Follow the plan below for detailed social media posts that can help promote your journal article.

When following this plan, please note that when you see text within brackets [ ] it indicates that you must edit according to the instructions provided. After you have customized the text, remove the brackets before posting.

Week One of Publication

TIP: Follow hashtags related to your research or discipline of study, as well as the accounts of other researchers and scientists. Comment, like, and share posts to attract followers to your social media channels and, in turn, your journal article. Share/re-tweet interesting articles and postings. This should be continued on a daily basis during a designated block of time (20-30 minutes) once or twice a day.

Day 1:

Facebook

• Add the SharedIt link of your journal article to the Facebook intro of your profile: "Author of the recently published [ARTICLE NAME] in [JOURNAL NAME]. Read and share here: [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]
• Post: “My latest research on [DISCIPLINE NAME] has just been published with @SpringerNature in [@JOURNALNAME]  [If journal does not have a Facebook page remove the @ symbol]. Read here: [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]
• TIP: Insert the journal cover into posts, which can be saved from the springer or Nature journal page by right clicking on the journal cover image and selecting "Save Image As." 
• TIP: If your privacy settings are set to friends only, make posts related to your research public by selecting the drop down option within the post that indicates “friends,” “public,” or “only me." Select “public.” This allows for your post to be searched for and seen by anyone on Facebook. Previous posts you have written, which you had set to "friends" will not become publicly visible. 

Twitter

• Update your twitter bio to include: Author of [JOURNAL ARTICLE NAME] in [JOURNAL NAME]. Read here: [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]
• Tweet: Read my latest #research on [#SUBJECT], published with @SpringerNature in [@JOURNAL] (If journal does not have a Twitter handle omit the “@” symbol)
• Insert journal cover image into post

Day 4:

• Repeat the same Twitter and Facebook postings from Day 1

Week Two of Publication

Day 8:

Facebook

• Pull out  2-3 lines of your research that may be interesting to followers and paste it into a publicly shared post.
• End post with: Read more here: [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]

Twitter

• Choose one short sentence from your research that may be attractive to followers. 
• End post with: Read more: [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]
• TIP: Include relevant hashtags on words in the sentence that other researchers may be following

Day 11:

• Repeat the same Twitter and Facebook postings from Day 8

Week Three of Publication

By now your daily use of social media should have created some organically grown conversation, making it more natural to link to your journal article. If it hasn’t yet, don’t worry. Keep working towards building an audience that is interested in reading more about your work. This is easier to do on Twitter where communication is publicly consumed. The culture of Facebook tends to be more insular within your friends and followers network, but it is still an important component to sharing your research.

Here are some more things you can do to further engage your audience:

Facebook

• Share news articles relevant to your research. This research can be from niche publications or more mainstream, general sources. Link to your article when there are parallels to your research.
• Example: Click share on the article you wish to discuss. Write: [PUBLICATION NAME] makes an interesting correlation to my research on [SUBJECT.] Include a maximum of two sentences of commentary on the article. INSERT SHAREDIT LINK at the end of the posting.
• TIP: If the link you are sharing is coming directly from a news source outside of Facebook, check for a Facebook sharing link within the article itself, normally found at the top or bottom of the content. 
• If you would prefer to share a link directly, you can just copy and paste it into a new Facebook post
• TIP: Putting two links into a single post is confusing to readers. When you are referencing a link to a news source save your SharedIt link for later by adding it as the first comment on the post. In the comment insert text such as, "Read more about this [topic] in my latest research paper [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]"

Twitter

• On tweets of news and science articles relevant to your research, retweet with a link to your research or simply reply on the article.
• “Interesting point made by [WRITER]. My research argues [similarly, differently, small note of commentary]. [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]”

Week Four of Publication

Facebook

• Post: Have you SharedIt? My research from [journal name] on [subject] is free to read. Share the link to help others learn more about [discipline] [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]

Twitter:

• Tweet: Have you #SharedIt? [Paper's title] from [journal name] on [#subject] is free to read [INSERT SHAREDIT LINK]