Using Social Media and Kudos to Share Your Research: A Conversation With Tiffany Hogan

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, practitioners, educators, and researchers now working from home have turned to social media to find the best articles, resources, and tips from other professionals.

Tiffany Hogan immediately found tips on Twitter on how to run a lab from afar. “It’s become such a good source for me,” said Hogan. Hogan shares her research on several social media platforms—through writing plain-language summaries focusing on clinicians on Kudos and starting a podcast to talk with authors—but she primarily uses Twitter.

Hogan, who has authored 20 articles for the ASHA Journals and served as a guest editor for a forum on dyslexia, said that not only are her articles being read, but she’s also received great feedback from colleagues. “It’s been reinforcing,” she said, adding that people have personally reached out to let her know that they’ve used her articles in their practice.

Getting Started

Hogan said that she got started in social media through her students. Whenever they would discuss an article she hadn’t seen before, they would usually tell her they found it on Twitter. Finally, she set up an account of her own. “I felt like a late adopter,” she said.

Once she started teaching online, she realized that people were using Twitter to share new articles with their readers. She described the moment she set up her Twitter account as “finally saying yes.”

Jumping into social media may be daunting to some, whether they’re new to (or not interested in) the technology or only have experience keeping a personal account. Hogan said that she’s encountered some resistance from academics and researchers who don’t think social media is appropriate for their work, often citing time constraints or that they’re overwhelmed enough. To ease those concerns, she suggested that maintaining a Twitter account didn’t have to be a large time constraint. “I’d say I spend 15 minutes a day posting,” she said.

Hogan tells her students who are new to social media to start by observing, following researchers they know, and seeking out authors of articles that have interested them. “Treat it like a developmental process,” she said.

For audio of our interview with Dr. Hogan, you can play the video below.

Audio from our interview with Dr. Tiffany Hogan

Speaking Directly to Practitioners With Kudos

Although the Internet has made it easier than ever to share an article, authors may not know the best way to help their research reach the people who can use it the most. Fortunately, through ASHA’s partnership with Kudos, authors can take the first steps when they submit an article!

Hogan has provided plain-language summaries for a number of her articles on Kudos. “At first, it was a little challenging,” Hogan said, “but I also thought it was a great opportunity to think differently about your article and think about your audience again.”

Although the plain language summaries can be geared toward helping explain the importance of your work to the general public via social media, Hogan uses them primarily to speak directly to speech-language pathologists and educators.

Last year, more than 100 articles from the ASHA Journals were explained on Kudos, and these articles were read 49% more than the articles that didn’t include a summary. Kudos makes it easy to share links on a number of social media platforms with the click of a button—and even to track which links are getting the most clicks. As a researcher, Hogan said she likes seeing the article’s shares and readership numbers right on the page. “I think the metrics are kind of fun,” she said.

To learn how to get started with Kudos, visit Maximizing Your Impact With Kudos for step-by-step instructions and video tutorials.

A More Personal Side

At the beginning of her academic career, Hogan wanted to see the “softer side” of the successful people she admired. She said she was fortunate to have that in an involved mentor, and now she hopes that her Twitter account helps her give students, colleagues, and even strangers the inspiration she was seeking. “It makes your messages that are usually ‘deep’ kind of fun,” she said. Through her account, she aims to show humility and the struggles that all academics and researchers face, as well as to serve as a virtual mentor.

By being active on Twitter, Hogan said she’s found co-authors and even discussed grant funding. “I’ve connected with people I never would have connected with,” she said.