The impact agenda has led to social media being used in a role it may not be equipped to perform

In a rapidly changing higher education landscape, where the meaning of "impact" and the expectations surrounding it are continually developing, the perceived relevance of social media seems obvious. Accordingly, increasing numbers of institutions are encouraging their researchers to take up social media to communicate their research to wider society. However, as Katy Jordan and Mark Carrigan explain, the rhetoric and reality of online engagement rarely match up and the possibilities social media offers for generating research impact are more elusive than they might initially seem. This leads to a problem whereby the practices in which we invest hope of achieving impact come to substitute for the impact that was their intended outcome.