Using social media for research

Many people use social media -- Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc. -- to stay connected to their family and friends, and many companies have adopted social media to market their products and services. But researchers also are increasingly using social media to keep up in their fields and to participate in online communities of practice.

The International Centre for Guidance Studies has prepared an online guide titled Social media: A guide for researchers designed to help researchers learn more about using social media and select the best tools for them. They note:

One of the most important things that researchers do is to find, use and disseminate information, and social media offers a range of tools which can facilitate this... Social media can change the way in which you undertake research, and can also open up new forms of communication and dissemination.

When deciding which tools are best for you, first consider where people in your field "hang out." Do they use LinkedIn or Facebook for networking? Tumblr or Twitter for microblogging? Delicious or Diigo for bookmarking? Zotero or Mendeley for citation sharing? Or some other tool listed here?

What social media tools do researchers in your discipline use? Please comment!