ABSTRACT
The range of different social media platforms which provide academics with opportunities for public writing online is huge. Engaging with social media has costs, in addition to benefits, particularly in terms of the time and effort it takes to follow other researchers or to maintain one’s own online presence. Managing colleagues’ willingness to engage with social media under time pressure was an even greater pressure. In addition to time pressures, the nature of the engagement with the audience on social media has its own challenges, such as a loss of control over what happens to work once it is published online. The wide range of social media available opens up many exciting new possibilities for engagement with new audiences, in new ways, developing new genres, and some academics take these possibilities up enthusiastically. Social media is about people who actually does not do research, just sitting there carping at the sidelines.
