Introduction to Twitter for PhD students (ESRC Doctoral Training Seminar)

Session Aims:

• Understand what Twitter is and how it can be used in an academic context
• Reflect on why you might (or might not) want to engage with twitter or other forms of social media
• Consider how Twitter could be used to build your own academic profiles
• Think about the potential downsides and look at some examples of when things go wrong
• Look at some practical ways to create content, interact, and manage your account

This session will focus mainly on Twitter, and its use in an academic context, although many of the principles we will go through can be transferred to other social media platforms. We will explore what Twitter is, why you might find it useful, and some of the benefits and pitfalls to engaging with it. We will also look at some practical examples, and help you to think about how you might start to create and curate content in order to build your academic Twitter profile.

Who this session is aimed at

This session is aimed primarily at those who don't use Social Media for academic purposes at the moment, and will assume a minimal level of knowledge of Twitter. However it is open to all, and those wanting either a refresher or simply to come along to pick up some new ideas are very welcome.

About the presenters:

Andrew Rowe is a Researcher Training and Development Facilitator based in the Graduate School. He researched the role of social media within the campaign movement in his PhD and has managed social media accounts for several years.

Lydia Topliss manages the day-to-day operation of the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre and has managed social media accounts for over five years.