To tweet or not to tweet

By Tennie Videler

I missed the last WiSE Up workshop but know online presence was part of it.

Here is my take on using twitter, which I use in a pretty low level way for my job. I’ve not used twitter to find out what celebrities have for breakfast but rather for finding out what is happening in my work sphere, build a presence and ask questions. I really think you need to start using it to find it useful….. Key is finding the right people to ‘follow’, by searching, for example using hashtags (#word). Once you’ve found a group of people to follow, look at who they follow too. Some people make recommendations, especially on Fridays (follow Friday or FF in twitter speak). These days twitter recommends people for you to follow too based on your searches and ‘tweets’.

To raise your profile you will want people to follow you too. Using hashtags will make you easier to find if people are searching for that particular hashtag. People will follow you if you write interesting stuff. ‘Retweeting’ is perfectly acceptable, an easy way to maintain presence and a good way of information sharing. Answering people’s questions raises your profile and the ability to ask them makes twitter such a useful resource.

My recommendations for people to follow on twitter

For women in science:

@camawise (obviously) @CTFuentes @steminist @vivien_hodges ‏@mcrgirlgeeks @UKRC @AtheneDonald

For enjoyment of science:

Ben Goldacre @ScienceIsVital : @rpg7twit @jennyrohn @TimandraHarknes

@edyong209 who blogs at http://flavors.me/edyong

‏@science_goddess who blogs at http://excelforeducators.blogspot.com

Careers, especially science ones:

UKRSAvitae @MyScienceCareer

@BiosciCareer This is Sarah Blackford who gave a great workshop at the WiSE Up career day.

@pigironjoe He is also a prolific blog writer: http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.posterous.com/

He thinks about careers a lot and has a background in researcher development.

This should get you started…. if you are more experienced at this than I am- correct me here or give your additional tips!