Social change is taking shape

There’s no doubt that the influence of the World Wide Web has dramatically changed the way that we communicate with our global community. Social media in particular has revolutionised how we connect, both personally and professionally.

Social media are constantly evolving; its growth is fast-paced and can, at times, be unpredictable. As an organisation, we have been proactive in adopting these media and, to date, have established a presence across a number of social networks, with nearly 100 corporate profiles.

Understanding where our diverse communities ‘live’ online and what they want from social networks has been a journey of discovery for us. We have recently carried out extensive research, from which we’ve learned that our diverse communities have different preferences when it comes to online social networking. To better serve our whole community we need to make some changes:

• On Twitter we will be renaming @RSC_Science as @RSC_Newsroom – followers will be able to keep up to date with science policy matters, news announcements and discussion
• @RSC_Comms will become @RoySocChem – we will let you know what’s happening with our products, services and activities. All media coverage will move to @RSC_Newsroom
• We have found that @RSC_Diversity and @RSC_Careers cover topics that will be better served through a wider range of profiles, rather than limiting them to just one space.
• We continue to have a presence on Facebook, with just one page dedicated to bringing you all our news, products, services and scientific content.

Evolving how Royal Society of Chemistry journals use Twitter

Our journals will continue to engage with the research community via their Twitter profiles and, since the start of the year, we’ve been exploring some more creative ways to do so.

In February, following an innovative idea by Dr Matt Baker at the University of Strathclyde (@ChemistryBaker), Analyst (@analystrsc), Analytical Methods (@MethodsRSC) and JAAS (@JAASNews) helped organise the Analytical Science Twitter Poster Conference.

Analytical scientists from around the world came together on Twitter, to share research, and submitted more than 80 posters during the 24-hour event. An international committee of leading analytical scientists volunteered their time to ask questions and generate discussions around the posters, as well as judging four worthy of winning prizes of an iPod and Royal Society of Chemistry book vouchers.

Matt Cude, development editor ofthe analytical journal portfolio, says: “The conference created a great opportunity for participants to showcase their research and for the journals to help support the analytical science community.

It was great to see such a range of topics being discussed by scientists from around the world. Participants, poster contributors, organisers and members of the scientific committee began discussing plans for the next poster conference before the first had even finished, and we’re looking forward to developing the idea further for the next Twitter conference.

Careers support goes social

Charlotte Ashley-Roberts, careers specialist in our Member Services team says that changing the way she uses social media – through adopting LinkedIn – has transformed her interactions with the scientific community. I made the decision to move over to LinkedIn for my blog as I found that my posts in the Royal Society of Chemistry group were mostly inviting comments, questions and shares, she says.

"Since moving the blog officially at the start of the year to LinkedIn, we have had offers from people wanting to speak at our events and many examples of informal mentoring and advice sharing between members of the group.

This is just what I had hoped for! Now I can directly engage with members of the community who were already using this channel - they are on LinkedIn, so it makes sense that we are too."

The future

Our community is global but there are many regions around the world, such as China, where social media networks such asTwitter and Facebook are unavailable. To cater for our sizable Chinese community, our China team recently launched a WeChat profile. This is the first of many steps to socially connect around the world.

As new networks emerge and existing ones continue to change, you will find us in even more places and creating new ways to connect with the Royal Society of Chemistry. In the meantime, we hope the changes we have made enhance your social media journey with the Royal Society of Chemistry.