"Tell your story": Blogging & social media strategy for academics

There is nothing that gets me more excited than empowering creative thinkers to spread good ideas. The complex global challenges of our time necessitate new ways to harness academic innovation and connect critical thinkers with public audiences - and technology offers new opportunities for digital storytelling. Luckily for me, I happen to work at a university where I am continually surrounded by incredible talent.

I always enjoyed working in advertising and marketing and the decision to pursue a PhD in Australian history was not an easy one. But here I am, 6 months into my PhD, and I am constantly surprised at how my previous career impacts upon my thinking and practice. Indeed, I can hardly call it my previous career at all - such is the way that it informs my approach to scholarship every single day.

This year, I have been thinking a lot about communication strategies to help academics articulate their research to communities that matter and I was thrilled to be able to present some of these ideas to a group of UWA postgraduate students this week. You can view the presentation on slideshare. It was a fantastic experience - we had some thought-provoking conversations and I think I learned just as much as the students did. I'd love your thoughts on the pilot session!

A few additional resources (added on 1 October, 2012):

1. Fantastic video: Noam Chomsky on "concision" (From "Chomsky and the Media", 1992).
2. Ideas have value. They are not 'free'. We spoke a little about the ways in which technology has acted to devalue creative outputs. If you're interested in different perspectives on "freeconomics" check out this Wired Magazine article by Chris Anderson 'Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business'. You can also check out Anderson's book Free: The Future of a Radical Price.
3. UWA does have a social media policy and you can read it here. You can also read UWA's web policy (draft) here.