I’ve written a number of times over the past few years about the growing number of scientists who are taking to social media to both promote their work and engage with stakeholders.  This is especially so as alt metrics and other platforms take into account social media activity when judging research.

How widely do attempts to communicate via social media reach however?  Are researchers talking to a broad church or an audience mainly made up of their peers?  That was the question posed by a recent study by Simon Fraser University in Canada.

The researchers monitored the Twitter activity of over 100 prominent ecologists and biologists from around 85 institutions and 11 different countries.  The authors began by grouping their followers together as either ‘inreach’, ie academics, scientists, conservation agencies and donors; or ‘outreach’, who were the general public, journalists, politicians and so on.

A narrow church

The study found that scientists with less than 1,000 followers on Twitter would typically be followed by other scientists.  It was only once followers grew beyond 1,000 that they became more diverse.  With social media having such a buzz around it, it’s tempting to regard it as a direct replacement for more traditional outreach efforts.  It’ a temptation that the researchers believe would be a mistake.

“Social media is not likely an effective replacement for the more direct science-to-policy outreach that many scientists are now engaging in, such as testifying in front of special governmental committees, directly contacting decision-makers, etc.” they say.

Even when researchers have a relatively diverse following, there’s certainly no guarantee that any findings from their research will reach people, be understood by them or shared more widely.  This is especially unlikely if your research requires people to change their mind, something research suggests people are loathe to do on social media.

“While Twitter is emerging as a medium of choice for scientists, studies have shown that less than 40 per cent of academic scientists use the platform,” the authors conclude.  “There’s clearly a lot of room for scientists to build a social media presence and increase their scientific outreach. Our results provide scientists with clear evidence that social media can be used as a first step to disseminate scientific messages well beyond the ivory tower.”