All researchers need to find, use and disseminate information.  Social media has many tools that allow you to do this, allowing you to connect with others to increase your knowledge and theirs

Social media can help you promote your research in both your discipline and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. You can find out more about creating these profiles in our Researcher Profile Guide.

Outlined below are just a few of the many tools available. You'll find specific channels and individuals to follow on the Profiles page of this guide. A more comprehensive list of social media tools available from Professor Andy Miah's A-Z of Social Media for Academia.

Blogs - can be used to find new ideas and connect with others in the SoTL community and for you to promote your own work. As a practitioner you can use a Blog to share your ideas and experiences and receive early feedback on your research from a wider audience. 

There are a number of online blogging tools, but the most popular are:

• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Tumblr

Find our more about using Blogging to disseminate your research.

Facebook - originally designed to connect students at a Harvard University, has since expanded to connect family, friends and business associates.

You can use Facebook to set up a profile for your research or research group or by following journals or groups interested in SoTL.Find out how to set up a Facebook Research Profile using contact lists on Lucy Wickens' Using Facebook for Networking & Research.

Twitter isn't just for celebrity gossip or meaningless trivia. Many researchers use Twitter to comment on their research, conference papers and new stories.  You don't have to tweet to use Twitter, many tweets include hashtags relating to pertinent topics.  You can follow these hashtags and keep up-to-date with current conversations on a topic.

You can include your Twitter handle in your email signature in Outlook.

Find out more about using Twitter in University research, teaching and impact activities with the London School of Economic's guide.

Meishar-Tal, H., & Pieterse, E. (2017). Why do academics use academic social networking sites?. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(1), 1-22. 

Social media platforms for academics, a breakdown of the networks. (2019, August 9). The Academic Designer. https://theacademicdesigner.com/2019/social-media-platforms/

Thomsen, C. (2017, February 16). 5 tips for promoting your research through Facebook [Infographic]. 

Impact of social media on knowledge dissemination. (n.d.) Conductscience. https://conductscience.com/the-impact-of-social-media-on-knowledge-dissemination/

Zimba, O., & Gasparyan, A. Y. (2021). Social media platforms: A primer for researchers. Rheumatology, 59(2), 68-72. https://doi.org/10.5114/reum.2021.102707