Promoting yourself & your research: Creating a personal website

image courtesy of Threadless

I meet a lot of PhD students and early career researchers who are interested in establishing an online presence. Many are aware that communicating research online can give them a competitive advantage but are not sure where to start.

Essentially, creating an online communications strategy for your research involves two activities: creating a space online that tells a story about yourself and your research, and driving traffic to this location.

This blog post will provide a guide to choosing a content platform that will bring your research to life in the limited time you have available. My next blog post will outline how to drive traffic to this content platform.

Step 1. What’s your strategy?

Starting a blog without a strategy is like commencing a research project without a proposal. A great way to waste your valuable time.  What outcomes do you want to achieve as a result of this activity? What specific audience are you writing for?  Do you want to build an academic community around your work, engage practitioners who will apply your research, or communicate with public audiences? Focus is essential. These audiences have very different concerns.  How will you measure success?  Blogs and social media are not low cost communication channels. While they may cost very little to set up, the opportunity costs are enormous. In fact - thinking strategically about online reputation building is so important I have written an entire blog post about it: read this first.

Step 2.  Choose a domain name.

Think carefully about your website domain name because changing it later is not easy. Blogging involves spending years and months growing an active, engaged community around a specific topic. Changing your blog name, target audience or topic area should be avoided.

Confession time! Guilty as charged. I initially started Historypunk in 2010 as a public facing blog to share stories about Australian history. Two years later, I made the decision to change direction and build an academic community around my research interests instead. I was lucky to be able to keep my blog name the same, but I (initially) lost some readers.

Tips for choosing a domain name

• Your blog name should be unique, easy to remember, and easy to spell (avoid hyphens).  
• Aim for consistency. Your blog title and domain name (URL) should match. If possible, your social media accounts should match too.
• Do you want to include key words in the domain name?  These can help communicate the topic clearly and also boost search engine rankings. Academic blogs that use topic key words in their titles include the brilliant Early Modern John blog by historian John Gallagher, Feminist Frequency by pop culture critic Anita Sakeesan and Georgian London by the wonderful Lucy Inglis.
• Do you want to invent something new? You might wish to invent a unique domain name that you can define in your own way (a bit like a brand name). This is the approach I chose. Being less specific can also allow you more flexibility when it comes to content. For example, Ryan Hunt’s digital humanities blog IvryTwr, Tim Sheratts’ Discontents, and medical history blog - Wonders and Marvels.
• Think carefully about the future. How quickly will you outgrow your blog name? What would happen if you changed your field of research? To avoid these kind of issues, many scholars choose to blog under their own name. This includes digital humanist Dan Cohen and urban historian Katrina Gulliver.  Historian Fred Gibbs recently wrote a wonderful post on this subject - outlining the reasons why he changed his blog name from Historyproef to Fredgibs.net.

 

"I’ve got a couple of ideas for a domain name. What should I do next?"

1. Google them! Before you decide on a name you should explore the search landscape. Eventually you want your blog to appear at the top of Google search rankings. Are there any major competitors that will prevent this?  For example, if you share your name with a well known celebrity. When I first googled ‘Jo Hawkins’ and ‘Historypunk’ I discovered a search landscape dominated by ‘Betty Jo Hawkins’, a female wrestler who toured the USA in the 1950s*, and several websites that explored the history of punk music. After a few years blogging my site now appears above these topics in search rankings.
2.  Check if the URL is available
3. Are corresponding Twitter and Facebook accounts available?

*I know! I was utterly thrilled.

Step 3. Purchase your domain name.

If you have come up with a good domain name, purchase it as soon as you can. You can set up the website later. They are fairly cheap so if you have a few potential names, perhaps secure a couple of them.

I purchased both www.historypunk.com and www.historypunk.com.au. In Australia, you need to have an ABN to purchase a .com.au domain name but can register for a sole trader ABN for free online in a couple of minutes. I also own www.johawkins.com.au  but don't use it right now (www.johawkins.com had already been purchased by someone else).

A word of caution. If there is any chance  - any chance at all - that you will use these domain names in the future, do not let them lapse. Make sure you renew them each year. The web is full of pirates who will buy a recently lapsed domain name and try to sell it back to you at a hefty profit.

Step 4. Choose a content platform.

