Is Social Media the 21st Century Research Technique

Now don't let my post title fool you. I am very much a traditionalist when it comes to most things, for example, i'd never be seen dead with a kindle and get very excited at the thought of wearing white gloves to search endlessly for research. However as my topic of research is very much based on opinion and discussion, i think i would be missing a trick if i didn't incorporate the social media epidemic that seems to be sweeping every aspect of our life.

The majority of professionals have a smart phone, and the unfortunate truth is, most people are connected to their business 24 hours a day, via email, website, blogs or twitter. In 50 years time everybody's lives will be simultaneous streamed through social media via a Facebook status,  a live blog post or a tweet. Some may be skeptical to get on board (which saying that i was at first) however it can't be denied, that if you have something to say, social media is the answer if you want to be heard. FAST!

My aim is to set up a series of social media accounts in order to spark discussion amongst the architectural society. As my research and dissertation develops i will then be able to log information, comments etc as i go.

Twitter will be my main driver along with this blog. Twitter works on the concept of followers and tweets. A person my tweet a short comment/question or picture which is then available to read by their followers. Within a tweet a person my attach another person using the @ symbol. For example " I attend Liverpool School of Architecture @RIBA". The RIBA would then be notified that i had 'mentioned' them in a tweet. If they chose to 'retweet' my comment, it would then be visible to the RIBA's followers, bearing in mind as off 04/09/12 that was at 25,600. You get my gist. Twitter has the potential for your information to be read by millions of people within your field of interest.

Feel Free to follow my twitter account  www.twitter.com/ripoffdesign

Facebook and LinkedIn work in similar ways, however in my opinion, they are less effective. However all of my blog posts are shared via my facebook account: www.facebook.com/aellistaylor

As off today, i currently have 32 followers on twitter, one of which is the RIBA, i hope to double this within the next two months. Gavin Johnson at Golf Club Advisor www.golfclubadvisor.co.uk has kindly offered to incorporate my twitter account into their social marketing software. This will allow me to evaluate how useful my social media accounts have been in collating research and sparking discussion.