I'd agree that Twitter is not vital for science communicators, but it helps. Several have mentioned the RSS feed similarity - the difficulty with RSS is that it is automated, so often the results it displays are truncated or not very explanatory. Twitter (which can be automated, but in  my view generally shouldn't be) is a real person writing for that medium. For me an institutional twitter feed makes more sense to the reader than RSS, and also has a more personal feel, I can respond to a tweet, or retweet it, "favourite" it if I like it.

This is the key to Twitter in my view - it's a real person on the other end and helps build a personal bond, and to a sense of community. As an insitution, it takes a bit of effort to make Twitter work, getting the content balance and the "voice" right, becoming known in the community and tracking references to the institution, but I spend less than 15 minutes a day "working" on Twitter. I spend more in a personal capacity, using it to signpost me to interesting material I want to read in my spare time.

In terms of public engagement, for me it has never been a mass communication tool. It has, however, allowed me to build stronger relationships with individual scientists, with the science communication community, with those who listen to our podcasts, visit us on open days, or who hear on the local news what the big shiny doughnut off the A34 actually does. You can choose to ignore it, but it does make my job more interesting and enjoyable.

Sara Fletcher
Web and Information Manager, Diamond Light Source
Www.diamond.ac.uk
@diamondlightsou

On 4 Jun 2011, at 23:56, alice bell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I used to tell people who were thinking about a career in UK sci com
> that at the very least they should join psci com.
> 
> "It can get a bit annoying sometimes", I'd say, "with people waffling
> on about something you probably don't care about, but you can always
> pick the 'digest' option. The links are useful for getting a feel for
> jobs/ issues in the profession, and the occasional flame war is fun if
> you're bored"
> 
> Now I tell them to join twitter - to find some people and institutions
> they think are interesting and that the Sci Com jobs account is
> amazing for giving a sense of the work available in the field and my
> sci com list - http://twitter.com/alicebell/scicommeta - maybe needs
> an update, but should have a few useful accounts.
> 
> I do this partly because, as Colin so neatly puts it, twitter can be
> the ultimate RSS feed (and they probably need to learn how to use it
> well) but it's also because the sorts of information and discussion
> about the science communication profession I used to find on psci com,
> I now get on twitter.
> 
> I'd also say the signal to noise ratio there is a lot better there
> compared to here these days, but then I have various filtration
> settings (just as I filter my pscicom emails on gmail...).
> 
> The matter of doing public engagement/ communication work itself on
> twitter (rather than networking/ more 'meta' discussion) - the
> original question - is another question. Personally, I think that
> entirely depends on what audiences you want to interact with, on what
> topics, how and when.
> 
> So Mico - if you want a better answer to your question, could you specify a bit?
> 
> 
> Alice
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> Dr Alice R Bell
> 
> http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/
> 
> 
> On 4 June 2011 16:05, Colin Stuart <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> In my opinion Francis and Michael have almost got it - almost, but at the
>> same time not at all.
>> Twitter is the ultimate RSS feed. With conventional RSS feeds you only get
>> fed what you've personally subscribed to. This is a very narrow approach.
>> With Twitter you can get the equivalent of RSS feeds from 100s of people
>> just like you. You've got many similar people all farming the web for the
>> best content!
>> In this way you get access to all sorts of links that would you never would
>> have been aware of. It is basically like a chat down the pub with your
>> mates, with them saying have you seen this?
>> That's just from an interest perspective.  From a networking perspective it
>> is even better. I can honestly pin £10000s of work over the last few years
>> directly to connections made through Twitter.
>> Passing fad perhaps, an invaluable tool without question.
>> C
>> Colin Stuart (http://www.colinstuart.net)
>> Freelance science communicator, writer and broadcaster.
>> Freelance Astronomer working for Royal Observatory, Greenwich
>> Follow me on Twitter: @skyponderer
>> On 4 Jun 2011, at 16:58, Francis Sedgemore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>> Michael keeps coming back to RSS, and for good reason. To my mind RSS is the
>> best available and most efficient means of aggregating online news and blog
>> commentary.
>> Like Michael I have better things to do than spend my days actively
>> following a multitude of web forums, blogs and wibbling Twitter channels.
>> Occasionally, I like to switch off the computer, and my mobile phone doth
>> not beep under any circumstances whatsoever. I even refuse to do SMS, and
>> would describe myself as a Reform Luddite.
>> I would rather set things up in my online life so that information is fed to
>> me in a form that can be digested or discarded as and when I see fit.
>> Twitter aggregators could I suppose fit into that, but there is still the
>> signal-to-noise question. Twitter is certainly a communications tool, but
>> it's hardly a "powerful" one.
>> Personally, I see Twitter as a waste of time and effort. To me Twitter is a
>> fad, and like any such fancy some users - science journalists included -
>> will manage to extract at least little real value from it. While it lasts.
>> Good for them, but I couldn't give a monkey's, and object to Twitter
>> engagement being regarded as normative behaviour.
>> Francis
>> On 4 Jun 11, at 11:22, Michael Kenward wrote:
>> 
>> Jo raises a very important point here. As she says “A stream of tweets is
>> just an RSS feed”. But how many people make effective use of RSS feeds?
>> 
>> If anything good comes out of tweets it could be in showing people how to
>> use RSS more effectively.
>> 
>> I have campaigned to get various organisations to take RSS seriously,
>> sometimes with success.  (Thank you AlphaGalileo.) But there are still too
>> many who fail to use RSS feeds for press releases and news material.
>> 
>> Do they expect me to visit their websites daily to find out what is new? Or
>> do they expect  me to sign up for a relentless stream of email?
>> 
>> Put together Twitter and RSS feeds and you have an automated alerts service.
>> Twitter can “scrape off” RSS feeds automatically, boiling them down to the
>> usual 140 character limit, including a link.
>> 
>> This use is far more useful than a constant stream of twaddle that will come
>> back to embarrass the people who send them when they finally grow out of
>> sending messages that not even their mothers would want to read.
>> 
>> MK
>> 
>> --
>> Dr Francis Sedgemore
>> journalist and science writer
>> www.sedgemore.com
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