Breakout Summary Report
ARM/ASR User and PI Meeting
10 - 13 June 2019
12 June 2019
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
40
Hanna Goss
Breakout Description
Scientists have begun to embrace social media and blogging as viable tools for communicating research and keeping abreast of advancements in their fields, as well as building their scientific reputations. This session will look at the value of scientists using digital communication to enhance interest and engagement in their field campaigns. Jerome Fast will share how he used blogging as part of his HI-SCALE campaign and Matt Shupe will discuss his plans to use social media and blogging as a part of the upcoming MOSAiC campaign. Hanna Goss, ARM Public Information Officer, will provide tips on how scientists can effectively use these tools as a part of their campaigns to interact with each other and with the global community.Main Discussion
After introductions, Goss asked how many currently use social media or blog; about half of the audience raised their hand.
Platforms they use: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit. One was blogging, but gave it up.
Goss shared data from a 2014 survey of AAAS scientists by the Pew Research Center on percentages of scientists who talk to the public.
Why is it important for scientists to talk to the public? Goss shared a 2017 survey that shows 81 percent of Americans do not know a living scientist. We need to bridge that gap, and social media can help us do it.
Goss shared research on why scientists are embracing social media, as well as her own experience on how social media has helped advance science. Part of the value is in amplifying the number of people who see the research. For instance, Science has 3.5 million followers on Facebook.
There was also a discussion of why scientists might not want to use social media. In addition to the reasons Goss noted, the audience suggested malicious accounts and the consequences of giving big corporations access to personal information.
Goss presented a case study on the HI-SCALE—Holistic Interactions of Shallow Clouds, Aerosols, and Land-Ecosystems—campaign. In addition to a summary of the campaign, she shared the success of blogging and ARM social media for that campaign. Over two intensive operating periods there were five blogs, 21 posts on Twitter, and 17 Facebook posts.
Jerome Fast, the HI-SCALE principal investigator, shared his Lessons Learned, which included:
- Photos can tell a campaign story.
- Social media can enhance collaboration with those who are not in the field.
- Blogs and other social media posts can remind you of observations you may forget a year later or that may not end up in a daily science log.
- Posts can point to related papers and highlights.
A second case study was presented on the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) campaign. Goss shared plans for using social media with this campaign, and how social media is changing how scientists interact with each other and the global community.
Matt Shupe, who is the MOSAiC principal investigator, shared his thoughts on MOSAiC and why social media is important, which included:
- Just 13 tweets so far, starting two months ago, well in advance of the campaign, and have already drawn in 558 followers.
- The social media part is a challenge, but he sees the value.
- Social media is a way for scientists to communicate science in their own words. Media is not always “a perfect filter.”
- Doing it will help scientists get better at communicating.
- One challenge for MOSAiC will be different national standards for social media.
- Good opportunity for educating the public. “There’s a huge opportunity to educate people and reach the next generation of scientists.”
Goss then presented Social Media Best Practices and information on Twitter and Facebook as platforms. She then shared information on blogging.
- Blogging is a challenging time commitment, but a great way to be a thought leader and get information out there. Keep it brief, but “you can fully explain concepts in a blog.”
- Keep blogs visual and simple. ARM communications can help.
Some takeaways included:
- Present college graduates have never known a world without social media.
- A hiring committee may be looking at your social media.
- As few as 1,000 followers is still impactful.
- You don’t have to post daily or have more than one platform to have an impact.
- Social media is the future of where science communications is going.
Goss shared resources if members are interested.
One question at Q&A: If others are using bots to gain followers, should we?
Goss' answer: Gain followers without bots to demonstrate integrity.
Key Findings
Even if you rarely post, following scientists, labs, societies, journals, and journalists creates a curated list of fresh discoveries, events, and discussions.
A scientist with about 1,000 Twitter followers reaches a broad audience, including educational organizations, media, and the public.
Some academic institutions are starting to reward scientists for engagement—the Mayo Clinic includes social media scholarship activities in their criteria for academic advancement.
Issues
It is easy to post things you wish you hadn’t.
You could receive public criticism—some could be vicious.
Posts last forever—could be taken out of context or shared long after you update your opinion.
It seems time consuming.
Discomfort (fear of stigma) with self-promotion.
Fear of over-simplifying results to the point of inaccuracy.
Fear of being “scooped” on your science.
Worry about ethics of other scientists.
May become obsessed.
Needs
Find the time—may need to make it part of the schedule.
Encourage blogging and posting by people who naturally have an interest—guidance is needed to ensure right messaging.
Share most of what goes on in a campaign, particularly photos of activities—but don’t give away details that you may use in a journal article.
Social media facilitates rapid dissemination of interesting results, as opposed to several years later down the road—initial findings could be proven wrong once other information becomes available.
Get feedback from collaborators or scientists on what would be useful in near-real time; i.e., respond to a flight plan or preliminary data, get feedback that would help better design the next series of measurements.
Be familiar with the platforms—there are technical limitations.
Get ARM Communications support—help in managing the communications process is an advantage.
Use it as a way to document things that worked or didn’t work to review later when memory fades.
Share papers that come out of the campaign in the future.