Promoting Open Access research with the Internet and social media | Open Science

"This post is the fifth part of my series ‘How to promote an Open Access book?‘ Although having realized that it may apply to both books and papers, I decided to change the title a little bit. It is impossible to imagine promotion without the Internet and especially without social media. Obviously, this also includes promoting research. However, it is important not to overestimate the significance of Internet promotion – it can be worthless without the use of other methods. Therefore, before you start to think about Twitter, Facebook or Academia.edu, make sure that you have thought through all the steps I have described in my previous posts on book promotion. Especially networking, discussed in my first entry, which is unavoidable when talking about efficient strategies in social media. Social media may support your action conducted in the ‘real world’ (like attending conferences, participating in workshops, discussions etc.) but it will not replace them. A second important truth about social media is that no third party service offers you full control. One day a post you submitted on a social media platform or even on your own account might be blocked or deleted. Services themselves might also be discontinued (who remembers MySpace?) ..."