SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT CHRIS GARRINGTON AND ROB … · • Researchers, businesses, policy makers, workers, trade unions, health practitioners • Wordpress • Simple template:

CHRIS GARRINGTON AND ROB DAVIES SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT TODAY

▸  What is impact and why should PhDs be thinking about it?

▸  Blogging for impact

▸  Twitter: engaging with policymakers and policy

▸  Q+A

THE DEMONSTRABLE CONTRIBUTION THAT EXCELLENT RESEARCH MAKES TO SOCIETY AND THE ECONOMY. THIS CAN INVOLVE ACADEMIC IMPACT, ECONOMIC AND SOCIETAL IMPACT OR BOTH.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

DEFINING IMPACT

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

▸  Academic impact demonstrable contribution research makes in shifting understanding and advancing scientific method, theory and application across and within disciplines

▸  Economic and societal impact is the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society and the economy, and its benefits to individuals, organisations and/or nations.  

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

TYPES OF IMPACT

▸  Instrumental: influencing the development of policy, practice or service provision, shaping legislation, altering behaviour

▸  Conceptual: contributing to the understanding of policy issues, reframing debates

▸  Capacity building: through technical and personal skill development.

BLOGGING FOR IMPACT

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

WHAT IS A BLOG?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

SETTING UP YOUR OWN BLOG – QUESTIONS! ▸  What’s it for?

▸  What are you blogging about? Your research or a wider topic?

▸  Who’s going to read it and how will you reach them?

▸  How often you will post and how much will you write?

▸  Which platform to use – Wordpress, Wix, Tumblr, Medium, Squarespace - pay for no adverts

▸  Will your blogs follow a format, formula or template

▸  Will you use images – where will they come from?

▸  Will you adopt a tone and style – serious/humorous/conversational/formal

▸  Editorial control/responsibilities/processes

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

•  Share centre’s research on work and health and demonstrate how it relates to policy, practice and people’s lives

•  Work and health research and what it tells us about the interactions between working and health over the lifecourse

•  Researchers, businesses, policy makers, workers, trade unions, health practitioners

•  Wordpress

•  Simple template: stand first to introduce research and its topical/policy context and the author – outline research, where the information comes from, findings and what they mean – 800-900 words

•  Creative commons images

•  Serious but conversational tone/no jargon

•  Co-edit and co-author

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

What did we do next?

THANKS FOR SENDING THIS TO ME. IT IS VERY INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT RESEARCH. I WILL AMEND MY NARRATIVE TO REFLECT IT.   IF YOU WOULD TELL ME WHEN THE BLOG GETS POSTED I WILL CERTAINLY RETWEET IT.   THANKS AGAIN FOR GETTING IN TOUCH   MATTHEW  

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

EXTERNAL BLOGS

▸  Be proactive – contact a blog – your institution, a charity The Conversation, Huffington Post, Discover Society, Guardian Professional Networks, LSE Impact blog, THES, BBC Online

▸  Read up

▸  Read their pitching/contributor guidelines

▸  Follow them and their editors/journalists on Twitter

▸  Build relationships

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

A PLACE TO START

https://theconversation.com/uk/team

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

HOW TO PITCH PERFECT

▸  Have a clear idea of what you want to talk about

▸  Give it an eye catching and strong subject line

▸  Write no more than 3-5 sentences

CRIMES AGAINST DATA In a couple of weeks’ time I’ll be presenting research to a large audience of UK researchers about whether social science can dig itself out of the hole it has created for itself by making wild and wacky scientific claims in journals. These include some fairly silly things such as “women’s political preferences change by 20 percentage points depending on the time of the month” and “holding your body in a power pose gives you a hormonal boost”. The presentation is called Crimes against Data and as well as sharing some examples, I’ll be explaining how I think we can do better in the future. If this sounds like something you and your readers might be interested in, I’d be delighted to draft a piece for your consideration.

The pitch

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMPACT

WRITING TIPS

▸  Make it topical and timely – tie your blog into current debates and conversations

▸  Jargon free and accessible or explain terminology

▸  Strong headline and opening line/par

▸  Outline key findings clearly and explain what they mean

▸  Break up the text with sub-headings/bullets/easy to understand chart or table

▸  No footnotes or references – embed links

BLOG LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Got an idea? Write your pitch

GET BLOGGING.

Chris Garrington @cagarrington garringtonc@gmail.com