Social media provide a forum to promote your research to a wide audience and increase the likelihood of your publications being cited. The more links there are to your publications from different web sites, the higher your publications will appear on search engine results pages.
Remember! You don't have to use every social media platform. Just select one that suits your needs.
Other tools to help with promotion
A free tool that helps researchers effectively use social media to promote and share their research for greater research impact by a wider audience.
The A to Z of social media for academia
Has a detailed list and brief description of social media tools and selected examples of how the tools work.
Share your publications with others in an international forum, create discussion about your work with other subject specialists, connect to others doing similar research.
| Academia.edu |
Platform for academics to share, discuss and promote their research. Over 35 million academics have signed up. |
| ResearchGate |
“ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators.” |
 Tip Before uploading full text publications to these sites check the publisher's website to ensure you are not infringing copyright.
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Citation Management Tools are able to store and manage citations to scholarly works you've been reading. Some of them also have the added feature of being academic social networking sites. You can join research specific interest groups, and share and discuss your research.
| Mendeley |
A free downloadable citation management tool with online storage free up to 2 GB. (Additional storage space available for a fee). Features include:
You can create research groups or join a research group to collaborate with your colleagues and share your research either publicly or in private.
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| CiteULike | A free tool to help you manage and share citations with fellow researchers. |
Blogs
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Blogs rate highly in search engine page rankings so they're an effective way to promote your publications. Write a blog and include links to your research. As blogs can be accessed by the general public, they are a good way to widen your audience. Take a look at some examples of researchers' blogs. |
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| Blogger |
Create your own blog. Choose from a selection of templates. |
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| Researchblogging |
Blog with other researchers about peer-reviewed research and the latest developments in your field. |
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Tip Need some tips on writing a blog? Guides on how to write a blog for researchers are available on the web, for example How to promote your research through blogging.
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Microblogs
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Tweet links to your articles and other research publications or to new blog posts about your research. If appropriate, include a picture. It is more likely to be re-tweeted than just text. Set up a # (hashtag) so you can start up a discussion, share your publications. E.g. #applied linguistics Take a look at: Tweet your research: a how-to guide https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/tweet-your-research/  |
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| Tumblr | You can attach videos, photos, links, and more about your research and add a short text message. E.g. linguistics |
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Video/slide sharing sites
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