Consider using social media to promote your research because 1) reader response can demonstrate interest in your scholarly work long before citations to your publications appear, and 2) promotion may increase the chances of being cited in the future. If you're hesitant, see the readings below for the pros and cons of entering the world of Twitter and Facebook.
One important benefit of social media is that altmetrics such as views, followers, readers and more can be monitored to show your impact in a field. See Altmetrics Defined to learn more about these measures and read about the Altmetric Donut to find out which social media are tracked by this major altmetrics company. Be sure to determine whether your department accepts altmetrics as evidence of your scholarly work's value before putting a lot of time and effort into social media.
Are you ready to start? The free Enago Academy is a good resource for blog postings about "Using Social Media to Effectively Promote Your Research" and related topics. See also the Social Media Author Guidelines created by Oxford University Press, which are good advice for all academic authors.
A word of caution : You must conform to restrictions set by copyright, licensing and privacy laws when you post items. For example, you may not post an article you published in a journal if you have assigned all copyrights to the publisher. Talk with our Copyright Librarian whenever you have a question in these areas.
Pros and cons of social media:
