• ELIXIR-specific terms
• Node page on elixir-europe.org
• Node website
  • Principles to be applied
  • News releases
• Website of lead institute
• Evaluating online presence

Nodes tend to be actively online in at least one of three ways:

1. Page on elixir-europe.org
2. Node website
3. Website of lead institute

Whichever format is most convenient and suitable for the Node should facilitate access to Node services. Each format should also use the correct capitalisation of ELIXIR terms.

ELIXIR-specific terms

Follow the capitalisation rules for ELIXIR words as seen here:

• ELIXIR — Always capitalised, with the exception of the ELIXIR logo
• ELIXIR-CONVERGE — The “CONVERGE” part is always capitalised and never stands alone (without “ELIXIR”)
• ELIXIR Node, ELIXIR Hub, Data Platform
• ELIXIR Members (or ELIXIR Member States), ELIXIR Observer
• ELIXIR Board
• Technical Coordinators’ Group, Training Coordinators’ Group
• Head of Node — If there is more than one Head for a Node, say “Heads of Node”. If referring to multiple Heads (each Head presiding over a different Node), say “Heads of Nodes”.
• Implementation Study — both words have first letter capitalised
• research infrastructure — all lowercase, even though the acronym is “RI”
• life sciences — all lowercase and plural

Node page on elixir-europe.org

Write a concise summary (approximately 300 words) of how the Node connects, provides and develops services. This summary should also briefly mention what the lead institute does on a national scale without listing a mission statement, as mission statements tend to already be stated within the overall objectives of ELIXIR.

It is also preferred that a Node not list future activities (unless the Node has just been established and hasn’t started any activities yet). Each page should explain activities specific to the Node as concretely as possible.

The Node page template automatically drops in the following for each Node:

• Lead/participating institutes, their locations and websites
• Names, pictures and affiliations for the Head(s) of Node, Technical Coordinator and Training Coordinator as they have listed them in the Intranet
• Contact information of the Node: main email address, website and Twitter links
• Links to services, if the Node has signed a Service Delivery Plan
• Related news and events that have been posted on elixir-europe.org to promote the Node

The summary should therefore provide information aside from what a user could already access via the template. The Node should, however, check that information provided through the template is correct.

Node website

Principles to be applied

1. ELIXIR Nodes that do not have a separate brand or identity should use the ELIXIR Node website template.
   • A Drupal installation is available and used already by several ELIXIR Nodes
   • Alternatively, an HTML template exists for Nodes that do not use the Drupal Content Management System.
   • Both templates have been developed for English language version. All websites of ELIXIR Nodes should be fully localised in English. For ELIXIR Node website templates, please contact martin.cook [at] elixir-europe.org. 
2. All Node websites that have a separate brand and identity should acknowledge membership of ELIXIR visibly. This can be done through displaying:
   • ELIXIR logo; and/or
   • Text and acknowledgement of ELIXIR. The standard boilerplate text for ELIXIR may be published:

ELIXIR unites Europe’s leading life-science organisations in managing and safeguarding the massive amounts of data being generated in publicly funded research. It coordinates, integrates and sustains bioinformatics resources across its Member States and enables users in academia and industry to access vital data, tools, standards, computational and training services for their research.

For ELIXIR Node logo requests, please contact premysl.velek [at] elixir-europe.org.

News releases

News releases should feature Node activities and services in a brief article format. They can also provide more context to updates that are promoted through social media (such as the announcement of a new paper published, new project launched, new video uploaded, etc.).

As you write news releases, keep the following in mind:

• A news release is an article — who, what, when, where, why, how. Job vacancies and event pages should be elsewhere on the site.
• Feel free to copy and paste elixir-europe.org news releases or link to them within Node news releases
• Write with the assumption that visitors to the site are unfamiliar with ELIXIR. Clarify ELIXIR-specific jargon where possible.

Website of lead institute

It is ideal that a lead institute have a page or section of its site dedicated to information on activities as an ELIXIR Node, being especially clear about:

• What ELIXIR is
• Specific areas of the lead institute that are involved in ELIXIR
• What the lead institute is contributing to ELIXIR as a Node

For examples of how lead institutes have created dedicated landing pages for Node activities, check out ELIXIR Spain's page at http://www.inab.org/about/inb-in-elixir/ and ELIXIR Netherlands' section at https://www.dtls.nl/elixir-nl/about-elixir-nl/.

Evaluating online presence

Any website with a connected domain can use Google Analytics for free. Remember, however, that Google Analytics must be enabled to a site (unlike Twitter Analytics, which automatically collects data on activity as soon as a Twitter account is created). Follow Google Analytics instructions for how to give it permission to gather data from a Node site.

For Node sites, it is most useful to know:

• How often the site is used: Home > How are your active users trending over time?
• The most popular (i.e. most visited) page, and how high the Node “services” page ranks: Home > What pages do your users visit?
• Site referrals, particularly those from social media:
  • Acquisition > Overview (to see percentages of site referrals from organic searches, referrals, direct clicks and social media)
  • Acquisition > Channels > Click on “Social” in the “Default Channel Grouping” column of the table (to see breakdown of referrals from multiple social media channels)

Spreading the word

• Mention your involvement with the ELIXIR somewhere on your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, preferably in a way that would link over to your Node’s Twitter and LinkedIn profiles or to the ELIXIR main account.
  • For Twitter, use the handle (Twitter account name preceded by @, i.e. @ELIXIREurope) of your Node or lead institute in your bio. When relevant (e.g. ELIXIR Hub staff) link directly to the main ELIXIR account.
  • For LinkedIn, mention the Node (or the ELIXIR main LinkedIn account if your Node is not on LinkedIn) in your “Experience” section, “Organisations” section or in your headline if a position in ELIXIR or an ELIXIR Node is your primary one.
• ELIXIR-ify your profile picture. You can add the ELIXIR logo to your profile picture on Twitter via Twibbon: https://twibbon.com/Support/elixir-4.
• Share, like or comment on ELIXIR Hub/ELIXIR Nodes’ Twitter and LinkedIn posts as you see them.
• When attending events or presentations relevant to ELIXIR, mention @ELIXIREurope or the relevant Node in your live tweets or LinkedIn posts.
• Make use of relevant hashtags and mentions. These are listed in the  ELIXIR Hashtag and Mentions Dictionary and the table below.
• *Note: If you have just created a Twitter account and are affiliated with ELIXIR, please inform the Hub at info [at] elixir-europe.org so that you can be added to the @ELIXIREurope “ELIXIR people” list.

List	Members
Deposition Databases: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/deposition-databases	Data resources that have been defined by ELIXIR at https://www.elixir-europe.org/platforms/data/elixir-deposition-databases)
Core Data Resources: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/core-data-resources	Main list of data resources defined by ELIXIR as fundamental to research in the life sciences — read more at https://www.elixir-europe.org/core-data-resources
Industry and SMEs: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/industry-and-smes	ELIXIR contacts in industry and Small & Medium-sized Enterprises.
ELIXIR institutes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-institutes	The individual institutes that make up ELIXIR and the data services they connect or develop
ELIXIR people: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-people	People affiliated with ELIXIR
ELIXIR Nodes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-nodes	The main accounts of ELIXIR Nodes

Etiquette

• Be cognizant of your involvement with ELIXIR. Express your own opinions, but be sure that your tweets are not interpreted as you speaking on behalf of ELIXIR.
• Don’t share any ELIXIR internal documents or any figures or operational information. If you are not sure, ask at info [at] elixir-europe.org.
• Think twice before you post. Although you can delete tweets you’ve sent, deletion only removes the tweet from your own stream. Tweets that have been retweeted will remain publicly visible. If you post incorrect or misleading information, it’s better to admit the error and post a correction as quickly as possible.
• Credit works of others. When sharing work by someone else, include their names (or Twitter handles) in your posts.
• Always respond to questions addressed to you via Twitter or LinkedIn. If you don’t know how to answer a particular question, feel free to contact us at info [at] elixir-europe.org. If you come across harsh complaints about ELIXIR online, please let us know as well.

Spreading the word

• Mention your involvement with the ELIXIR somewhere on your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, preferably in a way that would link over to your Node’s Twitter and LinkedIn profiles or to the ELIXIR main account.
  • For Twitter, use the handle (Twitter account name preceded by @, i.e. @ELIXIREurope) of your Node or lead institute in your bio. When relevant (e.g. ELIXIR Hub staff) link directly to the main ELIXIR account.
  • For LinkedIn, mention the Node (or the ELIXIR main LinkedIn account if your Node is not on LinkedIn) in your “Experience” section, “Organisations” section or in your headline if a position in ELIXIR or an ELIXIR Node is your primary one.
• ELIXIR-ify your profile picture. You can add the ELIXIR logo to your profile picture on Twitter via Twibbon: https://twibbon.com/Support/elixir-4.
• Share, like or comment on ELIXIR Hub/ELIXIR Nodes’ Twitter and LinkedIn posts as you see them.
• When attending events or presentations relevant to ELIXIR, mention @ELIXIREurope or the relevant Node in your live tweets or LinkedIn posts.
• Make use of relevant hashtags and mentions. These are listed in the  ELIXIR Hashtag and Mentions Dictionary and the table below.
• *Note: If you have just created a Twitter account and are affiliated with ELIXIR, please inform the Hub at info [at] elixir-europe.org so that you can be added to the @ELIXIREurope “ELIXIR people” list.

List	Members
Deposition Databases: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/deposition-databases	Data resources that have been defined by ELIXIR at https://www.elixir-europe.org/platforms/data/elixir-deposition-databases)
Core Data Resources: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/core-data-resources	Main list of data resources defined by ELIXIR as fundamental to research in the life sciences — read more at https://www.elixir-europe.org/core-data-resources
Industry and SMEs: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/industry-and-smes	ELIXIR contacts in industry and Small & Medium-sized Enterprises.
ELIXIR institutes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-institutes	The individual institutes that make up ELIXIR and the data services they connect or develop
ELIXIR people: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-people	People affiliated with ELIXIR
ELIXIR Nodes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-nodes	The main accounts of ELIXIR Nodes

Etiquette

• Be cognizant of your involvement with ELIXIR. Express your own opinions, but be sure that your tweets are not interpreted as you speaking on behalf of ELIXIR.
• Don’t share any ELIXIR internal documents or any figures or operational information. If you are not sure, ask at info [at] elixir-europe.org.
• Think twice before you post. Although you can delete tweets you’ve sent, deletion only removes the tweet from your own stream. Tweets that have been retweeted will remain publicly visible. If you post incorrect or misleading information, it’s better to admit the error and post a correction as quickly as possible.
• Credit works of others. When sharing work by someone else, include their names (or Twitter handles) in your posts.
• Always respond to questions addressed to you via Twitter or LinkedIn. If you don’t know how to answer a particular question, feel free to contact us at info [at] elixir-europe.org. If you come across harsh complaints about ELIXIR online, please let us know as well.

• Getting started
• Distinguish Node activities from Hub activities
• Managing the Twitter account
• Evaluating Twitter activity
• Managing the LinkedIn account
• Evaluating LinkedIn activity

Getting started

Each member nation joined a large network of institutes and universities when it became an ELIXIR Node. Mirroring this network’s presence on social media increases user traffic to the data resources vital to research.

Since ELIXIR provides life-science services primarily for those in academia and industry, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most appropriate social media channels.

	Twitter	LinkedIn
Message length	Up to 280 characters, including links	Undefined, but can be multiple long-form paragraphs
Message frequency	High frequency: daily or multiple times a day	Lower frequency: monthly, weekly
Message purpose (common examples)	Quick updates and promotions of Node activity (i.e. news releases, events) Campaigns to draw attention to the Node or ELIXIR (i.e. “Open Access Week”) Advertise vacancies Invitations to events	Milestone updates (i.e. decision to collaborate with another organisation) Activity highlights (i.e. link to a feature story on a database, tool, research group, etc.) Advertise vacancies
Audience	Larger emphasis on bioinformaticians, staff of research institutes and universities	Larger emphasis on industry leaders, research infrastructure stakeholders and funders
Ways to draw attention to frequently-used words and involve contacts (See the ELIXIR Hashtag and Mentions Dictionary)	Words: Hashtags (concepts preceded by #, i.e. #bigdata) Contacts: Mentions of other Twitter users (Twitter account names preceded by @, i.e. @ELIXIREurope)	Words: Hashtags work as they do on Twitter, but tend to be less frequently followed Contacts: Type the name of a connection and LinkedIn will automatically link to that person/organisation’s profile

• Make most content linkable. Even if an image is attached, adding a link maximises a follower’s interaction with the tweet or post and drives traffic over to a website.
• Always shorten links using free sites or browser plug-ins such as https://goo.gl/ and https://bitly.com/. Twitter in particular will cut off a link with an ellipsis (...) if too long. Shortening a link looks better and allows you to you use more of the tweet character limit for text.
• Tell Node staff when you have posted or tweeted content so that they can share or like it. While only the Node account officially represents ELIXIR, staff engagements can help quickly boost views of Node content from the target audience.
• Make your posts match the views of the ELIXIR Node. For official accounts, engagements with other posts can be seen as endorsements. Don’t engage with posts that ELIXIR would not endorse. If someone has mentioned a Node account in a questionable post, ignore it.

Distinguish Node activities from Hub activities

• Clarify the Node’s role in its profile bio.

Twitter:

“[Name of the ELIXIR Node] unites [country]’s leading life sciences organisations focused on [bioinformatics, particular area of bioinformatics, etc.] as part of @ELIXIREurope. Develops services such as [mention services, particularly those that have Twitter accounts]. Based at [i.e. mention lead institute, particularly if it has a Twitter account].

• For example: “ELIXIR Portugal unites the country’s leading life sciences organisations focused on #bioinformatics as part of @ELIXIREurope. Develops services such as @enasequence and @MINT_database. Based at @LeadInstitute.”

LinkedIn:

The LinkedIn “about us” section should be 1-2 paragraphs — basically a condensed version of what is written on the Node page of elixir-europe.org (see section on “Online Content Guidelines”). The “about us” section should include the following:

• A brief explanation of what ELIXIR is as a whole: i.e. “ELIXIR’s broad aim is to facilitate access to biological data for the life-science community by connecting resources in member nations across Europe.”
• A few sentences on how the Node fits into ELIXIR, highlighting the types of services that the Node offers within the context of its nation and internationally.

• Follow (Twitter) or connect (LinkedIn) with all ELIXIR-related employees, particularly those within the organisations that make up the Node. They will likely follow/connect with you in return, reflecting your network on social media. Look through ELIXIR Twitter contacts, organised into lists here: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists

List	Members
Deposition Databases: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/deposition-databases	Data resources that have been defined by ELIXIR at https://www.elixir-europe.org/platforms/data/elixir-deposition-databases)
Core Data Resources: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/core-data-resources	Main list of data resources defined by ELIXIR as fundamental to research in the life sciences — read more at https://www.elixir-europe.org/core-data-resources
Industry and SMEs: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/industry-and-smes	ELIXIR contacts in industry and Small & Medium-sized Enterprises.
ELIXIR institutes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-institutes	The individual institutes that make up ELIXIR and the data services they connect or develop
ELIXIR people: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-people	People affiliated with ELIXIR
ELIXIR Nodes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-nodes	The main accounts of ELIXIR Nodes

• Seek out your target audience, such as research group leads, industry leaders and other people who could benefit from the Node’s services.
• Tweet and post Node content as well as retweeting, liking or sharing Hub content so that followers/connections are more aware of what the Node is doing specifically.
• Use the social media lingo of ELIXIR and other life-science organisations. Refer to the ELIXIR Hashtag and Mentions Dictionary, particularly for Twitter. To check if a hashtag you want to use has a following on Twitter, search for the word on http://ritetag.com.

Managing the Twitter account

• Use Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a free dashboard tool that enables you to manage multiple Twitter accounts within tweetdeck.twitter.com. Several features make it easier to keep track of activities within a Node’s network — all of which can be added as “columns” to the dashboard.

Activity column: Whenever those whom you follow engage with a tweet (i.e. like or comment), the engagement will appear in this section. This way, you can retweet their activities faster.

User column: If you would like to stay updated on the tweets of a particular organisation or individual, add them as a “user column”.

List column: This section shows the tweets of the list(s) of Twitter accounts to which you are subscribed to or a member. All ELIXIR Nodes that have Twitter accounts, for example, are members of the @ELIXIREurope “ELIXIR Nodes” list.

Filtering: Each column you add has the option to filter content. Filtering tweets by a particular hashtag, for example, helps you to see how many people in the Node network are also tweeting about that topic.

Scheduling: If you plan to launch a campaign that would involve tweeting daily or multiple times a day, you can drop those pre-written tweets into Tweetdeck and state when they should be posted. Tweetdeck then runs the campaign automatically.

Alternatives to Tweetdeck are Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com) or Social Booster (https://www.social-booster.com). They both offer free plans and can do all the tasks that Tweetdeck does. An interesting add-on to those is Buffer, especially in combination with its browser extensions (www.buffer.com).

• Create event hashtags. Whenever your Node hosts an event, create a thematic hashtag so that attendees can better associate their tweets with the event. To be sure you haven’t created a pre-existing hashtag, double-check it with http://ritetag.com or search for the hashtag on Twitter.
• Live tweeting at events
  • Tweet as soon as you hear something you appreciate. Live tweets are meant to be immediate. A tweet is more relevant to followers if posted during a presentation rather than after it.
  • Use the event hashtag and mention speakers. Most events will have a hashtag for attendees to include in their tweets as they share insights or promote certain messages amongst their network. Mentioning speakers in the tweets that you post during their presentations will increase the likelihood that followers and new followers see your tweets.
  • Take pictures of slides with meaningful content. Don’t just take a picture of a well-known person giving a presentation; zoom in on a slide with information or a graphic that would have meaning to your social media network (i.e. explaining how a tool works, showing the value of a research infrastructure, statistics on big data challenges, etc.).
  • Take advantage of Tweetdeck. Filter the tweets of users at the same event or presentation as you by an event hashtag. Just create a separate column with the user whose filtered tweets you want to follow. Doing so will help you to shape your own tweets, as well as engage with their content.

Evaluating Twitter activity

• Twitter Analytics (http://analytics.twitter.com). Each Twitter account has its own Twitter Analytics, which shows audience insights and tweet data to be viewed daily or over a maximum of a 15-month period.
  • Tweets > Engagement rate. The engagement rate is the number of engagements (clicks, retweets, replies, follows and likes) divided by the total number of impressions (the number of times users saw a tweet on Twitter). Watching this rate gives a good idea of how much Node tweets are valued by followers over time.
  • Audiences > Your followers > Interests. This feature helps gauge whether your Twitter presence is reaching the Node’s target audience (i.e. bioinformaticians, bioindustries, etc.) or not. Are the majority of your followers interested in categories such as science news, biology, biotech or biomedical sectors, for example?
  • Audiences > Your followers > Follower audience size. Twitter Analytics shows an account’s change in follower size over the past 30 days. This is helpful for measuring a Node’s social media influence.
• Mondovo (https://www.mondovo.com/). While Twitter Analytics provides good data for a single account, this data is put into greater context when compared to the Twitter activity of other organisations.
• The Mondovo “Twitter Competition” tool enables a user to analyse tweet frequency and engagement for the latest 200 tweets of up to five Twitter handles at a time — without knowing the login information of other Twitter accounts. Mondovo charges only $0.30 per handle and provides downloadable data and PDF reports for free.

Managing the LinkedIn account

• Create a Node company page (not a personal profile). Company pages make an organisation more searchable than a profile page. They also link together employees — when someone lists a Node on their profile, the Node’s logo and company page will automatically hyperlink.
• Check for updates from other organisations in the “home” feed at least once a week. Engage with their content as well as posting your own.
• Plan out which content from the Node Twitter account would also be relevant to LinkedIn, where funders, bioindustries, and other research infrastructures might be more active. Some tweets could also be summarised into a single LinkedIn post. Unlike Twitter, LinkedIn posts can be less regular and longer.
• Advertise job vacancies. LinkedIn provides a paid service that would make Node job vacancies searchable, but simply posting the link to a job application and disseminating it across other communication channels (Twitter, Node or lead institute website, newsletters, etc.) could also get the word out.

Evaluating LinkedIn activity

LinkedIn analytics. A company profile comes equipped with analytics for visitors, updates (posts) and followers. The following metrics would most quickly give an idea of a Node page success:

• Visitors > Visitor demographics. Pay close attention to the job functions and affiliated industries of visitors. Are you reaching the bioinformatics/research sector?
• Updates > Social engagement over time. Examine the reach of your posts.

• Getting started
• Distinguish Node activities from Hub activities
• Managing the Twitter account
• Evaluating Twitter activity
• Managing the LinkedIn account
• Evaluating LinkedIn activity

Getting started

Each member nation joined a large network of institutes and universities when it became an ELIXIR Node. Mirroring this network’s presence on social media increases user traffic to the data resources vital to research.

Since ELIXIR provides life-science services primarily for those in academia and industry, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most appropriate social media channels.

	Twitter	LinkedIn
Message length	Up to 280 characters, including links	Undefined, but can be multiple long-form paragraphs
Message frequency	High frequency: daily or multiple times a day	Lower frequency: monthly, weekly
Message purpose (common examples)	Quick updates and promotions of Node activity (i.e. news releases, events) Campaigns to draw attention to the Node or ELIXIR (i.e. “Open Access Week”) Advertise vacancies Invitations to events	Milestone updates (i.e. decision to collaborate with another organisation) Activity highlights (i.e. link to a feature story on a database, tool, research group, etc.) Advertise vacancies
Audience	Larger emphasis on bioinformaticians, staff of research institutes and universities	Larger emphasis on industry leaders, research infrastructure stakeholders and funders
Ways to draw attention to frequently-used words and involve contacts (See the ELIXIR Hashtag and Mentions Dictionary)	Words: Hashtags (concepts preceded by #, i.e. #bigdata) Contacts: Mentions of other Twitter users (Twitter account names preceded by @, i.e. @ELIXIREurope)	Words: Hashtags work as they do on Twitter, but tend to be less frequently followed Contacts: Type the name of a connection and LinkedIn will automatically link to that person/organisation’s profile

• Make most content linkable. Even if an image is attached, adding a link maximises a follower’s interaction with the tweet or post and drives traffic over to a website.
• Always shorten links using free sites or browser plug-ins such as https://goo.gl/ and https://bitly.com/. Twitter in particular will cut off a link with an ellipsis (...) if too long. Shortening a link looks better and allows you to you use more of the tweet character limit for text.
• Tell Node staff when you have posted or tweeted content so that they can share or like it. While only the Node account officially represents ELIXIR, staff engagements can help quickly boost views of Node content from the target audience.
• Make your posts match the views of the ELIXIR Node. For official accounts, engagements with other posts can be seen as endorsements. Don’t engage with posts that ELIXIR would not endorse. If someone has mentioned a Node account in a questionable post, ignore it.

