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Blog, tweet and podcast
Robert Simpson
Postgraduate student, Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy, UK
(Robert blogs - and tweets - on www.orbitingfrog.com)
If scientists want to engage an audience and have no official means of doing so, blogging is an excellent, free and highly democratic way to communicate your work. Astronomy has a rich online community on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but also generally there are many astronomers blogging and communicating their work as they do it - often uncensored and unfiltered.
All bloggers should remember to write, comment and reply. When writing a blog it is important to understand that readers come to you slowly but organically - growing in number as you participate in the discussion at large. Write your blog posts, and comment on those of other people. Use services like Twitter and Facebook to 'promote' your blog, pointing out that it exists. When you do get readers, reply to them if they leave comments for you. Write, comment and reply. Take it slowly and before too long you can be engaged with the public and other astronomers on a daily basis.
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