Earlier this week I had the pleasure of hosting a debate at Sheffield Hallam University for charity, a part of 24 hours of debate. The topic of debate I selected was to look at whether social media had been a positive or negative invention. The attendees were mostly undergraduate students, so I was really interested to get their thoughts on this topic.

Before kicking off the debate I broke down the current usage of social media such as:

• Of an estimated global population of 7.524 billion – there are 3.028 billion total social media users (37% of the total population).
• That the average mobile phone user spends 2 hours on their phone a day, and touches their phone 2,617 times a day.

In order to have an informed debate I outlined some benefits of social media such as:

• Ability to Connect: we now have the ability to connect with one another from across the world.

• Used in Education: across academia social media is used for teaching and for scholarly communication.

• Marketing: social media has created a number of jobs in a marketing context, and helped small business thrive.

 • Politics and Political Change: social media has been credited as being influential during political uprisings.

• Awareness: it is possible to rapidly raise awareness for causes. We can think of the Ice bucket challenge as an example of how social media can be used to raise awareness.

• Emergency and Crisis Situations: in times of crisis data from social media platforms can be leveraged, and this has the potential to save lives.

I also considered some of the limitations of social media such as:

• Cyberbullying / Mental Health: there is the issue of virtual bullying, and potential negative mental health among users.

• Hacking: there are a number of cases where identity theft has occurred, and this has had a disastrous effect on people’s lives. Private photographs can also be stolen.

• Addiction: social media platforms are designed to be addictive, and there may be people who are addicted to the platforms without knowing.

• Unknown effects: there could also be a number of unknown consequences of using social media platforms that we are not currently aware of.

After providing an overview of a number of strengthens and limitations I then looked to consider some questions to be debated which were as followed:

• Do the benefits of social media outweigh the limitations?

In the discussion some thought that the benefits of social media did outweigh the limitations whereas others thought the opposite. Overall, however, there was agreement that there were more benefits that social media platforms offered. Particularly in the ability to connect with one another, create events, and socialise. Though this answer could reflect the views of the audience discussing the topic i.e., undergraduate students.

• Is social media making us less social?

There appeared to be strong agreement that social media had made younger generations less social. Discussion would then turn to whether it is the role of parents to ensure children were not spending too much time on social media. This then lead on to discussions around the digital divide and how parents may not fully understand the risks of these platforms themselves to be able to keep on top of things.

• Has social media had a positive or negative effect on society?

There was disagreement but the overall consensus was that social media platforms were here to stay. Therefore, the delegates argued that there should be more regulation and guidance for children who may be using these platforms. There were also sentiments expressed by delegates noting that we probably do not know all of the effects social media has had among society.

• What effect have social media had on our mental health?

There was agreement that social media platforms had the potential to cause negative mental health among users. An example was provided of a case of private photographs of a teenager being spread around social media without their consent and the damage that this can cause. Some argued that the challenges posed by social media have always existed in society. Others argued that although this may be the case social media has increased the speed in which information can be spread.

• Have social media companies unfairly exploited our desire to connect with one another?

There was disagreement because some thought that social media companies had operated fairly and lawfully. Whereas others argued that the terms and conditions of social media platforms were so long that many were not reading them. Others thought that people should be reading the terms and conditions of social media platforms more regularly.

• Is social media going to change how people live their lives e.g., a comment made when young and naïve can come back to haunt.

There was disagreement among the delegates and one delegate suggested that comments made after a certain age e.g., 16 should be public knowledge for certain professions such as politics. However, this was not a popular view. Most thought that it would not be fair to judge someone for comments that they might make when they are young. The discussion then revolved around how it would be possible to educate younger generations more.

Overall it was an interesting discussion and a range of opinions were discussed. It appeared that the consensus was that social media, on the whole, had more good elements but that care was needed by younger generation using the platforms.

New event for 2019 (online attendance possible):

Social Media & Digital Humanities: Methods/Approaches For Social Scientists

Myself and Professor Peter Bath, pictured below, from the Health Informatics Research Group, recently delivered a talk at a CERN workshop in Geneva. The talk was based on the industry and academic perspectives on social media research ethics, and the also talk highlighted the approach that has been undertaken by the University of Sheffield.

I also presented a poster my PhD research during the CERN workshop, as pictured below.

 

On Saturday the 13th of May I delivered a talk on communicating science through social media in collaboration with the University of Sheffield. I shared my experiences on how I reached readers in over 136 countries and how I received over 250 thousand page hits across a number of channels within the first two years my PhD. My slides for the talk can be found here.

The event had an extremely good turnout for a Saturday afternoon, and the atmosphere of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom was very lively and friendly. I would like to thank the organisers and especially Margarita Segovia Roldan and Jacobo Elies Gomez pictured below.

I was also very happy to receive a gift of  Spanish Picual Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This was the first time I had received a gift after a talk. The Spanish Society of Research is awesome! Gracias!

Yesterday, I updated my post on the LSE Impact blog on using Twitter as a data source and it is already among the most popular read this week!

Be sure to check it out here.

 

Last week, I attended the 2017 iConference in Wuhan, China. I provide some highlights from my trip below, along with some of my photos from the trip.

My highlights from my trip included me presenting a poster on my pilot study from my PhD, and which received good interest from delegates, particularly concerning the methodology that was used. A number of very useful connections were made from across the world, and there was a lot of interest in the 2018 edition of the iConference which will take place in Sheffield hosted in collaboration with Northumbria University.