Traditional blogs

Wordpress and Blogger are both open source blogging platforms that are easy to use and come with plenty of design options. Most academics who blog use one of these platforms. Think carefully about which blogging platform you choose as it is complicated to change it later. I created my blog using ‘Blogger’ but, in hindsight, I think Wordpress has a larger range of design options. It is too much work to change it so it is staying like it is!

Social blogs

You've probably heard of Tumblr. This content platform is based on the insight that people don't just want to create new content - they want to share existing content. Tumblr makes it easy to do just that. You can choose to write an original blog post - or 're-blog' a post from another Tumblr blog on your own platform. The design has been optimised for those who share lots of images and multimedia. Due its visual nature and the ease of creating and sharing content I think Tumbr is a particularly good platform for blogs aimed at bridging academic and public audiences. Popular Tumblr blogs include scientist Joe Hanson's It’s Ok to Be Smart, the interdisciplinary Explore blog and Today’s Document  - a fascinating blog updated daily by the US national archives

Don’t have time to blog?

If you don’t have time to author a blog you have a few options. You could choose to create a static website to bring your research to life - a strategy employed to great effect by historian Peter Stanley and UWA digital humanist Brett Hirsch.  However, static sites are updated less frequently and thus likely to receive less traffic - especially if you are not building upon an already established reputation. Blogging is powerful because Google will rank your site  higher in search results if (1) they see you update it regularly, (2) people visit it often and, (3) they notice other sites linking to it.

Another option is to direct traffic to your Linked In or Academia.edu account. Just remember, while these sites are strongly optimised for search rankings, you don’t ‘own’ these platforms. You are essentially creating a community on someone else’s site  - one which they can change or monetise as they see fit. The same goes for directing traffic to the staff profile on your university website. If you leave this workplace, you can't take this with you.

"Hang on, how do I redirect my blog to the domain name/s I have purchased?"

Website hosting describes the service of storing the text, images and design of your blog. When you create a website using Wordpress or Blogger they automatically host it for you. For example, when I first created this site using Blogger it was hosted under the name www.historypunksociety.blogspot.com. It didn't really matter what I called the site on Blogger as I knew I wanted to redirect the site to my own URL - www.historypunk.com. You just need to contact a third party provider to arrange this. My site is hosted by Crazy Domains for under $20 per year. I simply called them and they talked me through the process - it took about 20 minutes.

Step 5. Design your site.

Don’t get too hung up on design at the start. Keep it simple. It is not practical for me to build a bespoke site so I use (free) templates provided by my blogging platform. My blog uses the ‘Simple’ template from Blogger which I customised it using fonts and colours.  Nothing fancy! Just clean, classic design.

Step 6: Write your first post.

The fun begins! A few tips for creating powerful content:

The title

• Make the title of each blog post work hard
• The headline should be descriptive and catchy. Check out some great advice here on how to write eye-catching blog headlines.
• Include topic keywords where possible as they will assist SEO

Body copy

• Avoid jargon. Embrace plain English.
• You need to catch a reader's attention so a journalistic style works well. Get to the point quickly. State your findings early, rather than stripping away layers of meaning and concluding with the findings.
• Use headings and subheadings to make your posts easy to scan.
• Use multimedia and images where possible to bring content to life.
• Remember that people have different ways of learning and decision-making so experiment with different communication styles.
• Check out Problogger for lots of useful advice to help you write engaging blog content.

My thesis in three minutes (using Qwiki)

As a self-confessed digital storytelling geek, I’m always interested in new formats and technologies. Inspired by the digital humanities manta “more hack, less yack” it occurred to me that I should take a more hands on approach. This week I thought I’d try out Qwiki – a new platform that combines online interactivity with video and allows people to create dynamic visual web content in minutes.

For me, the most interesting thing about Qwiki is its built-in production values.  It allows you to create slick, professional looking video without the need for complex editing software. Online video shouldn’t be too polished. Keeping it real and being authentic is important – you don’t need to pretend to be a professional broadcaster. Yet, production is probably a major barrier to those considering video content and I like the potential of this product to democratise visual storytelling.


I’m writing my PhD proposal at the moment so it made sense to base a project around this. I wrote the script in around an hour, did one take of video (using the built in webcam on my laptop) and created my Qwiki in about 20 minutes.

