{"id":3231,"date":"2019-11-27T09:36:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T09:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-build-your-own-personal-audience-for-your-research-paper\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:31:11","slug":"how-to-build-your-own-personal-audience-for-your-research-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-build-your-own-personal-audience-for-your-research-paper","title":{"rendered":"How to build your own personal audience for your research paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letters of acceptance for journal articles sometimes include a request from the editor for you to share and promote your article online. This is understandable \u2013 the journal wants your paper to be as widely read and cited as possible and in turn will benefit from the increased coverage and prestige that follows. It also clearly of value to you as the author as well; but promoting research is tough. You are competing for attention online (which is where most day-to-day promotion will take place) in an environment in which more content is being created and consumed than ever before.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A study on data produced in 2018[1] for example found that in every minute of the day<\/i> more than 470,000 tweets and 49,000 Instagram posts are published, while users also watch over 4 million videos.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For researchers whose core skillset doesn\u2019t always include online promotion<\/a>, cutting through this digital noise can seem an insurmountable task. Faced with this challenge it can feel attractive to rely solely on sporadic media coverage, consider tending towards a little sensationalism to try and attract attention, or even just to avoid it altogether.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But there is another way \u2013 building your own personal audience through content marketing across available online channels. In this post I will take you through a simple process to find and access online channels that you can use to build an audience to which you can promote your research.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s dive in and see how you can go about doing this.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Establishing a personal audience<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Your ability to generate interest in a new paper is a function of the quality and novelty of your research (which will drive media interest, for example) and the number of people you can directly inform about your work. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This group of people is your personal audience<\/i> \u2013 a collection of colleagues, followers and connections who have previously shown an interest in what you do. A personal audience is something that you have a level of control over and isn\u2019t tied to any one organisation or platform. In other fields, such as marketing and journalism[2], a personal audience is seen as real strategic strength for building interest in new work which confers value on the audience’s ‘owner.’<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Your journal publishing strategy has peaks and troughs in terms of the time and effort you need to put in. In those troughs, build your capacity for making an ever-greater impact with your important new research by establishing and growing a personal audience and preparing to promote your work to them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The fundamental process is quite simple;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Select a range of online channels that you can, and want to, access.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Create interesting content relating to your research area on those channels on an ongoing basis.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. When the time is right, promote your latest paper to this audience.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As your audience grows, your capacity to gain greater coverage and achieve more impact with your research grows with it.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>You\u2019ll find that there are all sorts of channels available to you when you stop to map them out \u2013 let\u2019s begin with some that may have a ready-made audience you can access.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Assess your available third-party channels<\/strong><\/p>\n

    To start with, look at the external communication channels that are already open to you. The quickest way to develop your own audience is to leverage platforms that already have one, and if you can do so in a way that also benefits the owners of those platforms, they are likely to help support and promote your work.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Below is a list of common online channels run by bodies in whose interest it is to share your research success.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    For each of them that apply to you, take a look whether they run news sections or blogs on which you could share stories about your work and, if needed, contact the people who manage them to find out how to go about making a contribution:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n