Social media: A guide for researchers (Constantina Katsari case study)

Constantina Katsari

Currently I am a Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Leicester. Throughout my career I basically followed the academic path. I worked in various countries like Greece, Ireland, Germany and the UK.

When I want to discover information about my work I usually use online resources, the library, museums and when my research is in an advanced stage I discuss with a colleague. When I want to publish or disseminate my research and ideas I use academic journals, books, conference presentations, academic.edu and my personal website/blog.

I tend to use blogging like Wordpress and Posterous, microblogging, social bookmarking, writing tools like Google Docs and social/ professional networking tools like Facebook. I don’t believe any of these networking tools is important in my life in general however, my blog and Facebook are very important to my professional life and research.

The reason that made me use social media tools initially was because I needed to advertise my discipline and my work more widely.

The thing that discouraged me from using social media in the first place were the rumours that my exposure will have negative effects. The rumours were not entirely unfounded, as I feel very vulnerable sometimes. I guess that always happens when you are on the spotlight.

The training I received for the use of social media was an online marketing course and I did a lot of personal research before I started using social media tools.

I don’t believe that social media helped me become a better researcher, they have helped me though to popularise my work a little bit more.

I believe the major hurdle in the adoption of social tools is the lack of time. Also, the university does not recognise them and colleagues sometimes are causing troubles.

Constantina Katsari’s blog: Love of History http://constantinakatsari.wordpress.com

The main project page for Social media: A guide for researchers is here.