I´ve attended a two-day webinar on the topic Gear up for research communication. The webinar was offered at Stanford and featured several speakers discussing everything from how to reach out to science journalists to how to feature your science in social media and what your online research presence could look like.
I already have a blog (obviously), but it´s not just about research. And I have a couple of social media accounts, but they are also not primarily about my research. I learned that Twitter is where science communication is currently happening, but I don´t have any prescence on Twitter (and although I have tried it out, I don´t plan to use it). The important thing, we were told, is not to create a lot of social media accounts, but to maintain the ones we have (or create one or two and maintain them well).
But the important thing is not what you have, but what you relate: A website is great to showcase your research (and hopefully attract talented students to your group), social media accounts are great for showing off snapshots of your research process and results, and to discuss research or find references. Then, there are sites like Research Gate where you can interact with other researchers in your field, but this is more peer-to-peer discussion rather than research communication with the gneral public.
So, in deciding which research communication strategy to choose, one should ask oneself – what is the goal of the strategy we are about to choose? To show off my work? Promote myself? Or educate others? Perhaps all of it!