By Romy Hildebrand
Those who fail to engage with the public on digital media platforms will be at a serious disadvantage in the professional world, where harnessing digital opportunities is the key to success, warns Rose Hayden-Smith, a digital strategist.
Hayden-Smith spoke with a group of UCSB students last week on Zoom, in a public humanities workshop titled That’s the Tweet: The Use of Social Media for Academic Practice.
“Academics on Twitter are more prepared for the post-pandemic future than their peers,” Hayden-Smith said. “The pandemic has [changed] the ways in which we socially interact and engage, and as a result, people who have been [active on digital media platforms] are more prepared to both disseminate and engage with information quickly.”
Rose Hayden-Smith, digital media strategist, speaking with UCSB students on Zoom during her event That’s the Tweet: The Use of Social Media for Academic Practice.
She said the need to adjust to the new norms during the current COVID-19 pandemic will not be temporary. “There are real opportunities right now, in the midst of this mess, to recreate yourself and your scholarship by just realizing that the old framework isn’t working anymore — and it won’t after the pandemic either,” Hayden-Smith told the gathering, which was sponsored by the IHC’s Crossing Borderlands, a research focus group in Ancient Mediterranean Studies.
Hayden-Smith, who started her blogging career in 2008, has watched even the harshest critics of her ideas adjust over time. In one of her early jobs at the University of California’s Cooperative Extension, she got pushback for pressing the importance of social media on her colleagues.
“I got a fair amount of resistance, because the VP who I was reporting to didn’t get it,” she said. But recently, that same VP, now retired, reached out to Hayden-Smith via a Twitter direct message and told her, “You were way ahead of us. I didn’t understand, but now I’m on Twitter and learning so much.” In 2019, Hayden-Smith launched her own consultancy and she now provides communications and editing services for higher education, nonprofits, and individuals.
The importance of digital media has become more obvious, and both professionals and academics are realizing it, Hayden-Smith said. She told UCSB students about one of her colleagues, a communications professor at Oklahoma State University, who now teaches a semester-long communications course to agriculture students. Undergraduates in STEM fields have historically been left out of communications education, but are now learning how to build websites, create LinkedIn profiles, and participate in social media.
Rose Hayden-Smith with her book Sowing the Seeds of Victory, about American gardening programs of World War I. She introduced her research to digital platforms early on in her career, and eventually became the digital strategist she is today.
Many don’t associate scientific researchers with an active digital media presence, but Hayden-Smith argues that digital media is crucial for academics of all disciplines. “Scientists do need to be in those digital spaces and share the facts. Share the process, share your progress, share your thinking, and invite people to comment on it and engage with it,” she advised.
She also spends a lot of time researching audiences for the teams she works with. “Organizations are taking a deep dive into who is using these platforms, issues about accessibility, and the very real racial divide. Who are we trying to reach, what technologies are they using, and what multiple formats might we have?”
To reap the greatest benefits, one should do more than simply type out a 280-character Tweet once in a while. “Working in digital communications requires us to be in constant learning mode,” Hayden-Smith said, before sharing her own tips for success.
“Optimize your profiles, use hashtags, use Linktree. Create a website. Invest time in social media, invest time in LinkedIn,” Hayden-Smith urged students.
Romy Hildebrand is a third-year Communication major at UC Santa Barbara. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.