It is totally essential for scientists to talk about their work using social media. There are several reasons for that:
1. Research funding depends on public opinion. If every person in the world knew that, for example, aging research is not only vital, but also quite amusing with all those fancy life extension experiments, then governments all over the world would provide significant funding for this particular topic. Certainly, this is true for any other research field, whether it’s solid state physics or colloid chemistry.
2. General public doesn’t know anything about science. A lot of people don’t believe in scientific research at all, to them science is a lot like religion. Scientists are often seen as negative personalities. This overall perception has to be changed, because scientific results make our world a better place. And again, funding depends on public opinion.
3. Science is astonishing. It is always a good idea to share your amazing stories to make others see what it is that you are doing, what your results are and, most importantly, how your research is relevant to everybody. You can educate a lot of people by simply maintaing a blog about your experiments.
4. It is very easy to communicate with colleagues, possible collaborators, other people who you would like to reach to using social media. You can build new relationships, strengthen existing ones and learn a lot from others.
Here are two great articles that may help you learn how to share your research stories using blogs and other social media – How scientists an reach out with social media and Top Twitter tips for academics. A lot of good advice.