Play the Qwiki: My thesis in three minutes.

If you are creating online content, video is a great addition to the mix. It’s a powerful way to bring content to life and engage people for whom visual communications is a preferred communication method. The golden rule? Don’t use video to replicate – use it to animate. It is a complimentary format rather than a replacement for written content. Before you commence, ask yourself why this particular story should be told visually.

At just over 3 minutes, my Qwiki actually feels much too long. I think this format would work better at half this length. If I used it again, I would keep it really simple. I think a short, stand-alone Qwiki could work well within the context of a longer blog post to express part of the story visually. I was a little frustrated about the lack of flexibility but I realise that the simplicity of this product is also its strength.  I would also take advantage of the ability of this medium to integrate other forms of online content to enrich the story; including Google maps, tweets and links.

Help! I don’t have time to blog or tweet.

Productivity guru? Don't make me laugh.

My friend Andrew joked the other day that every time I see him I have another productivity tip. The thought of coming across as some kind of time management guru made me smile as I am pretty sure my fascination stems from a lack of willpower, rather than a surfeit!

Developing the ability to focus on a problem for several hours at a time has been the most formidable challenge of research study. It’s also been the most rewarding. As an advertising executive, constant interruption was a normal part of my job and I rarely had to focus on a single task for more than an hour at a time. Days were full of meetings, emails, phone calls, negotiations and conversations in corridors. Actually, it occurs to me that there are growing similarities between this existence and academic life...

I recently wrote about how important it was for time-poor academics to have a clear strategy and objectives for online activity. In this post, I thought I’d share a few insights into how I try to balance my PhD research, blogging and social media.

1. Keep blog posts short. At around 1,000 words, mine tend to be too long. They generally take between 2-4 hours to write (except this one  – I am trying to take my own advice!). I genuinely love writing them but I know if I made them half this length, not only would they be easier to read, I could post more regularly and reap some major Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) benefits. 
2. Make blogging an extension of work you are already doing. You can adapt presentations, speeches, book reviews or even lecture notes or research you have been undertaking for teaching purposes. You could even adapt an email you have written and are rather proud of, for example, one that explains a concept, includes instructions or advice (‘How To’ posts are often really popular) or argues an opinion.
3. When you blog about something new - make it count. I often use the blog as an excuse to research and learn about a research interest that is not related to my actual PhD thesis. 
4. Create a ‘content calendar’ so you always have ideas on hand. Mine is a word document. Whenever I have an idea for a blog post I jot it down along with a few notes. It doesn’t take long before you have more ideas for posts than you have time to write them! It also means that you will rarely need to start writing from a (scary) blank page.
5. Collaborate with others. Get together with a group of your peers and create a multi-author blog for your discipline or research group. You can create an editorial calendar and set out deadlines for contributions.  This takes the pressure off one person and keeps the blog fresh, dynamic and chock full of new content.
6. Enforce a technology embargo at certain times of the day. My PhD comes first so I work on my research 9-5 and blog before or after this time. I block out several chunks of the day for research and try to stay offline during this time. Since I don’t need to be instantly available during the day at the moment (I know, lucky me), my phone is generally on silent to ward off interruptions.
7. Don’t be ruled by technology - make technology work for you. When my mind is wandering, the temptation to go online can be overpowering (if I'm reading the newspaper, that counts as 'work', right?). I use a firefox plugin called Leechblock to restrict access to certain time wasting sites during the day.
8. Try a Pomodoro. I write in 25 minute bursts using the Pomodoro technique, a frighteningly simple productivity trick that helps me stay focused for longer. It also allows me to quantify the amount of time I spend working on my PhD each day - which is marvellous on days when the wordcount really doesn’t reflect the amount of effort you have put in. For example, when the day's ‘work’ consists of revising (or discarding) things you have already written.  
9. Read a lot of blogs? Feed them into one place. Bloggers tend to read a hell of a lot of blogs! It’s how they find fresh, new, inspiring content to share. I am following about 30 academic blogs at the moment (plus another 20 digital media blogs) and feed all of them into Bloglovin so they are in one location. I check them quickly each morning (while having a  cup of tea and toast) to see if anything new catches my eye.
10. You don’t actually need to be online to tweet.  Each morning, I use Tweetdeck to schedule a few tweets to appear at different times over the course of the day. This allows me to share content at specific times (when I think people might be around to see it) without actually having to stop work and go online, ie: 9am (lunchtime in Eastern states of Australia and evening in USA/Europe), 1pm (Perth lunchtime) or 9pm (morning in USA/Europe). That being said, Twitter is all about conversation so it is vital to check in a couple of times during the day.

