Doing research on and in social media highlights the complexity of seeing a researcher as something outside of a media practice. In this paper I articulate and explore my own research presence in social media, framing it in the context of doing research on (and in) ‘social innovation’. I argue that social media tools in fact can be seen as a social innovation of it’s own. Using the microblog tool Twitter I engage in different forms of practice: 1) following my followers social innovation activity on Twitter 2) asking my followers for social innovation examples on Twitter 3) conduct searches for social innovation on Twitter. Discussing production of this scientific knowledge I touch upon social circumstances surrounding social innovation. I present the ability of Putnam’s research on civicness to understand and explore possible value of social media practice in this context. Results implicate an intricate ongoing weaving of connecting practices, what I describe as themes of ‘cross-pollinations’, ‘personal as political’ and ‘dynamic communities’. I claim that the established norm of reciprocity and the forms it can take is especially interesting to explore more for doing research on and in social media.