Scientific communities: How to follow the right people on Twitter

Following the right people on Twitter can help develop supportive and beneficial communities, say speakers at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo.

Jon Tennant, a paleontologist and avid social media user shares his tips on how to make the most of a social media community on Twitter.

Jon Tennant’s four top tips:

  1. Identify learned societies in your field and find out who they follow. These people will be high-profile scientists in that particular speciality.
  2. Tweet at conferences and you’ll quickly find that people follow you back, especially those who cannot attend.
  3. Curate your feeds into lists. For example, develop a list appropriate to science communication, or on microbiology. You can be as specific as you like
  4. If you don’t like what someone does/says on Twitter, you can unfollow them.

Further reading:

Scientific communities: Build your own

Scientific communities: Membership at learned societies

Scientific communities: From Twitter to paper