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Social Media

Delegates use a variety of social media platforms as a way of sharing research knowledge with the public and allowing people who cannot attend conferences to follow and participate in discussion.

Users of social media platforms can search for key terms or click on a hashtag and see all posts that include it, allowing them to follow the IMC or any public individual conversations related to it. They can also see every post from anyone that they follow, whether it uses a hashtag or not.

This policy focuses on platforms such as Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram, and should apply to any other public forum platforms used by researchers. The same principles apply to all social media channels used to talk about IMC 2025, including the public and private video and text-based messaging tools integrated into the IMC virtual platform.

Many of our delegates post regularly, and you should expect other delegates to post about your paper unless you have expressly requested otherwise. Session organisers will be asked to contact the speakers in their session to ask if they would prefer not to be posted about. Moderators are asked to make this clear at the start of the session, but they may also wish to remind audiences during questions/comments to make sure latecomers are aware.

Please respect the wishes of individual speakers. If the speaker is happy for you to post about their paper:

  • Use the year-specific hashtag, e.g. #IMC2025, so that social media users can see all posts related to the event.
  • Mention the session number or title of the session so users can see posts related to that session.
  • Clearly attribute the content of the post to the speaker and mention them by at least their surname. If they have a social media account and you know their  handle, include their handle instead.
  • Always separate your own comments about a topic from those of the speaker or any other participants. If you quote anyone directly, use quotation marks. Most social media platforms have at least 280-characters of space in which to write, which provides more space to credit speakers fully.
  • Listen carefully to the speaker and reflect the content of the paper fairly and accurately.
  • Be respectful and constructive. Feel free to engage with the speaker’s ideas, ask questions and suggest areas of further research, but please do not post anything you would not be willing to say in the Q&A session after the paper. Social media platforms are public forums where anyone can follow a conversation.
  • You may also decide to add to the conversation by posting links to relevant articles, the speaker’s presentation, their online profile or other resources. If you do, links can be shortened to fit into posts more easily by using sites such as tinyurl.com. Please note that pages, recordings, files, and content within the IMC virtual platform will only be viewable by registered delegates.

Speakers may be happy for you to take photos of them or their presentations, but always ask permission first.