Social Media Watch Assignment

10 Things I Learned About Science Communication :

1. Is it really science? Science related accounts are on the rise in social media, however one study found that only about 3/10 posts feature new scientific discoveries (Pew Research Center, 2017). 21% of posts were stories that contained practical tips from science, and 16% of posts were ads or promotions for programs and events.
2. Science pages are the new rage. 26% of social media users in the U.S say they follow a science themed social media page, while 33% say social media is a useful and important platform for receiving scientific news, and 44% say they see scientific news on social media that they otherwise would not have seen somewhere else (Pew Research Center, 2017). Social media is an important tool for spreading awareness about scientific news as it reaches audiences it normally would if the only source was from scientific journals.
3. Visuals > Words. Another thing that the Pew research center found in their study is that there was higher engagement seen on posts focused on visuals with little additional information. Social media is succinct and a post will lose the viewer’s attention the longer and convoluted a post is, especially if it contains a lot of scientific jargon.
4. Videos are a highly effective way of spreading scientific news. What people love way more than reading about something, is being told about something in a fun video that utilizes animations, graphics, music, and visual demonstrations to help illustrate a concept. I know personally, there have been several times in my academic career that I have used videos on Youtube to help better understand a concept.
5. Twitter is the new Facebook. A Pew Research Center survey from 2018 found that more science pages were relatively more active on Twitter than Facebook. I think the appeal of Twitter is its simplicity. There is a 280 character limit that forces people to be straight forward and simple. However, this can be dangerous when someone stops at a tweet and fails to delve further into a scientific study to understand the smaller details that put a study’s findings into perspective.
6. Social media made for you. With the rise in popularity in social media, algorithms help to individualize what you see based on your past behaviors. This can be a great way for someone to receive news about topics they are personally involved with or are interested in, without having to sift through unrelated or uninteresting news.
7. But is that always such a good thing? Though it can be great that what you see is what you want to see, it may not be exactly everything you need to see. This shuts off an individual from receiving news that may broaden their opinions by offering for discussion and interaction from a variety of people.
8. How can you communicate online? There are a variety of methods that can be used to communicate your opinions or news, and each way serves to deliver it in a slightly different manner. Websites are more credible and in-depth, however your audience will generally have more scientific knowledge and be more open to scientific news. Blogs are more casual, and slightly more concise than websites. Blogs allow you to discuss, rather than just naming off straight facts like on a website. The audience is similar to websites as they generally have previous scientific knowledge and are interested in the subject. Social media is the most personal, and reaches all types of audiences, however many important, defining details get lost with the succinctness and a majority of your audience most likely does not have previous knowledge.
9. Can you trust them? Credibility is huge in accepting scientific discoveries. Sometimes, what you read on social media gets a bad name for not being credible enough. I think it is important to do your own research and find the actual sources and studies used in a social media post and read the article for yourself to see what these findings actually mean.
10. Sharing is caring. At the end of the day, social media is a great tool to spread the word about something and to create a platform to discuss scientific findings and to interact and build relationships with diverse individuals from the global community.

Social Media Star of the Week!

• American Diabetes Association
• 140.6K followers on Twitter, 742.9K likes on Facebook, 29.1K followers on Instagram
• Joined Twitter in March 2009
• Run by the organization
• A brief scan of their most recent tweets show posts that contain tips on how to manage diabetes, promotions for their webinars and apps, and news articles relevant to diabetes awareness and treatments.
• Something innovative is their interaction with different diabetes focused accounts. Something I personally think they can do better is to include more primary sources of scientific articles.