I’m hoping you’ll find a few of these suggestions helpful! Please feel free to share your own in the comments section below.

Developing your personal digital marketing strategy: A guide for academics

Image via the Keep Calm Gallery

I’ve heard more and more people talking about the importance of establishing an online presence and the ways in which this kind of activity can give academics a competitive advantage.

Yet, while everyone is telling you to “get online!”, few offer any guidance on where on earth to start.

Building an online platform to promote yourself and your work involves a considerable investment of time. Academics are notoriously time-poor. How can you be sure your efforts are being focused most effectively?

You need to develop a strategy.

If you are serious about establishing an online presence you need to do more than share content. You need to create it. The most straightforward method involves creating compelling content (generally, using a blog) and building an audience (using social media). 

Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest... The sheer number of options can feel daunting. It's important to remember that blogs and social media platforms are just tools. Don't let technology lead your strategy. You can choose your weapon/s later based on your specific needs. Your first step should be to think deeply about what you really want to achieve.

How to create your own digital marketing strategy in 5 simple steps.

 

Step 1: What are your objectives?

What do you want to achieve? Would you like to establish yourself as a thought leader and innovator in a particular space? Raise awareness of your professional skill set? Get speaking engagements or writing gigs? Network with other researchers? Become a public authority on a specific topic? Or perhaps explore an issue that is often ignored by mainstream media? Write a list of objectives and prioritise them.

Step 2:  What is it that you have to offer?

What gets you excited? Successful bloggers genuinely love what they do – and it’s infectious. Many of my favourite history blogs originate from a scholars fascination with a particular topic. I defy you to read Georgian London,  The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice or The Tudor Tutor without being affected by their inescapable enthusiasm. Your blog topic will stem from a personal intellectual interest or from an insight into what a specific audience needs. Ideally it should come from both.

When I used to write creative briefs for advertising campaigns I would always include a 'single-minded proposition’ - a short sentence that expressed the idea I was trying to communicate. I based it on two things; the characteristics of the product and insights into the audience I wanted to engage.  When I first launched Historypunk it was based on a single idea - Australian history isn’t boring. I was convinced that if people were introduced to a diverse range of untold stories and hidden histories they would fall in love with Australian history. These four words guided me when designing the blog and writing blogs posts. I chose the name of the blog to reflect this vision -  irreverent, fun and provocative. Write a sentence that describes your blog in a few short words.

Step 3: Who is your audience?

Do you want to blog for a public audience or an academic audience? It is extremely difficult to cater for both using the same platform as they have such different needs, interests and concerns.  Can you get more even more specific? The better you know your audience, the more effectively you can generate content that will get them excited.

Step 4: What kind of content does your audience want?

To build an audience you need to create compelling content. What type of information would they find interesting or useful?  What might they like to share with others? Perhaps search for other blogs that concern your particular topic and get a feel for where you fit in. Decide what your blog is about and stick to it. It’s ok to write some posts outside of this. I’d say about 20% of my posts lie outside of history and digital media. But know that a tight focus is the most effective way to build an audience.

That being said. Things can change! I launched Historypunk two years ago as a public facing blog but starting my PhD led me to re-think my content strategy. I was becoming increasingly interested digital humanities and knew a blog would be a powerful platform to learn about this emerging discipline and connect with other academics. I also knew I didn’t have time to write two blogs! After considering the benefits and trade-offs of each approach I decided to change direction. I essentially had to start again. Terribly confusing and alienating for my original readers (apologies guys if you are still here!) but it was the right decision for me. Blogging is a learning process. It’s ok to re-evaluate your strategy as you go along. Just be aware of the consequences.

Step 5: How are you going to manage your time?

