Next week (18 June 2014) the Social Scholar is back with a case study seminar focused on the AHRC Science in Culture Theme. Using this theme as a casestudy, Dot Fallon and Abhay Adhikari will explore how social media can be used to create impact and engagement for research projects. This session will provide practical insights into how to use social media to build knowledge networks and share project news. We sat down with both speakers to find out a little more.
SAS: Hello Dot and Abhay. Thank you very much for agreeing to talk with us. Before we begin can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?
Dot: I’m the Project Administrator for the AHRC Science in Culture Theme working along the Theme Leadership Fellow, Professor Barry C Smith. I’m based in the School of Advanced Study. As part of my role I’ve organised a number of events including an Ignite event at the Natural History Museum. I also maintain the Science in Culture Theme website www.sciculture.ac.uk and run the twitter account @AHRCSciculture.
Abhay: I am an independent digital strategist and work on culture change, campaign and communications projects with local government, media and culture sectors. I am interested in how individuals and organisations define a voice and context for their digital identities. Most of my work involves using social media to create opportunities for online and offline participation. This was our focus for the Science in Culture on social media as well. You can find me on twitter as @gopaldass and my website is www.DhyaanDesign.com
SAS: You both have extensive experience in using social media and, it would seem, from quite different backgrounds. Why do you think Social Media is useful?
Dot: Social media offers the opportunity to build an engaged network of researchers and share project information quickly and effectively. It’s also a great news source and an essential way of keeping up to date with current issues in the humanities.
Abhay: Social media is an excellent resource to create meaningful impact and build knowledge networks. Social tools can also help you discover new thinking, share ideas and opinions and raise your profile. And once you have clarity and purpose you can engage online communities to work with you or alongside you on interesting projects.
SAS: That is very much the theme and focus that we are after for the Social Scholar seminar. The series is here as a place to share ideas and learn from one another, very much like social media itself. I guess that brings us to the event itself. At 1pm on Wednesday 18th June you will be talking to us about the project. Could you just tell us a little more about what we can expect?
Dot and Abhay: We’ll present a few case studies at the Social Scholar session to show in a practical way how we’ve used Social media over the past 8 months to build a community around the AHRC Science in Culture Theme.
We hope that the AHRC Science in Culture Theme case study can illustrate how to incorporate social media engagement into academic events and build a network of researchers. The project is still a work in progress so comments are welcome on how we can make more impact.
SAS: Thank you Dot and Abhay for your time. This session of the Social Scholar is titled Creating impact: Using social networks to build knowledge networks. We look forward to seeing you there.
To attend this event please RSVP via Eventbrite. Full details can be found on the SAS events system. The Social Scholar is a FREE event held by the School of Advanced Study every month. Please also follow us on Twitter @SASNews hashtag #socialscholar.