Distinguish Node activities from Hub activities

• Clarify the Node’s role in its profile bio.

Twitter:

“[Name of the ELIXIR Node] unites [country]’s leading life sciences organisations focused on [bioinformatics, particular area of bioinformatics, etc.] as part of @ELIXIREurope. Develops services such as [mention services, particularly those that have Twitter accounts]. Based at [i.e. mention lead institute, particularly if it has a Twitter account].

• For example: “ELIXIR Portugal unites the country’s leading life sciences organisations focused on #bioinformatics as part of @ELIXIREurope. Develops services such as @enasequence and @MINT_database. Based at @LeadInstitute.”

LinkedIn:

The LinkedIn “about us” section should be 1-2 paragraphs — basically a condensed version of what is written on the Node page of elixir-europe.org (see section on “Online Content Guidelines”). The “about us” section should include the following:

• A brief explanation of what ELIXIR is as a whole: i.e. “ELIXIR’s broad aim is to facilitate access to biological data for the life-science community by connecting resources in member nations across Europe.”
• A few sentences on how the Node fits into ELIXIR, highlighting the types of services that the Node offers within the context of its nation and internationally.

• Follow (Twitter) or connect (LinkedIn) with all ELIXIR-related employees, particularly those within the organisations that make up the Node. They will likely follow/connect with you in return, reflecting your network on social media. Look through ELIXIR Twitter contacts, organised into lists here: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists

List	Members
Deposition Databases: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/deposition-databases	Data resources that have been defined by ELIXIR at https://www.elixir-europe.org/platforms/data/elixir-deposition-databases)
Core Data Resources: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/core-data-resources	Main list of data resources defined by ELIXIR as fundamental to research in the life sciences — read more at https://www.elixir-europe.org/core-data-resources
Industry and SMEs: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/industry-and-smes	ELIXIR contacts in industry and Small & Medium-sized Enterprises.
ELIXIR institutes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-institutes	The individual institutes that make up ELIXIR and the data services they connect or develop
ELIXIR people: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-people	People affiliated with ELIXIR
ELIXIR Nodes: https://twitter.com/ELIXIREurope/lists/elixir-nodes	The main accounts of ELIXIR Nodes

• Seek out your target audience, such as research group leads, industry leaders and other people who could benefit from the Node’s services.
• Tweet and post Node content as well as retweeting, liking or sharing Hub content so that followers/connections are more aware of what the Node is doing specifically.
• Use the social media lingo of ELIXIR and other life-science organisations. Refer to the ELIXIR Hashtag and Mentions Dictionary, particularly for Twitter. To check if a hashtag you want to use has a following on Twitter, search for the word on http://ritetag.com.

Managing the Twitter account

• Use Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a free dashboard tool that enables you to manage multiple Twitter accounts within tweetdeck.twitter.com. Several features make it easier to keep track of activities within a Node’s network — all of which can be added as “columns” to the dashboard.

Activity column: Whenever those whom you follow engage with a tweet (i.e. like or comment), the engagement will appear in this section. This way, you can retweet their activities faster.

User column: If you would like to stay updated on the tweets of a particular organisation or individual, add them as a “user column”.

List column: This section shows the tweets of the list(s) of Twitter accounts to which you are subscribed to or a member. All ELIXIR Nodes that have Twitter accounts, for example, are members of the @ELIXIREurope “ELIXIR Nodes” list.

Filtering: Each column you add has the option to filter content. Filtering tweets by a particular hashtag, for example, helps you to see how many people in the Node network are also tweeting about that topic.

Scheduling: If you plan to launch a campaign that would involve tweeting daily or multiple times a day, you can drop those pre-written tweets into Tweetdeck and state when they should be posted. Tweetdeck then runs the campaign automatically.

