Doctoral Cohorts and Research using Social Media

Explore social media sites to find out what is the most pertinent “talk” in your scientific community. What are the latest trends and discussions, topics of research and interests. Most prominent social media sites, such as
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/
Twitter, https://twitter.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/
Instagram, http://instagram.com/
use hashtags.
LinkedIn has “professional groups.”

Identify your hashtag strategy similarly to your keyword strategy when searching peer-reviewed articles

  E.g., if your interest is #principalship, you can seek channels and conversations by using it as a hashtag

  Search and subscribe to LinkedIn “Interests/Groups” and lurk or actively participate in the conversations.

  Consider start and maintenance of your own blog with your daily reflections on your research progress

  E.g., LinkedIn can be very much used as a blog, although you can subscribe for a free one such as Edublog

p. 141. Chapter 8 “Using Social Media in Research.”
Bell, J. (1999). Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers in education and social science (3rd ed.). Buckingham [England] ; Philadelphia: Open University Press. (Available on Google and at SCSU Library through ILL)

Crowdsourcing, social networking. Consider the following questions:

1. What are your goals?
2. Who do you want to reach?
3. Why do you want to reach them?
4. Which digital tool or platform will be most effective in enabling you to reach your goals?
5. If you already spend time each day using social media for personal reasons, how much time are you able to set aside each day to use social media for research?
6. at what time of day will you engage in social media? (time differences, if you are communicating globally)

the value of social media: Community, Content, Conversations.

Davis III, C.H.F., Deil-Amen, R., Rios-Aguilar, C., & González Canché, M.S. Social media and higher education: A literature review and research directions. Report printed by the University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University. Accessed January 27, 2015 http://works.bepress.com/hfdavis/2/