Guides: Library Research Support: Social Media for Researchers

Tips for getting started

Social media is a powerful tool to share your research, connect with peers, and help you to reach wider audiences. Used strategically, it can increase the visibility, accessibility and impact of your work.

Learning how to use social media tools effectively and creating content does take time, so consider how much of a commitment you can make before you begin.

If you have decided to give it a go, here are some general tips for getting started:

1. Choose the Right Platform(s)

You don’t need to be everywhere. Pick one or two platforms that best fit your goals and audience. You might consider:

LinkedIn – consider for professional visibility and to encourage collaborations
BlueSky / X (formerly Twitter) – share updates and promote research to colleagues across disciplines and for engagement beyond academia
YouTube / TikTok / Instagram – try visual storytelling to reach wider or younger audiences?
ResearchGate / Academia.edu – social networks specifically for academics/researchers

2. Set Your Goals

Decide what you want to achieve. Social media could help you to, for example:

Share/discover research findings and publications.
Recruit participants or collaborators.
Engage with policymakers, funders, practitioners and/or the wider public.
Build your personal research profile.

3. Know Your Audience

Tailor your message for who you want to reach:

Academics – specialist language and references are fine.
General public – keep it simple, avoid jargon, explain the “so what?” of your research.
Stakeholders or policymakers – be concise and clear about the importance of your research.

4. Share Content Effectively

Tell a story – highlight the impact of your research (e.g. human, societal or other).
Use visuals – images, infographics, and videos grab attention. Always add alt text for accessibility.
Be consistent – post regularly, if possible, rather than in bursts.
Post links to your (preferably open access) publications and that include the DOI to make it easier for others to find, read, access and cite. Links may be open access via the publisher or via our institutional repository, Durham Research Online (DRO).
Live-sharing work during academic conferences can boost discovery by people who couldn’t attend in person.

5. Build Connections

Social media thrives on interactions:

Tag collaborators, colleagues and organisations.
Comment on, “like” and share others’ posts.
Add your social media links to presentations, emails and events.

6. Grow Your Network

Follow colleagues, funders, professional bodies and other relevant people or organisations. Look at who they follow and expand outwards. Social media could help you reach beyond your existing academic circles to new audiences.
DRO is on Bluesky (‪@drodurham.bsky.social‬) and LinkedIn (search for the Group: Durham Research Online) and we would love to connect with you there and help to spread the word about your research!‬‬‬

7. Timing your Activity

Do think about timing in how you share information and engage with others.

If sharing messages about your own research:
- Think about what might be the best time to reach your intended audience.
- The early morning or evening, or between 11am and 1pm are often good times to share content.
- But what about reaching audiences in different timezones?
Don't be afraid to repeat key posts at different times over the following days/weeks (although be reasonable and avoid spamming followers)
- You could use #hashtags such as #TBThursday (throw back Thursday) to highlight messages previously shared, or drop your message into different conversations you becomes engaged with.

8. Managing your time and other tools

There are tools available to help you manage your interactions more efficiently. This can be helpful where:

You are working across multiple platforms
You want to post the same message to one or more different profiles or platforms simultaneously
You wish to schedule some posts in advance
You want a single place to view your own activity and interactions.

You could consider:

Using scheduling tools (e.g., Buffer, Hootsuite) to plan posts in advance and avoid distractions. Dedicate short, regular time slots rather than letting social media take over your day. Note that tools like these may have some free to use functionality but may also come with a fee to pay.
IFTTT (or "if this, then that") is a platform hosting numerous 'apps' which you can link to a variety of accounts to automate your activity. This has potential both for saving time but also for data collection for both research and impact- purpose/outreach tracking purposes. This could include:
- automating replies when someone mentions you
- acknowledging and thanking new followers.
- notify you when a new post mentioning a particular hashtag is posted
- automatically post when you add a blog post to a linked blog account.

9. Track your impact

Monitor what works for you:

Use built-in analytics (impressions, likes, shares, comments).
Track engagement with DOIs and use tools like Altmetric (find out more about altmetrics via our Guide)
Adjust your strategy based on what resonates most with your audience.

10. Dealing with negative responses

If faced with negative responses to your posts, decide whether to engage. It may be useful to consider:

Constructive criticism → engage thoughtfully, clarify, or provide evidence.
Misunderstandings → correct gently with clear explanations.
Trolling or abuse → don’t engage. Use block, mute or report functions.

If responses feel overwhelming, speak with a colleague or contact Marketing and Communications for advice.

Marketing and Communications: Using Social Media

Marketing and Communications: Using Social Media Toolkit

The Marketing and Communications Office have developed a range of guides to encourage and empower staff to participate in profile raising activities.

The Social Media Hub highlights a few of the many platforms available, and identifies considerations when deciding which platform would be most appropriate. It also provides tips on getting the most from Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky and X.

Scholarly Collaboration Networks

Why do academics use scholarly collaboration networks?

Reasons many academics use Academic Social Networks (or Scholarly Collaboration Networks (SCNs)) include:

Promoting your own research.
Providing a means for others to get in touch with you (as you may move from institution to institution, and institutional, project group, lab or other email or profile pages may change, or even personal web pages lapse or become difficult to maintain).
Discovering and reading new research.
Sharing your own research publications and other outputs.
Engaging and commenting in online discussions around subjects, methodology and research best practice.
Following (passively) ongoing academic discussions.
Discovering and applying for employment opportunities within and outside of academia.
Data collection for research

ResearchGate

ResearchGate was founded in 2008, and now boasts over 17 million members worldwide. It is free to join, and free to leave, and allows you to create and build on online profile, visible to other academic and commercial researchers, to share knowledge, expertise and scientific outputs. You can see who's been reading and citing your work within ResearchGate, engage in discussions by asking and answering questions, and explore and apply for research jobs advertised within the site.

