I started working more with social media, an area of communication that I had never treated seriously until now. I know as well as any communicator how social media helps, but I have prioritised one part of science communication that I enjoy more - finding hidden treasures in scientific articles and research projects.
Last week, I held a workshop for researchers from University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" of Iasi and UMF Cluj about social media for promoting science specifically because the topic is outside my comfort zone. Because it's a "task", and not something I do easily, I've learned how important strategy, planning and consistency are - all of which can be worked on.
Why would social media be important in science communication?
One new thing I mentioned in the workshop would be that social media impact is starting to be part of the impact assessment of scientific papers.
Of course, apart from this very specific reason, there are also general ones, which I have talked about here on blog on several occasions:
- Many researchers believe that communicating with the general public is also a duty, as long as the funding is from public funds
- Because research in Romania is underfunded and it would take pressure from society to increase research funding
- Broadening the scope of communication to non-specialist audiences facilitates contact with entrepreneurs, authorities involved in public policy and even other researchers in related fields, who might not otherwise hear about the outcome.
- Popularity provides increased chances of obtaining funding and grants
- Communication with general audiences is a mandatory condition in H2020
- This mandatory condition will certainly be extended to other types of projects, including in RO
- Institutions abroad are assessed including for visibility in the general public
- The trend will also appear in Romania, there are already incentive strategies for researchers and teachers for promotional activities
I asked the participants to write down what were the most important concepts they remembered:
- Consistency
- "Breaking" the content into several chunks that can be communicated separately
- The similarity between social media channels and "marketplaces" for a product
I will detail these concepts in later posts.
Thank you to those who took the patience to log in and log out three times from the Zoom workshop. I captured one photo during the workshop in which I am very easily identifiable: I am the person with the widest smile.
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