find others, interact via comments/Twitter

Google+ Social networking “back layer”

•Sharing information•Increasing search engine visibility•Hangouts

•Add colleagues to circles•Join communities•Use Hashtags

Recent presentation Academics Presence Online

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#Anatomy14 Tweets: Before, During, & After*!

*Add #xbio for added visibility & to meet other disciplines!

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Basics• Overview

– Provide 140 character updates, AKA ‘microblogging’

– @[user] to send a public message (reply)– D [user] to send private message (DM)– #[text] is a ‘hashtag’ to follow events,

subjects, or chats• Follow based on content, don’t need to

know– Hint: this is huge for meeting people

• Provide information based on your brand• Should be a conversation if you’re doing it

right!

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Tactics

• Fill out profile completely and carefully• Get followers

– Target: 1,000– To be followed, you must follow

• Search Twitter, Social Mention for terms (e.g., ‘virtual anatomy’)

• Conference hashtags (#anatomy14)• Twitter will make suggestions for who to

follow• Use Web or Twitter app, Hootsuite,

TweetdeckTwitter Tips for Scientists

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• WordPress– Hosted blog at wordpress.com, or get a

server, host your own ($7/month)– Most flexible, our favorite

• Blogger– Only offers hosted solutions

• Tumblr– Less flexible, hard to write a post with both

image and text• Join an existing blog network

– Anatomy Connected

Ways To

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Link and courtesy @brianreid

Finding blogs:• ScienceSeeker• Researchblogging

Blog Networks

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Google Yourself

• Google Author Rank– Your Google+ network affects Google search

results– Big for your personal brand– Should lead to more online science

credibility• Google+

– Add colleagues using G+’s tools– Share information– Join groups, share hashtags

• Set up a Google Scholar Profile• What’s working well for others?

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Facebook

• Living in the 10’s=professional FB presence– Manage privacy– Change to work name– Keep politics at a minimum– No passed out photos

• Follow anatomy organizations, news, engage– Need to check “get notifications”

to get updates• Live your brand? You decide.

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Getting Started• Determine your personal brand• Start small

– LinkedIn, Google+ Profile– Share your brand on Facebook– Tweet at #anatomy14 !

• Be creative• Start NOW

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Questions?• Twitter

– @Comprendia– @SDBN

• LinkedIn– www.linkedin.com/in/marycanady

• Facebook– Facebook.com/comprendia

• Blog– Sdbn.org– Comprendia.com

• Slideshare– www.slideshare.net/marycanady