X-for-Reserach

A guide to using Twitter effectively for research: stay updated on relevant papers, increase visibility for your work, and build a professional network.

Twitter for Research

0. Why Use Twitter?

Stay Updated on New Papers

Twitter’s recommendation algorithm is highly effective for discovering relevant papers and discussions. By tailoring your feed, you can consistently access cutting-edge research updates.

Increase Exposure for Your Work

Publishing research on Twitter can significantly boost visibility, inviting more engagement and discussions about your work within the research community.

Build a Strong Profile

A strong profile attracts relevant followers and helps build credibility. Actively engaging and sharing high-quality content on your profile can solidify your presence in the research space.

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1. The very beginning

Character Limits

Twitter limits each tweet to 280 characters. Researchers often use Twitter Threads—series of connected tweets—to share insights from papers or detailed content.

Fill the Information

There is a picture, BIO, your handle and name can be changed (pick a short handle and after you have some fame don't change it). Filling it makes for a more serious look.

Follow Relevant Research trends

1. Engage with Content You Want to See

   • Regularly interact with posts in your field.
   • Avoid irrelevant content by manually marking posts as "Not interested in this post" via the three-dot menu on the top right.

2. Follow Relevant Researchers

   • Once your profile is set up with a professional image and bio, follow researchers in your field.
   • Check followers of teammates or lab members for additional connections. Many will follow you back, enriching your feed and professional network.

3. Unfollow! If you see unvaluable things in your feed, be rutheless, the feed is not a oneway street, let the algorithm know what you want to see, remove people you do not want to see, (block them if they keep popping up, or unfollow those that reshare their content).

Get Exposure

1. Publish Your Work (Papers, Blog Posts)
   Regularly share your published papers, blog posts, or other written work on Twitter to increase visibility within your research community. This can help attract followers interested in your expertise and encourage discussions around your work. Pinning key publications to the top of your profile can also keep them prominent.
2. Share Thoughts and Insights on Topics in Your Field
   Share your thoughts on trending topics, recent publications, or interesting findings in your field to engage your followers. By sharing your perspective and highlighting areas in your intrest, you will establish your voice as an active contributor to ongoing conversations in your area of expertise.
3. You are the product. What value can you bring to the world? Are there specific things you value when you see them? Are there things that are easy for you to write there and others (from the right community) care about?
4. No rules. Forget about formalisms, what works is what people enjoy reading, it can be fun to read, deep but without the uninteresting parts, funny, just the bottom lines, argumentative.
5. Followers are people. When you connect with someone personally they are much more likely to see you as a human being (to be followed) than as a number. So comment, DM and talk to people.
6. People Follow back. People especially at your +- followers counts (e.g. up to 10 times more followers?) are likely to follow back if you follow them, and even more so if you followed them after interaction. This is a cynical view of what following is, right? It might ruin your [feed](## Follow Relevant Research trends), so make sure to clean your feed too if it was a mistake.
7. If you have a specific resource you care about, onetime release is not enough. Keep updating, do it cross platform etc. No amount of virality once convinces all the users.

Read more

Write Better content

1. Make the claim short and clear and appealing (no "walls of text" at least at first tweet)
2. Make a hook. At the first words of the first tweet the user makes the strongest decision, should I read it.
3. Multiline tweets capture more scrolling space and hence attention
4. Images and better yet videos are great (especially at beginning of thread).
5. Call for Action, what do you expect people to do with it? Tell them explicitly.

Example of a Research Paper Thread

Split content across multiple tweets for clarity and impact.