Blogging is a long-term commitment and it will take time to build an audience. Be very clear about the short-term opportunity costs of this kind of activity and the long term benefits.  The key to blogging success is consistency. Have you ever heard that old business adage that states ‘it takes more effort to get a new customer than retain an old one’? Well, it works online too. If you don’t post regularly, your established audience will stop coming back and you will have to woo them all over again. In addition, Google loves regular blog posts. Consistent blogging will help you rank higher in search results.

Make a commitment to write a certain number of posts per month and block time in your diary to write them. Don’t feel too bad if this is the first rule you break. When I originally launched this blog I aimed to post every week. I failed every week. These days I try to post twice a month. It gets easier.

A final word

Maybe this is all feeling a bit contrived. Isn’t a blog supposed to be a creative space? Absolutely! There is no doubt that many wildly popular blogs evolved organically, with the creator stumbling on a great idea that rapidly developed a large audience (for example, the consistently hilarious Feminist Ryan Gosling and Medieval History Ryan Gosling Tumblr blogs). But this is the exception, not the rule. Thinking strategically about what you want to achieve and how you are investing your time does not make your blog any less authentic. It’s got to be led by your passion. Even if my blog had no readers (and I know I have at least one - Hi Mum!) I would continue to write as it reflects my own philosophy of learning and sharing.

My next post will outline the practicalities of setting up a content platform including tips for naming your website, the pros & cons of various platforms, design and content ideas.

8 reasons why online reputation building can give academics a competitive advantage

 NOTE: The piece below is entirely tactical and does not enter into theoretical debates regarding academic blogging. I highly recommend that you also read Mimi Thi Nguyen’s wonderful blog post, Against Efficiency Machines, as a companion piece. Nguyen asks some thought-provoking questions and raises valid concerns regarding academic blogging. (updated Jan 2014)



I recently read a fantastic blog post that argued that traditional resumes and formal CVs have been replaced by a revolutionary  Automatic CV generator which has ushered in a new age of personal branding.

I couldn’t agree more.

Thinking strategically about your online reputation is not about style over substance. Far from it. It’s about believing in your work, recognising its value and understanding that it deserves an audience. For my part, I’m tired of academics in the humanities underestimating the value of the work they do!

So, have you Googled yourself lately?  These days it’s not egotistical, it’s essential. Your digital footprint does not need to be defined solely by others. You can take simple steps to proactively contribute to this space. Generally this will involve developing a content platform (such as a blog) and using social media to build an audience. It's an active process that involves both content creation and relationship building and one which I believe has the potential to give early career academics a competitive advantage.

8  reasons why you should be investing in your online reputation

1. Connect with a community of people who care about the same thing that you do.
No matter how niche your research area you will find others online that share your interest. It’s a great way to make new contacts, network on a global scale and embrace the Long Tail.

2. Allow people get to know you better (and find you more easily).
Self-publishing to a global audience is a great way to bring your research interests, personality and values to life. It allows people to see what you stand for far more effectively than a formal CV. You can even build a personal brand around yourself and your research. Not only will you establish yourself as an expert on a particular topic, you will become easier to find on search engines such as Google.

3. Improve your writing skills.
Blogging is very different to academic writing, even when you are writing for academic audiences. Whether a blog post is a well-developed idea or a quick thought-point it will generally be quite short (ideally under 500 words, most certainly under 1,000 words). This flexibility allows you to play with ideas and experiment with different writing styles. The prospect of building an audience for your research challenges you to communicate ideas in more engaging ways. The need for brevity and clarity poses a challenge to express complex ideas simply.

4. Refine ideas, collect intelligence and collaborate.
Unlike a journal article, blogging has an immediate feedback loop. For many academics, this is the single worst thing about blogging. In my mind, it’s also the best thing. While a terrifying prospect at first,  sharing your research across disciplines and non academic audiences offers several benefits. Engaging in a public forum means you are accountable for your ideas. Responding to challenges and feedback can help you strengthen arguments, refine ideas and even inspire new ones. This process is what Maria Popova (author of the wonderful Brainpickings blog) calls networked knowledge and combatorial creativity. Chance favours the connected mind...



5. Build a permanent platform from which you can promote your work.
Creating and maintaining a presence online is a long-term strategy.  It’s not about promoting a single journal article or your current research project; it’s about building a dynamic community that you can leverage for ongoing projects.