Alternatives to Tweetdeck are Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com) or Social Booster (https://www.social-booster.com). They both offer free plans and can do all the tasks that Tweetdeck does. An interesting add-on to those is Buffer, especially in combination with its browser extensions (www.buffer.com).

• Create event hashtags. Whenever your Node hosts an event, create a thematic hashtag so that attendees can better associate their tweets with the event. To be sure you haven’t created a pre-existing hashtag, double-check it with http://ritetag.com or search for the hashtag on Twitter.
• Live tweeting at events
  • Tweet as soon as you hear something you appreciate. Live tweets are meant to be immediate. A tweet is more relevant to followers if posted during a presentation rather than after it.
  • Use the event hashtag and mention speakers. Most events will have a hashtag for attendees to include in their tweets as they share insights or promote certain messages amongst their network. Mentioning speakers in the tweets that you post during their presentations will increase the likelihood that followers and new followers see your tweets.
  • Take pictures of slides with meaningful content. Don’t just take a picture of a well-known person giving a presentation; zoom in on a slide with information or a graphic that would have meaning to your social media network (i.e. explaining how a tool works, showing the value of a research infrastructure, statistics on big data challenges, etc.).
  • Take advantage of Tweetdeck. Filter the tweets of users at the same event or presentation as you by an event hashtag. Just create a separate column with the user whose filtered tweets you want to follow. Doing so will help you to shape your own tweets, as well as engage with their content.

Evaluating Twitter activity

• Twitter Analytics (http://analytics.twitter.com). Each Twitter account has its own Twitter Analytics, which shows audience insights and tweet data to be viewed daily or over a maximum of a 15-month period.
  • Tweets > Engagement rate. The engagement rate is the number of engagements (clicks, retweets, replies, follows and likes) divided by the total number of impressions (the number of times users saw a tweet on Twitter). Watching this rate gives a good idea of how much Node tweets are valued by followers over time.
  • Audiences > Your followers > Interests. This feature helps gauge whether your Twitter presence is reaching the Node’s target audience (i.e. bioinformaticians, bioindustries, etc.) or not. Are the majority of your followers interested in categories such as science news, biology, biotech or biomedical sectors, for example?
  • Audiences > Your followers > Follower audience size. Twitter Analytics shows an account’s change in follower size over the past 30 days. This is helpful for measuring a Node’s social media influence.
• Mondovo (https://www.mondovo.com/). While Twitter Analytics provides good data for a single account, this data is put into greater context when compared to the Twitter activity of other organisations.
• The Mondovo “Twitter Competition” tool enables a user to analyse tweet frequency and engagement for the latest 200 tweets of up to five Twitter handles at a time — without knowing the login information of other Twitter accounts. Mondovo charges only $0.30 per handle and provides downloadable data and PDF reports for free.

Managing the LinkedIn account

• Create a Node company page (not a personal profile). Company pages make an organisation more searchable than a profile page. They also link together employees — when someone lists a Node on their profile, the Node’s logo and company page will automatically hyperlink.
• Check for updates from other organisations in the “home” feed at least once a week. Engage with their content as well as posting your own.
• Plan out which content from the Node Twitter account would also be relevant to LinkedIn, where funders, bioindustries, and other research infrastructures might be more active. Some tweets could also be summarised into a single LinkedIn post. Unlike Twitter, LinkedIn posts can be less regular and longer.
• Advertise job vacancies. LinkedIn provides a paid service that would make Node job vacancies searchable, but simply posting the link to a job application and disseminating it across other communication channels (Twitter, Node or lead institute website, newsletters, etc.) could also get the word out.

Evaluating LinkedIn activity

LinkedIn analytics. A company profile comes equipped with analytics for visitors, updates (posts) and followers. The following metrics would most quickly give an idea of a Node page success:

• Visitors > Visitor demographics. Pay close attention to the job functions and affiliated industries of visitors. Are you reaching the bioinformatics/research sector?
• Updates > Social engagement over time. Examine the reach of your posts.