A lot of scholars who are new to Twitter ask me “can you give me a Twitter 101?” – I figured I should probably post my advice on my blog. As I’ve said before, the reason why I founded #ScholarSunday, co-founded #GetYourManuscriptOut, is that these hashtag-based community-building strategies DO work.
Micro-thread on building community across #AcademicTwitter – fellow scholars often ask me "how do I build a community, how do I get myself noticed, and how do I establish myself online?" One strategy I've used that is pretty robust, in my not-so-humble-opinion is PROMOTING OTHERS
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 8, 2018
In a previous life, actually co-authored a book on building robust online communities (it’s an e-book) with Arieanna Schweber, so the principles I suggest here are similar to the ones we proposed in our joint work. My approach is to provide content (yes, I know, I hate that word too) that I believe will be useful to my Twitter followers. Here’s the strategy I follow:
I can find relevant articles that I believe would be of interest to my followers, pre-schedule them, tag these authors' Twitter IDs, and in 20 minutes, I've got 10 tweets that will (a) help my followers with interesting stuff (b) promote colleagues I like and their work and…
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 8, 2018
(c) Build a larger network where people can see whose blog posts to look for. Promoting others is really a good way to build rapport and community. It does take time, but you can find those Core Bloggers and Core Tweeters in your field if you pay close attention. </thread>
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 8, 2018
When I wrote this Twitter thread I proceeded to do exactly what I suggested: I chose 10 blogs and pre-scheduled tweets that would promote their authors. This is the strategy I follow to avoid being on Twitter all day long. I am well aware that I appear as though I’m online all day. I am not, as my tweets below explain. I pre-schedule content then take time to reply to mentions and conversations.
Had breakfast with my Mom and brother, ran a couple of errands, checked email and responded, scheduled 2 meetings and now I answer tweets.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 8, 2018
Which I often do from the loo (I know, TMI but since you asked…)
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 8, 2018
There are plenty of sources for good academic blogs. I recently came across a listing.
And spend some time extracting 10 blog posts from there and sharing them on your Twitter account. To optimize my time, I have a @buffer extension on my Chrome that auto-shrinks a URL and posts it through my Twitter account. THAT is how I save time and still engage w/my audience.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 14, 2018
As you can see, I use Buffer and HootSuite to preschedule content and then spend a limited amount of time responding. This enables me to do my academic work without being online all day. This is not something I have not written about. I have explained this strategy plenty of times, both on Twitter and here on my blog. Hopefully, by giving my Twitter thread a more permanent space here on my blog, people will be able to refer to it.
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