 

I also enjoyed visiting the Yellow Crane Tower, Hubei Provincial Museum, the East Lake, Wuhan, and the Yangtze River. Wuhan is a beautiful city, and the people are very friendly. I read online that the people in Wuhan are unusually nice, and I have to say that this is very true and I felt very welcome in the city.

 

It was also really good to meet Lee (Dr Xuguang Li) an Information School alumni who is now working as an academic in Wuhan. Lee was a very popular student among the iSchool, and I had heard many great things about him, so it was a pleasure to meet him, and we are very grateful that he showed us around Wuhan. I look forward to working with Lee in the future.

I am looking very much forward to the iConference in 2018 and welcoming delegates from across the world to Sheffield. I was born and raised in Sheffield and studied both my undergraduate and masters degrees here. Sheffield is a brilliant city, and I think delegates will really enjoy visiting the city as well as enjoying the conference.

This past week I have been in Wuhan, China presenting at the 2017 iteration of the iConference.

This study was a pilot study which analysed a subset of tweets related to the 2014 Ebola epidemic.

I had the pleasure to speak at a PubhD event in Sheffield this week. The concept is to use a whiteboard and a marker pen to explain your research in 10 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of questions. In exchange for speaking you receive a free drink, and I had a pint of diet coke. The event is a great way to test out your public speaking and engagement skills. and as a delegate it is a fantastic opportunity to learn something new.

I saw on the PubhD Sheffield Facebook page that a speaker had dropped out, so I messaged to see if I could speak. With less than a day to prepare I stepped up to the challenge. My talk went down very well, and there were a lot of very interesting questions.

I have delivered many talks over the last year or so, and I have to say speaking at PubhD Sheffield is up there as one of the best. The organisers were very friendly and fit me in at the last minute, and all of the delegates were very lovely.

I highly recommend this event for attending and speaking at. I had a really good time. It was also a great opportunity for me to get feedback on my work, so I also really enjoyed that aspect of the night.

Visit the PubhD Sheffield website: http://PubhDSheffield.strikingly.com/

Follow PubhD on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PubhDSheffield

My abstract for the talk

Social networks and social media allow people to share what they think during an outbreak. So my PhD looks at the types of things people say, and whether it based on truth, and to see if it would be harmful. I am looking at Ebola from 2014, and Swine Flu from 2009. I have some found some surprising and interesting things about what types of things users were talking about. For example there is a lot of stigma and discrimination during infectious disease outbreaks can have negative consequences. As well as doing my PhD, I have blogged about social media research and as a result I have been invited to and delivered quite a lot of high profile talks. These have been to government, multi-million turn-over companies, academia, the mainstream media including the likes of the BBC, and I have been awarded funding to work on projects, and deliver training

Check out my talk on the ethical challenges of using social media data in research for   delivered as part of the Bite Size Guide to Research in the 21st Century on the 24th of January, Sheffield, ScHARR. Thanks very much to Andy Tattersall for organising this very great event, and to Dan Smith for editing this very good video. Watch here:

Comments, and thoughts welcome.

Today, the LSE Impact Blog published an article co-authored with the Head of Digital from the University of Sheffield titled:

Twitter and crisis communication: an overview of tools for handling social media in real time

I’m always asked for tips and tricks form academics or those from industry starting out on Twitter and other social media platforms. So I thought I’d collate my responses into 5 points.

I draw on principles covered in the Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users which is a really good read for anyone thinking of building a profile on social media. In no particular order here are 5 tips:

• Pick a relevant screen name and/or Twitter user handle. I would suggest using your name and including it as your ‘@’ handle e.g., @JohnSmith.

• The overall look of your profile is very important as the users visiting will make a snap judgement with the information you provide, and the image that you portray. I’d say scrap the long paragraphs and communicate key points.

• You need a good profile picture, it has to look professional, and it has to be of your face. Stay away from poor quality pictures and if necessary hire a professional to take a picture. Make the picture the brand and use the same picture across social media platforms.

• If possible, have a blog and/or website unique to yourself that you list across your social media platforms. Produce content relevant to your discipline that can be shared and linked back to you.Examine what is in the media and see if you can draw a link from the work in your discipline either for a tweet or a blog post.

• Follow users within your discipline, and remember to engage with other Twitter users rather than solely post your own content. If you like, retweet, or share another users post then they are likely to reciprocate.

• Produce regular content and produce a content sharing plan. Alternatively, you can use a social media managing platform such as Hootsuite or Buffer. When considering what to share remember that visual posts gain more engagement, and tweets with hashtags will attract a larger number of views and impressions. The time of sharing a post will affect how many impressions and engagements it will gain, so don’t be afraid of sharing similar content throughout the day. Below is a useful table adapted from the Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users:

Table 1 – Recommended number of posts per social media platform

Platform	Casual users	Hard core users
Facebook	1-2	3-4
LinkedIn	1	4
Twitter	8-12	25

These tricks will certainly increase engagement on your social media accounts.

One of my clients Gary Spence, Managing Director of Hybrid Supply Chain Ltd, was able to increase his social media statistics significantly within a matter of weeks by following this methodology:

Figure 1 – Increases in Gary’s social media statistics within 1 month

Do you want help running a professional social media account? Drop me a message for a quote!

References 

Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Andrew Latchford, from the VP Group Ltd, for inspiring this post.