6. Increase the number of times your journal articles are cited.
In 2011, digital humanities researcher, Melissa Terras (@melissaterras), conducted an experiment to test the impact of blogging and tweeting about her research papers. Terras made all 26 of her academic papers publicly available and profiled a series of these projects using her blog and social media. Within 24 hours, this promotional activity resulted in an an average of 70 downloads per paper. Quite extraordinary.

7. Explore life as a public intellectual.
Academia is about sharing knowledge and I believe that scholars have a social responsibility to engage with broad audiences and contribute to public debate. This is an easy statement to make - the reality can be quite daunting! An online platform can allow you to take tentative steps in this direction and begin to explore the philosophy and process of public engagement.

8. Erode the power that academic publishers have over your reputation. 
The time lag between writing a journal article and getting it published can extend between 6 months and 2 years. Richard Price, the founder of Academia.edu has rightly recognised that “2 years is roughly how long it used to take to send a letter abroad 300 years ago”.  Price is committed to reducing the academic ‘credit gap' that results when scholars are unable to capitalise on benefits of their most recent research projects for job and grant applications. While citations are a key metric used to evaluate the impact of research I believe they will be increasingly supplemented by real time metrics, such as the number of times content is viewed, shared, liked and commented on.

In addition, the web is all about open attribution.  I believe that publicly funded research should be accessible free of charge and the more I learn about academic publishing the more my mind boggles. The structure of paywalls is completely at odds with increasing pressures to communicate with public audiences which I have written about here and here. If deliverables and expectations of academics are to change, institutional structures and metrics used to measure research impact must evolve to accommodate.

3 reasons why you are not investing in your online reputation

1. People will steal my ideas.
Your ideas have value. They are not ‘free’. When you communicate ideas online you don’t earn money but you do earn authority. As an academic you think for a living and are likely to be coming up with new ideas all the time. More ideas than you can possibly investigate in detail. Communicating some of these insights can establish you as a thought leader in your area. The best academic bloggers exude generosity and abundance while retaining key elements of their intellectual property. This process is a careful balancing act. Academics who do this well include digital humanist Dan Cohen (@dancohen), political scientist Corey Robin (@coreyrobin) and pop culture critic Anita Sarkeesian (@femfreq). Museum curators (and innovators) Nina Simon (@ninaksimon) and Seb Chan (@sebchan) also do this brilliantly.

2. People will criticise my ideas.
Academics are used to critique from their peers, but blogging presents the risk of misinformation and misinterpretation by a much broader (often unqualified) audience. The intersection of academia and mass media is a complex space, often defined by conflicting communication objectives. I am planning a future blog post on this important issue however, in the meantime, let me say one thing.  You are not alone. Consumer brands and public figures also operate within this environment and have developed strategies to guide responses to unjustified criticism and uniformed comments (strategies that I will share in another future blog post). But if critique results in you reviewing assumptions and improving your work? Lucky you. After all. Isn't it more important to understand the world a little better than it is to win an argument?

3. I don’t have time for this.
Bravo. You got me. Academics are some of the hardest working professionals I know. Like any investment, building an online reputation has an opportunity cost and the purpose of this particular blog post is to outline potential benefits so you can decide what is right for you. It's not going to be the right approach for everyone. To succeed, I think it has to be something you believe in and enjoy doing.

My next blog post will outline how to develop your own personal digital marketing plan based on what you want to get out of the process and the time you have available.

Socialising Research: How to get your research results noticed and used.

Research impact is a rapidly emerging trend that academics can no longer afford to ignore.

Scholars have always been concerned about the impact of their research within the academy. Reputations and careers are built on the authority that results from a body of influential work.

But things are changing. Today academics are facing increasing pressures from governments and funding bodies to rethink the ways in which they conceptualise research impact.

I recently attended an IAS masterclass on Socialising Research in which Professor Robyn Owens (@robynowens), UWA’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research,  offered  insights into the rapidly evolving Australian research landscape and outlined ways to get research results noticed and used within the academy and beyond. It is no coincidence that this was the second conference on research effectiveness that I have attended within a month at UWA!

