Are you an academic? Are you interested in social media? Given you’re reading a blog post with the title ‘Social Media for Academics’ then I’ll assume that you are. In which case I hope you’ll be interested in the book that I’ll be spending much of this year writing. I’m due to deliver it to Sage next January to be published later that year. Here’s the current blurb for the project:

This practically minded book will provide an accessible introduction to the opportunities and challenges social media presents for academics. It will situate the fast-changing landscape of social media in terms of the existing  needs and priorities entailed by a career in the contemporary academy: publicising research, building networks, managing information and engaging with wider publics. It is intended as a ‘best practice’ guide, applicable to anyone working within higher education who seeks to better understand and utilise the opportunities offered by social media. Adopting a practical approach throughout, it will frame discussion of platforms and tools in terms of the  concerns, projects and practices more broadly applicable within higher education. Though comprehensively informed by the growing research literature on social media, it will not in itself form part of that literature, but rather contribute to the practical application of the knowledge generated by this expanding field of inquiry.

In keeping with the ethos of the book, I’ll be doing much of the work which goes into it here on my blog (i.e. the ‘social media for academics’ item on the menu bar). Much more to follow over the next nine months.

It took a while but the book is available for pre-order! See here for the cheapest place to buy it online, as well as table of contents & summary