Trust the network - it probably knows more than you do

Social media and blogs enable us to easily focus on the latest news and trends on terminology, providing us with regular updates. 

This is the most important aspect emerged at the EAFT Terminology Summit, organised by TERMCAT, the Catalan Terminology Organisation in Barcelona, last November. The topic for 2014 was: How does social networking affect terminology work?

In recent years social networks have burst into life, and into terminology work, too. Terminological work and its dissemination are no exception. This is why the international terminology community opened a debate about the impact of social media on all spheres of terminology work, from research all the way through to dissemination.
According to Anita Nuopponen's presentation:

• Social networks, if properly used, can be effectively used to find terminological resources.
• Blogs are useful to provide own opinions, reflections and for being an optimal environment for discussing different points of view.
• Twitter allows us to disseminate information, get visibility, link to useful information, follow interesting conferences we cannot attend through live-tweeting updates.

Related to Anita Nuoppen's presentation, there was a moment of great fun for me: she was listing the most reliable resources for terminology reseach and this list included, among the others, me!! I blushed and felt so honoured that she mentioned me as an excellent example of Twitter usage for terminology! 

#EAFTSummit2014 OMG!!! 😍 I'm quoted by @ANuopponen in her presentation!! ☺️☺️😊 blushing!! pic.twitter.com/nNuqJYMGJk

— Maria Pia Montoro (@WordLo) 27 Novembre 2014

Back to the conference, in brief, lessons learned:

• Let's share knowledge! Disconnected experts are invisible to the network and irrelevant to the system (@ictlogist).
• Let’s leverage the power of blogging! Blogs are usually more timely than newspapers in discussing new topics and concepts and crucial to raise awareness on the importance of terminology (@terminologia).

I provided a more detailed information about the Terminology Summit on the post: People have the power: the crowd-powered terminologist on the TermBloggers Lounge.

If you like this topic, you can find a lot of interesting suggestions in this post: Social media tips for translators and interpreters, by +Gala Gil Amat, where she explains her fresh and innovative approach to communication, that one that only ‘millenials’ have as natural talent.

For best practices on how to get the most from social networks as a translator, I invite you to read also:

• Why blogging for other translators can be worth your while by +Else Gellinek  
• Social media strategies by +Catherine Christaki

Both post are on +Caroline Alberoni 's blog: Carol'sadventures in translation, a valuable resource providing tips and tricks for translators.