by Kathryn Coniglio, Rutgers University
Why Join Academic Twitter?
Imagine a social media platform where, instead of being inundated by pictures of your friends on vacation, your feed is curated with scientists in your field sharing newly published papers. Enter: Academic Twitter. For those who may be unfamiliar, Academic Twitter is a community within the standard Twitter platform (i.e., same app) where users design their profiles and interact in a way that is more similar to LinkedIn than Instagram. Academic Twitter is a useful way to pose career-advice questions, crowdsource help on a research or clinical barrier, learn about grant or award opportunities, network with colleagues in your own or related fields, and follow conference proceedings (especially remotely!). If you are new to Academic Twitter, or are considering joining, read on for a brief guide on getting started and some tips to make the most out of your experience.
To set up your Twitter account, go to twitter.com and follow the prompts to create an account. It is helpful to pick a username, called a handle, that includes your last name, as that is how most of your professional colleagues will recognize you. Similarly, select a profile image where your face is clearly seen; this will help bolster recognition. Once your profile is created, it can feel daunting to find people to follow and build a following of your own. One helpful way to start this process is to find someone in your field who you know is on Twitter and start following the people that they follow. You can also find both people to follow and conversations to join by searching hashtags relevant to your field. Within clinical psychology and the PCSAS community, some hashtags to search include: #SoMePsychs (social media psychologist), #CBTWorks (for tweets related to evidence-based treatment), #AcademicChatter (including this in your tweet will likely earn you a retweet from the @AcademicChatter account, which has nearly 75,000 followers of academics in all disciplines), and #ECRs (early career researchers).
Best Practices:
Be concise: Remember, you only have 280 characters to get your message across. Some users post threads, which can be useful to convey more complicated ideas, but, although this has not been empirically tested, readership likely decreases with each Tweet in the thread. Because clarity and brevity are hallmarks of effective scientific writing, Twitter may actually prove a useful exercise for scientists looking to convey the crucial points of a recently published paper. And, just think, a 150-word abstract might not look so challenging after sending a carefully crafted Tweet!
Be courteous: Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given its professional nature, Academic Twitter, too, has its share of trolls. Trolls are users who intentionally sow discord on a given social media platform by inciting arguments through posting incendiary content. Certainly, the very nature of peer-reviewed science invites critiques and criticisms, and Academic Twitter can be a useful platform to engage in a respectful, informal discussion with colleagues. The presence of inadvertently inviting criticism is not a reason to fear Twitter. In fact, unlike peer-review, Twitter is visible and public, which shines an unfavorable light on rude or unnecessarily inflammatory tweets. But all users should remember to be courteous, and this is especially true when engaging with a tweet from someone who is early in their career.
Be consistent: The best way to grow your online presence and gain followers is to tweet consistently. Your followers should feel that your tweets provide access to new and relevant information, and that following you is worthwhile. Just think, if your favorite news organization only published a new article once every few weeks, would you keep subscribing to them, or would you switch to a source with a more consistent flow of information? Of course, consistent content does not mean uniform content; on the contrary, it’s probably a good idea to vary the nature of your tweets. You’ll want to balance tweeting your own content and responding to others’ tweets. For instance, one day you might retweet an interesting article, adding brief commentary about why you are sharing it to your feed, and another day you might engage with your followers more directly by posing a question or polling them directly.
Joining Academic Twitter can be intimidating at first. I hope with these tips you’ll find that Twitter can not only be accessible but also adds value to your burgeoning careers. And, if you do join after reading this article, say hello to me on Twitter (@KAConiglio) and I’ll be glad to introduce you to the community!
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS).