Comments on: The strength of weak ties – why researchers use Twitter and LinkedIn

By: Mike Young

Mike Young — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 11:15:19 +0000

In reply to Katarzyna Wac. Thanks for your comment Kate! What really interests me is how real life interactions are augmented by Twitter and LinkedIn. And I think these offline/online techniques are constantly developing as both the platforms and the real life meetings and events co-evolve! Keep talking to strangers – I like it! Mike

By: Katarzyna Wac

Katarzyna Wac — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 12:30:40 +0000

Dear Mike – that is really an interesting and challenging topic that not only relate to PhDs, i think.
Myself – before Twitter and LinkedIN i have great stories of serendipitous (which later became strong) links created in circumstances of waiting in a line, flying the same aircraft, looking for the same product in the supermarket shelf or studying together in a library. Now – such links are created in the virtual space – along a joint “digital goal” – discussion around an article, book, event.
Now – I always say to me students ” talk to strangers” in reality or virtually!
Thank you for reassuring scientific approach towards it 🙂
Kate

By: Mike Young

Mike Young — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:12:26 +0000

In reply to Alberto. Good for you Alberto, and thanks!

By: Alberto

Alberto — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 14:52:12 +0000

Nice post Mike! I would just add that being nice with people (which should be done by default, ehm) and chatting with strangers may lead to unexpected turns... I just got an absolutely fun and totally unexpected high school teacher job through a friend-of-a-friend via Facebook

By: Mike Young

Mike Young — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 07:19:51 +0000

In reply to Afton Halloran. Shhhhh Afton!! Don't talk about the LinkedIn, Twitter, conference triad! It is the best kept secret! ;)

By: Afton Halloran

Afton Halloran — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 13:56:59 +0000

Very interesting, Mike!

I had someone come up to me at a conference at UN City yesterday and say thanks for tweeting so much about the conference. She recognised me in my Twitter photo. I added her later on LinkedIn. I was rally surprised and happy that she had introduced herself.

I take to Twitter and LinkedIn to interact with the world. Sometimes it’s the posts that you thought no one was reading that provide the hook that reels interesting contacts in!

By: Mike Young

Mike Young — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 11:19:38 +0000

In reply to Siddharth Sareen. Thanks Siddharth, this has not only happened to me at conferences, but even a couple of times on the commute in to Copenhagen on the train. You are tweeting away on a certain hashtag, look up, and see the same person walking past you that you just retweeted. It works!

By: Siddharth Sareen

Siddharth Sareen — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 06:57:23 +0000

Nice piece, Mike, eases people who might not be social media savvy into considering their optimal use of it professionally. I think besides the networking function, tools like Twitter feeds curated based on a specific interest (e.g. I mainly use it linked with solar energy governance) can be a rich resource for real time news updates. When handled intelligently, social media can certainly help bring relevant connections to one’s attention, and it’s a great feeling bumping into someone halfway through a conference and knowing you’ve been following some parallel sessions in absentia through their tweets and have a lot to talk about to follow up on virtual conversation!

By: Mike Young

Mike Young — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 10:59:33 +0000

Now that is a really interesting question Sean, and I know there are alot of people who use the scattergun approach on LinkedIn. The corresponding approach on Twitter is via follow-back circles through specific hashtags (like fx. #FBPE – against Brexit and meaning Follow Back Pro Europe) and through automated follow-unfollow apps. What also drives the ‘scattergun’ approach is that Twitter and LinkedIn don’t really penalise this behaviour, and even encourage it with some of their features like the synchronise e-mail contacts function. I don’t do it myself though. I don’t think that scattergunning people really leads to meaningful interactions, and people see through it as a ‘strategy’.

Your questions also touch on a deeper more philosophical question. Say you get to know someone via an interaction on one of the platforms first – maybe through a discussion under a post on a Twitter news feed. Is this a ‘weak’ interaction just because it is virtual and had no prior face-to-face or strong interaction? I know alot of my stronger ties have come via this networking method, which is neither based on a strong real life prior interaction or identification of interests, nor a scattergun.

By: Sean Case

Sean Case — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 19:52:13 +0000

Interesting post, thanks! I can see the benefit of building up a network of ‘weak’ ties on Twitter and LinkedIn. But I wonder what would be the best way to go about this. Is it better to start making connections following some weak but meaningful interaction (e.g. you met them at a conference, you read a paper of theirs that you like), or is it just as effective to go with a ‘scattergun’ approach – i.e. adding or following anyone on Twitter or Linkedin who may be in your field and then hoping for them to follow you back, even if you have never met them? Maybe a combination of both?