Social media is an effective tool for promoting your business and research study. It directly reaches out to people who will benefit from your study. It also expands the target audience. Ideally, researchers will want to have their papers published in journals and research magazines, but like many other things in this world, the game has truly changed. Instead of targeting journals alone, researchers are also trying to infiltrate social media and all the clout it has to offer.
So how does a researcher utilize social media for their own good? It isn’t so far off as when you have to promote and market a business. Social media is all about identifying your strengths and knowing when best to utilize these strengths for the benefit of your intended audience.
Find Participants Active on Social Media
One of the most researched topics today is (human immunodeficiency virus) HIV. Whether the research is focused on the science of HIV or the impact it has on relationships, communities, and societies, almost everyone has some kind of interest in seeing a world free of this disease. However, it isn’t easy to talk about HIV on social media. It’s still a taboo topic in many societies, especially in conservative countries.
The best way to introduce sensitive topics such as these is to find HIV research participants on online communities. When you include them in your research, you can also encourage them to share their experience once they are done with it. After the conclusion of your defense, these participants can then talk about what they learned from your study. This is one way of expanding your network to include the most vocal about this issue.
Choose the Right Social Media Platform
Even researchers must learn how to choose the proper social media platform for their papers. This will raise your profile as a researcher. For example, are users of LinkedIn more inclined to read your paper? How about the community you formed on Facebook? Will Twitter have the space for your research? Instagram might not be the best social media for you because it focuses on curated news feeds of fashion and beauty. Even politics don’t thrive well on Instagram.
Build a Community
You will learn a lot from a community of people who are willing to share their experiences about the topic you are discussing. However, building a substantial number of followers will take time. For academics, a following of 1,000 on Twitter is diversified enough to include the public, media, organizations, and outreach groups. This is a varied enough group of followers that will help amplify your message.
Consider Your Tone
Research studies are not sexy enough to survive on social media without changing their tones. Although technical details are essential in your research paper, they will not resonate with your audience on social media. Using jargon will discriminate your audience. Some may not feel comfortable at all reading and comprehending your research. You should present the study in a way that everyone will understand. Changing the tone of your voice in the description or summary is an excellent thing to do.
Use Media
To get your message across better, use graphics, photos, and charts. These will make your posts stand out. You can also use relevant hashtags such as the name of the university that sponsored the study, the journal, the society, and other publishing handles. Using these hashtags on your post will increase the chances of engagement such as comments, shares, retweets, and likes.
Engage with Your Audience
Finally, social media allows for open dialogue. That is one of the purposes of publishing and sharing your research on the platform. Whenever someone comments on or shares your post, make it a point to reply. Somebody might also tag your personal Facebook account in a post. It will be beneficial for your paper if you can exchange ideas with your audience. You never know what you will learn from them. At the same time, this is an opportunity that you can use to market your thoughts and ideas.
There is no truth to the common belief that research papers can’t be sexy. They can be made sexy if the author puts enough thought into them. By using the right wordings and media, ordinary people can understand something as complex as HIV, industrial machines, artificial intelligence, and yes, even the various COVID-19 variants they see in the news. Remember that social media isn’t just for trendy business ideas. More than anything else, it is for the dissemination of the correct information.
