Whether you’re looking to keep up with the latest research, connect with colleagues, find new collaborators, grab the attention of the news media or communicate directly with the public, Twitter can help get you there.
But with 500 million tweets sent daily, how can you break through the noise? Psychologists who have successful Twitter followings offer five essential tips:
1. Find your people
If you’re just getting started, follow people you already know through your professional contacts—such as your university colleagues or members of professional associations. “In my professional organization, there are many folks on Twitter, and I followed all of them and they followed me,” says Gary Bennett, PhD, a psychology and neuroscience researcher at Duke University. “That was a built-in audience.”
From there, move on to colleagues you’ve met at meetings, researchers whose work you admire and people you want to collaborate with.
“Twitter is a great big watercooler that can be very playful and friendly,” says Linda Skitka, PhD, who researches political and social psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has met several collaborators on Twitter. During a Twitter conversation about the psychology of politics, Skitka and another researcher broke off into direct messages, private conversations not viewable by other users. Those conversations led them to launch surveys on the 2016 U.S. presidential election that resulted in data they’ve presented at several conferences.
2. Find your voice
Once you’ve identified an audience, determine what kinds of information you want to share, whether it’s a new publication, a job posting or an explanation of your research to nonexperts. “I receive pretty large grants to do science, and I feel a responsibility to share what I’ve learned with the public,” says Bennett, who designs digital tools to prevent overeating. “Social media happens to be the most effective, easiest way to do that.”
Alfiee Breland-Noble, PhD, founder of the mental health nonprofit the AAKOMA (African American Knowledge Optimized for Mindfully Healthy Adolescents) Project and host of the mental health podcast “Couched in Color With Dr. Alfiee,” feels this responsibility, too. “You have a duty to ensure that the work you do reaches the people who need it,” she says of AAKOMA’s efforts to address the mental health needs of young African Americans with culturally relevant interventions. “One of the ways you’re going to do that in 2020 is speaking to young people on platforms they use, with language that resonates with them.”
Carl Hart, PhD, a psychologist at Columbia University, takes a slightly different tack when he uses social media to communicate his research on psychoactive drugs. “First translate your work—write popular articles, op-eds and books—and then when you put that on social media, it will have more traction,” says Hart, who says journalists following him on Twitter have seen his posts of his op-eds, leading to national media stories and podcast guest spots. “If you’re just posting your papers, using the same convoluted, uninteresting way of talking about your findings, nobody’s going to pay attention.”
Before she became president of Barnard College, psychologist Sian Beilock, PhD, focused her tweets on her cognitive science research. Now, she mostly uses social media to show that scientists can be real people. “I see a role for me as a leader, a scientist and a mother and want to communicate that you don’t have to just be one or the other,” she says. “So, among other things, I post pictures of me and my 8-year-old on Instagram and Twitter and how I screw up as a mom, which happens a lot.”
3. Expand your audience
Cultivating an audience and trying to understand to whom your work appeals is really important, says Bennett, who follows (and has been followed back by) patient advocates, citizen scientists and journalists on Twitter. “I’m constantly finding new audiences. This is something that’s never finished.”
Like Bennett and Hart, Breland-Noble uses Twitter to promote her work to the press. “One of my first big media opportunities was on ‘PBS NewsHour,’ and they found me through Twitter,” says Breland-Noble, who posts thoughts about trending mental health issues with hashtags like #depressiondisparities and #BlackTeenMentalHealth. “I was tweeting about my research and the need for diverse voices talking nationally about psychology issues that are universal.”
4. Find like-minded folks
While hashtags like #AcademicTwitter will get you in on conversations relevant to anyone in academia, following specific researchers or thought leaders in niche areas will help Twitter’s algorithms fill your feed with posts most relevant to your areas of interest.
“I thought I was keeping good track of the literature, but on Twitter I find out about lots of papers that I otherwise would not have been aware of,” says Skitka, who also uses the platform to find out about grants, meetings and other professional opportunities. She recommends following @NSF (National Science Foundation), @SPSSI (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) and @TempletonWorld (Templeton World Charity Foundation).
Bennett agrees. “As a discovery mechanism, it’s been instrumental,” he says. He also uses Twitter to test out new ideas with colleagues and to get, and give, support. “Academic Twitter groups have become very helpful in supporting people through research challenges, finding funding and even navigating training and mentoring issues,” he adds.
5. Protect yourself
Don’t forget that Twitter can be a minefield that requires you to be cautious about your postings. “I have a rule that if I question whether I should post something that could violate my professional interests, then I shouldn’t post it,” Bennett says.
Twitter users also have to be prepared for blowback. “A big part of an academic researcher’s career is bracing yourself for rejection,” Skitka says. “Likewise, you’ll have to steel yourself to the possibility that, at times, people may disagree with you, sometimes quite vehemently, and given it’s Twitter, quite publicly.”
How to handle criticism? “I respond to posts offered in good faith even if they are critical,” Skitka says. “But I generally find the best policy is to ignore people explicitly looking to argue instead of mutually listening and engaging.”
