Promoting your research
You’ve published your first journal article, your first book chapter, or even your first book. Congratulations! Now you’re probably wondering how to maximise its reach, readership and usage.
While your publisher will undoubtedly be busy behind the scenes doing everything they can to promote your publication, there's definitely a lot to be said about the strength of author marketing. Your networks are a key audience, after all, and no one is better placed to reach out to them than yourself, an expert in your field.
In this guide, we will look at:
- Why self-promotion is important
- How to find an audience
- Promoting your research – a checklist
- Methods for spreading the word
Why self-promotion is important
Promoting your work can be an invaluable part of the research journey. It enables you to find and define an audience, maximise the reach of your work, and even build connections and future opportunities. In a sense, it’s the business of selling yourself. That can sound like a daunting task, but as we find ourselves in an increasingly digital-focused world, it’s never been easier to promote your work and make meaningful connections using the wealth of tools and platforms that are available. Even adopting just one or two of the methods we suggest in this guide can have an incredible impact on the reach and influence of your research. So feel free to cherry pick whichever method or methods you are comfortable with, and certainly don’t feel the need to do everything (although if you’re keen, this isn’t a bad thing)!
Take X (formerly known as Twitter), for example. At the Press, X is our main social channel, and over the years we have seen an exponential growth in not just our followers, but engagement. You’ll find that most, if not all, small and major publishers have an X feed. Your university will have one, too. So if you’re not on X, it’s probably a good idea to think about setting up an account. Of course, you’re mostly likely to know where your community gathers online – we’ve got tips on multiple platform options in our section on social media.
How to find an audience
Building an audience by using a variety of digital channels can seem like a huge task, but it doesn’t have to be. First of all, you have to establish your audience – who are they? Think about the people who need to know about your research. Start off with your immediate network: your colleagues, personal connections and any existing following you might have online. Then build on this by taking a look at who those connections are engaging with (who are your colleagues following on X and LinkedIn, what blog outlets are your peers reading or even submitting to, what channels does your publisher use to promote your research?). From here, you can start to build a meaningful network by following and engaging with individuals and organisations that are organically linked to the network that you already have. Naturally, when you begin to tweet, post and talk about your work online, you will build an audience via those channels, too.
Promoting your research – a checklist
Here are some easy ways that you can help to spread the word about your article to people working in your field:
- Share your article/chapter/book’s webpage on your email signature (you can usually ask your marketing contact for help with this)
- Send an email to your colleagues and friends to let them know that your article/chapter/book has been published
Websites
- Share your article/chapter/book’s webpage on your institutional website
- Share your article/chapter/book’s webpage on your personal website, if you have one
- Add your article/chapter/book to any corresponding Wikipedia entry's pages as a reference
Social media
- Post on your social media: Facebook, X, LinkedIn, your blog, etc. You could also post a link to the article on your Academia.edu and ResearchGate profiles but please note that most publishers will not allow you to post your entire work on commercial sites
- Don't forget to tag your publisher on X!
- If your department has a news feed or any social media profiles, ask them to share the link, too
- Write a blog post for your publisher and/or university blog, or your own blog if you have one – read our handy section on blogging
- Read our section on social media marketing
Your library and institution
- Make sure you recommend the title to your institution’s library; the strength of a staff/student recommendation goes a long way to encouraging the library to subscribe/purchase – this will increase the number of people who are able to read your work
- Encourage your friends and contacts at other universities to request a subscription through their library
- Don’t forget to let your library press office know about your publication – they may be able to help promote it to the press