The focus on research impact is based on three principles.
•    Universities create knowledge
•    Knowledge has value
•    Research is publicly funded and should be shared

The academy has not always approached knowledge in this way. 
Professor Owens offered the marvellous example of mathematician G. H. Hardy who wrote the 1940 essay ‘A Mathematician's Apology’. For, Hardy, the best kind of intellectual theory had no real life application at all. The ideal of ‘pure knowledge’ was seen to reflect the highest calling of the academy. Hardy died in 1947, so luckily he will never know that the number theory he developed is now a fundamental part of internet banking security systems!

Academics solve problems.
When Professor Owens asked how we saw ourselves as researchers, the answers reflected our disciplines. We were ‘historians’, ‘anthropologists’ and ‘linguists'. She reminded us that a discipline is merely a set of rules that a group of scholars use to solve problems. For example, the problem of obesity is tackled very differently across the disciplines of Law, Politics, Sports Science, Urban Planning and Psychology. I love this structural inversion. Our role as researchers often involves questioning conventional wisdom, yet we often fail to examine the institutional logics we work within.

The political landscape of academia is changing.
Australian funding bodies are increasingly influenced by European impact agendas, including the UK’s “Pathways to Impact” which I wrote about in a previous blog post. In 2010 the Australian Research Council (ARC) launched the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative which evaluates the quality of research by Australian universities. Fields of research at each university are ‘scored’ as being above or below ‘world standard’ using a combination of metric evaluation and peer review. A contentious process!

The research impact of individual researchers has traditionally been measured by the extent to which their research has influenced the advancement of their discipline. This can be indicated by the quality of the journal in which work is published, reviews and reactions, article downloads and patents – however is generally measured by the number of citations the work receives.

While the number of times fellow academics reference your work provides a helpful indication of impact, the system has many limitations. A high number of citations is not proof of research quality in itself. The statistic is also notoriously difficult to measure. Different platforms can provide wildly different estimates (ie: Google Scholar vs. Web of Knowledge). The processing of ‘getting published’ can take a long time -  months or sometimes even years. For information to be 'sticky' it must be relevant and this time lag can be frustrating. In addition, the pay walls of academic journals often prevent public audiences (including the media) from accessing the original article.

Academics should actively promote their research.
Out of 3,303 research papers published by UWA in 2011, 58% have no citations (yet). This statistic is more notable for its commonality among major universities than its size. Once a work is published there is a window of opportunity during which it tends to be discovered -  around 2-3 years after publication. So how can we promote research during this pivotal time?

Professor Owens outlined several ways in which online platforms can used by academics to boost visibility of new knowledge;

1. Write for media outlets that have been specifically created for academic engagement with public audiences such as The Conversation.
2. Where appropriate, use multimedia to share ideas on social platforms like YouTube.
3. Integrate collaboration into the research project itself. Can you create an online platform that can be used as a resource for other scholars or public audiences? Or perhaps even get the public involved in the creation of research itself? 
4. Start a blog to share your research and build a reputation within your area of expertise.
5. Use social media to engage with communities and contribute to conversations.

Inspired by the possibilities, the reaction of her audience of UWA early career researchers was enthusiastic. Many however, were united by a single question...

Where do I start?
Academics are intellectual entrepreneurs. Much of our knowledge is self-taught and to a certain extent it is the responsibility of each individual researcher engage with new technologies.  This being said -  there is a clear need for support and advice in this area. It is for this reason I will be launching a multi-part series of blog posts written for academics in the humanities that will provide a guide to online reputation building. It's something I have been thinking about for a while.




The project will be a learning process for me too. I have worked for several years as a digital marketing manager in the private sector however am looking forward to your feedback which will help me learn more about the complexities and challenges involved faced by scholars in this space.

Advertising in the academy? Maximising research impact in the humanities

 

image via http://researchimpact.files.wordpress.com

What do advertising executives have in common with academics in the humanities? 
They both work in highly competitive environments. They both sell ideas.

As a former advertising executive (turned history PhD student) I have been thinking about this a lot recently.  How do academics sell their research? For many scholars, the pursuit of knowledge and promotion of that knowledge is mutually exclusive. This can be particularly acute in the humanities where it is often challenging to apply conventional understandings of commercial value and intellectual property to research outcomes.