Tips for using ResearchGate

1. Complete Your Profile

Add a professional photo, clear biography, keywords and affiliations.
A complete profile makes you easier to find in searches.

2. Upload Full Texts (where permitted)

You may share published versions of your authored works if permitted by the publisher:

If your article is open access under a CC BY licence, you can legally upload the published version to ResearchGate.
If it is open access under a Creative Commons licence preventing commercial re-use (e.g. CC BY-NC-ND) you could also be able to upload it (even though ResearchGate in a commercial platform, as you will not be selling or profiting from the work). Note, however, that some publishers may have a different definition of commercial versus non-commercial use, and could object.
For non-open access outputs, check the publisher’s self-archiving policy or your publishing agreement. If you cannot legally upload the published version, you may choose to link to the published version instead and/or consider uploading the accepted manuscript (again, where permitted).

For accepted manuscripts, you may need to familiarise yourself with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. If you have deposited your manuscript in DRO under the terms of the University’s Research Publications Policy for Rights Retention, you may wish to consider downloading this file (with a CC BY licence) and uploading to ResearchGate. You could also consider providing a link to the open access version in DRO (while there is no field to specifically add an external link, you can add this information into the Abstract).

For preprints, check publisher or preprint platform policies.

3. Use DOIs

Always include DOIs, where available, so that your work is easier to discover and cite.

4. Engage with Q&A

Answer questions in your field or start your own discussions. This helps to position you as an expert and increases visibility.

5. Follow & Connect

Follow peers and collaborators.
Interactions (recommending/liking, commenting/responding) keep you visible in their networks.

Academia.edu

A platform to allow researchers to share their research outputs with other academics, with a company mission to "accelerate the world's research," Academia.edu has over 95 million members worldwide, and provides access to over 23 million research papers.

A study published in 2016 suggested that papers made available via Academia.edu attracted on average 16% more citations after one year compared to papers published but not accessible from Academi.edu. This reflects a similar 'citation advantage' reported of many papers made 'open access', but Durham authors should note that Academia.edu is not an open access repository, that making your research paper available via Academia.edu does not meet the open access requirements of most funders, and may breach copyright agreements you have with your publisher.

LinkedIn is an online professional network with over 400 million members worldwide. Whilst ResearchGate and Academia have a strong focus (and membership base) amongst the academic and wider research community, LinkedIn can help you raise your online profile and visibility around your research expertise and output to commercial, public sector and third sector employers, collaborators and potential beneficiaries.

Tips for Promoting your Research on LinkedIn

You may find it useful to read the following on how to optimise your Profile and what to consider when building your connections on LinkedIn - The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your LinkedIn Connections: 12 Strategies That Work

The following offers some tips for promoting your research and research outputs via LinkedIn (note: these tips also work if your preferred platform is Bluesky or X)

1. Start with a Strong Hook

Open your post with a clear, engaging first line (e.g. “Excited to share our new study on…”).
Try posing a question or highlighting a key finding to grab attention.

2. Include Links & DOIs

Always share a link (preferably with a DOI and to an open access version of your work) so others can easily cite or access your work.
Use a URL shortener if space is limited.

3. Explain the “Why”

Don’t just add a link to your paper but also briefly explain what the research is about and why it matters.
Use accessible language and avoid jargon.

4. Use Visuals/Multimedia

Share a figure, infographic, short video, or photo related to your research (always add alt text for accessibility).
Visuals stand out in LinkedIn feeds and can make posts more shareable.

5. Tag & Acknowledge

Tag co-authors, collaborators, institutions or funders.
This not only gives credit but also expands reach as those tagged may re-share.

6. Use Hashtags Wisely

Add 2–4 relevant hashtags (e.g., #Research, #AI, #ClimateChange, #HealthPolicy).
LinkedIn hashtags help people outside your network find your post.

7. Share at the Right Time

Some research suggests that you should post during working hours on weekdays but experiment to see what works best for you and your audience.
Align your posts with research milestones e.g. publication, media coverage or conference presentations.

8. Add Value Beyond the Link

Summarise key insights in bullet points or a short thread-style post.
End with a call-to-action (e.g., “Read the open access version via DRO here”, “We’d love to hear how this applies in your field”).

9. Engage with Comments

Respond to questions or constructive feedback to encourage discussion.
Engagement boosts your post’s visibility in LinkedIn’s algorithm.

10. Pin & Showcase

Pin a key post to your profile for ongoing visibility.
Use the Featured Section to highlight papers, presentations or media coverage.

11. Mix Personal with Professional (if you want to!)

If you feel comfortable, share not only papers but also behind-the-scenes stories – perhaps challenges overcome, fieldwork photos or lessons learned.
Personal touches may help to make your research relatable and memorable.

12. Track Engagement

Use built-in analytics (impressions, reposts, link clicks) to see what resonates.
Adapt your style based on what your audience engages with most.

Kudos

Kudos is a free to use platform for academic authors. It claims to be "the only platform dedicated to dissemination across the multiple networks and channels available to researchers for sharing information about their work," and works with publishers, universities, research funders, metrics providers and commercial and not-for-profit organisations to help researchers build and track impact for their work.

Kudos provides a simple toolkit to support authors in communicating their research to a broad audience, using plain language and recommending appropriate communication channels.

Social Media for Researchers: Resources in the Library

Annette Leßmöllmann, Marcelo Dascal and Thomas Gloning (2020) Science Communication Handbooks of Communication Science [HoCS], 17 ((De Gruyter Mouton, Boston/Berlin)