HIGHLY-NETWORKED ACADEMICS
IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:
ACTIVITIES AND PRACTICES

George Veletsianos
Instructional Technology
University of Texas at Austin
USA

Marilena Aspioti and Nikos Aspiotis
University of Manchester
UK

The purpose of this paper is to understand academics’ participation in social networking sites in general, and on Twitter in particular. Tweets from 48 highly networked PhD academics comprised the data corpus for this study. Tweets were analyzed using the constant comparative method to arrive at dominant themes describing social networking practice. Findings indicate that academics use the popular micro-blogging site to expand their students’ learning experiences; share information, media, and resources; request assistance and provide help; and manage their identity. These activities occur in the context of social grooming, connecting and networking, and digital presence across multiple social platforms.

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