While I’ve spent around ten years working in advertising and marketing, I’m relatively new to the academic world - and am always interested in opportunities to gain insights into the research landscape.  It’s for this reason that I attended a thought-provoking workshop today hosted by the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies and Graduate Research School -  ‘Research with Impact in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’. During the session, Jennifer Chubb, Research and Innovation Officer at The University of York, shared learnings from the UK where changes to research council grant funding applications are forcing academics to think differently about how they define and measure research impact.

With return on public investment under ever increasing scrutiny, 'research impact' is a defined as the 'demonstrable' contribution that good research makes to society and the economy.  UK grant applications must include a pathway to impact which not only includes a description of who benefits from research and details of how they will benefit but a specific plans to ensure they have the opportunity to benefit. It’s essentially a communications and outreach programme that prioritises non-academic audiences.

The Australian Research Council have similar requirements but there are subtle differences. Scholars must outline the ‘potential innovative benefits’ of proposed research and provide information regarding strategies to disseminate and promote research outcomes ‘if appropriate’ but grants do not require a formal communications plan (yet).

There is no doubt that the trend towards research accountability and measurement in the humanities is a contentious issue. My objective is not to engage directly in these debates, but rather to offer a few  thoughts as to how academics could apply learnings from the world of advertising to create compelling communications and engage public audiences.

So, what can academics learn from advertising executives?

1.    Define your target audience/s.
It’s not enough to want to communicate with the ‘general public’. Effective communications result when you tailor specific messages to specific audiences. Who will value your research and how can you communicate the benefits in a way that is most relevant for them?

2.    Sell the benefits of your research, not the features. 
Make a case as to why your research is relevant right now. How can insights add value to target audiences?

3.    Think about communication objectives before you think about communication tools.
Do you want to raise awareness, engage a local community, start a debate, collate stories or generate media coverage? Once you know what you want to achieve you can select the specific tools that will work hardest for you. I love your enthusiasm but I don’t care how excited you are about building a website or running a social media campaign if it's not the best use of your limited time and money.

4.    Don’t underestimate costs.
Websites are not cheap but a well designed website is worth every penny. Costs for (good) design, printing and distribution of promotional collateral (posters, brochures and teaching materials), travel and events soon add up. And it’s not just financial costs you need to think about. While blogging platforms and social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, are technically 'free' to set up they are not low cost options. Getting the most out of these kind of platforms requires careful planning and strategy. Once launched they are time consuming and require the commitment of long-term resources.

5.    Be realistic about the time and money required to achieve your objectives.
If you don’t know the answers – ask someone who does. There is little benefit in including a list of exciting things you are going to do, then not having the resources to achieve them.

6.    Avoid retrospectively assessing research impact at all costs.  
Factor in measurement from the very beginning and brief your team so they know what to look out for. This could include mentions in the media, numbers of phone calls to your office, or requests for information. If you have a website make sure it contains tracking so you can include web analytics such as visits, page views and time spent on the site. There are several simple free tools you can use to 'listen' to conversations online. For example, you can set up Google Alerts to track mentions of your project on blogs or monitor conversations on Twitter. Research impact in the humanities is often not linear so be creative and keep an open mind.

7.    Your project is not finished until you have assessed your communications objectives against actual outcomes. 
Success establishes a track record that demonstrates results and can be used as evidence for a spin-off project or even a brand new grant application. In addition, research impact often extends far beyond the initial time period. Keep listening. Keep recording.

8.    Ask for help when you need it. 
No one is expected to be a jack-of-all-trades and assistance can take the form of specialist advice (ie: building websites, social media campaigns) or training. The university press office can help with media releases however, if academics are increasingly required to engage with public audiences, it will become increasingly important for universities to develop support and training in these areas.


Two things occur to me about a shift towards community engagement and communication in the humanities. The first is how exciting it is. I've written before about how technology has changed the way we tell stories about the past and eroded the authority and influence of 'experts'. For these reasons, I believe public engagement should be an important part of academic life.  The second thing that occurs to me is just how much planning and management this kind of activity involves. Academics in the humanities are already under enormous pressures. For a meaningful and sustainable cultural shift to take place in the academy, there needs to be structural changes to institutions so that support is provided to scholars fulfill these new requirements from funding bodies. Otherwise we risk compromising both research and communications.