[ANPPOM-Lista] How to Not be Boring on Academic Social Media

[Carlos Palombini]

 How to Not be Boring on Academic Social Media
February 26, 2016
<http://sasconfidential.com/2016/02/26/how-to-not-be-boring-on-academic-social-media/>
/ SAS Confidential <http://sasconfidential.com/author/sasconfidential/>

*Author: @TheLitCritGuy <https://twitter.com/TheLitCritGuy>*
*Original: TheLitCritGuy.com
<http://thelitcritguy.com/2016/02/24/social-media-and-academics/>*

For many academics it may seem that the rise of social media is yet another
means of potential procrastination. Yet increasingly, certain academics
have turned to social media not just as a way of accessing entertainment or
as a tool for networking but as a means of engaging audiences in a brand
new way.

Perhaps the most famous and well-known is @NeinQuarterly, an anonymous
account that blends aphorisms, jokes and an expert level knowledge of
German literature and culture to produce a fascinating and hugely popular
account. Started by a former professor of German literature,
@NeinQuarterly’s unique aphoristic and satirical style now appears in print
in German and Dutch newspapers and last year saw the publication of *Nein:
A Manifesto, *a book collecting his finest material that’s been published
in multiple languages. On YouTube there is aside from John and Hank Green’s
famous ‘Crash Course,’ PhilosophyTube, an account started from nothing just
a few years ago that now has around 60,000 subscribers following their
videos on Masters level philosophy.

Personally, my own anonymous account started for far less career-minded
reasons. Having finished my Master’s degree and with a twitter account that
I didn’t really use, I decided to dedicate it to talking about the thinkers
and ideas that had intrigued me during Masters study and provoked me into
applying for a PhD. I decided to cover literary theorists and critics who
had been only briefly touched upon during my undergraduate degree. However,
after starting the account I was convinced it would be largely ignored yet
after tweeting to a few more widely followed accounts it picked up a
surprising number of engaged and highly curious followers. Almost
immediately, issues such as a posting schedule, what to talk about, and
even the limits of my own knowledge became something that had to be dealt
with. With a vocal and supportive group of followers I was forced to honest
about my own limitations, my own inexperience, and allow myself to discover
the liberating freedom of telling followers that I don’t know; that I would
love to know more about something (something almost unthinkable in the high
pressure environment of PhD research). The pressures of normal life meant
that often the account became deeply personal as well as something academic
and this seemed to only further the connection between me and the great
groups of people who followed the account.

On top of this, anonymity comes with certain benefits that using social
media with a name and a face doesn’t carry. From behind the “persona” of
TheLitCritGuy my opinions don’t need to be run against what my institution
or its managers might deem to be acceptable. Anonymity also allows the
freedom for a kind of character to emerge. Behind anonymity, anger at the
conditions of higher education for ECRs and students can be expressed more
forcefully, and I also get to mash up jokes with theory without worrying
colleagues will take me less seriously.

For academics who wish to take to social media and use it in a way beyond
networking or sharing cat videos there is no sure fire way of doing things,
but in the course of my own experiment there are a few things that I’ve
found to have worked.

*Firstly, have a distinctive voice*. Anonymous accounts do not necessarily
have a name or a face, but they depend upon having a distinctive
perspective to offer. From Twitter the pseudonymous accounts
@EthicistForHire and @CrankyEthicist from the name alone, immediately
offers potential followers an insight into their account and what they are
like.

*Secondly, have a purpose.* One of the most successful anonymous accounts
in #AcademicTwitter, @AcademicsSay posts collections of jokes that connect
really strongly with academics – jokes about coffee, about being overworked
and the ever present catchphrase that ‘you should be writing.’ These highly
sharable posts always keep the account highly focused and with a clear
sense of purpose allowing it to grow to being followed by hundreds of
thousands of people.

*Thirdly, find your audience. *Rather than just post into the void, the
best academic accounts use the tools of social media to find an interested
audience. Most notably, there are hashtags like #twitterstorians, where
historians post and organise their thoughts, allowing an audience who want
to engage with historians to find them. I always try and organise my own
posting under #TheoryTime, allowing followers to keep up with what I’m
talking about and catch up on topics they may have missed.

*Fourth, expand.* Whilst my own twitter account was successful, I quickly
encountered the limitations of the form. I decided to expand my account
into a research blog, as well as using the platform I built on twitter to
write on new websites, bringing @TheLitCritGuy to a much wider audience.

*Finally, connect.* Whilst people follow an account or watch a YouTube
channel to gain knowledge, using social media allows for academia to become
more personally relatable – rather than a hierarchy of a teacher with
students, twitter becomes a space of conversation and mutual education.
Whilst I try and keep the important details of my life private from my
account, a few personal details, personal opinions, and replies to
followers makes the account more vibrant, more interesting and much more
fun for those following.

It is this that makes anonymous accounts so effective too – outside of the
structures, rules and roles of university networking, the anonymous account
can become a place where academic researchers get to connect directly with
an audience. Impact becomes something more than just a metric as people get
to connect with academics beyond the realm of university organised public
engagement events. Furthermore, this use of social media allows the public
to see what life as an academic can be like, in all of its good and bad
points.

Behind the anonymity of a nameless, faceless account I’ve shared some of
the struggles of being an early career researcher, news about the state of
the wider UK HE environment and the sheer joy of teaching as well as
sharing and talking about my own research and intellectual passions. Whilst
anonymous accounts bring a certain degree of freedom, there is the pressing
awareness that my account won’t necessarily benefit my career within the
university system. However, as more academics take to social media, using
anonymous accounts allows for a new kind of creative, flexible academic to
emerge, more closely linked with the public rather than embedded within the
ivory towers of the university system.

I’ve received countless tweets, Facebook messages, and emails from people
across the world, who, through various pressures felt they couldn’t pursue
their own passion for literature and theory – needing a job, or dealing
with their children they feel like they’ve missed out on a swathe of
knowledge and it’s a genuine privilege to answer the questions and learn
from them. Whether it be emailing economists about Foucault or letting a
nursing student know more about phenomenology using social media has shown
me that beyond the limits of the university classroom, people are curious
and searching for new ways to be engaged and to learn. Social media can
change how we teach and spread knowledge beyond the limits of the
university and through anonymity academics might well find the freedom to
connect with the public like never before.
http://sasconfidential.com/2016/02/26/how-to-not-be-boring-on-academic-social-media/

-- 
carlos palombini, ph.d. (dunelm)
professor de musicologia ufmg
professor colaborador ppgm-unirio
www.proibidao.org
ufmg.academia.edu/CarlosPalombini <http://goo.gl/KMV98I>
www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Palombini2
scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=YLmXN7AAAAAJ
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