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Communication Strategy Tool for Researchers

Do you need to devise a communication plan for your proposal and don’t know where to start? Perhaps you would like to get some new ideas about how to best reach your audience? Maybe you would like to ensure that your research is socially relevant, but you are not sure how?

The Communication strategy tool was created as a collaboration between Research Intelligence Services and the UMCG’s Impact team in order to help you think about how to reach your audience and give you a collection of interesting material to learn from.

This resource will guide you through 7 key questions you should ask yourself when devising your research communication plan, and provide you with insight and resources to help you determine the answers.

What would you like to communicate?

Project progress and outcome

First of all, think about it from your audience’s perspective: why is your project interesting for them and what are the outcomes that might be most relevant?

Depending on your audience, tell them:

  • how the project came into existence,
  • what you want to do,
  • what you want to improve and achieve,
  • all the steps you take during your project.


Your research background

Depending on your audience, they could be either interested:

  • in your research (your peers),
  • beyond your research (non-academic people, the public, companies, etc.),
  • in you as a researcher.

If you want to connect to a non-academic audience, don’t be afraid to tell them about yourself and why doing research in your field is important for you.

Start with an introduction of yourself (how did you become interested in this area?) and mention what you want to achieve in the future.


Interesting facts in your research area

If you want to interact and engage with a specific audience, these are the first steps you can take:

  • Join chats, blogs, Facebook groups and discuss your research area or share interesting facts in your field.
  • Share other peoples’ posts or tweets.
  • Simply begin by following and reading what others post in your field or within your audience group.

Using this approach, you will start to become comfortable with certain communication channels and you will increase your readership if you share interesting knowledge, give your opinion or put information in context.


Useful information for patients

Patients and beneficiaries are more curious than you think. They want to know more than only the outcome of your research in the form of papers.

What can you do then?

  • Engage: inform patients about your research and allow space for questions (e.g. via talks, workshops, social media).
  • Co-create: involve them in the process, as early as possible in the project design. Ask them what they need and what they find useful.
How do you plan to connect to your audiences?

Inform - communicate your progress and outcomes to various audiences, mainly one-way, e.g. through social media, newsletters etc.

Great! Informing your audience is crucial and is the very first step you need to create better informed opinions.

Think about what you want to communicate and why.

Consider the most appropriate audiences that need or want to be informed.

We will learn more about the best audiences for your goals in the next question.

See an example

If you want to communicate the progress and outcome of your project on breast cancer research, your most appropriate audience will likely be women who suffer from breast cancer or women who belong to a group that might suffer from it.

You can also consider the environment around this audience: families, hospitals that specialize on treatments, policy makers in this area or guidelines that need to be written or scaled-up.

Depending on the audience you would like to reach, you will choose your communication channel. Patients are usually very active on Facebook, so that might be a good place to start. Search for active Facebook groups or blogs that are written by patients and their families.

Extra tip

In case the difference between science communication and engagement is not clear yet, please read this blog post on “What’s this science communication and public engagement stuff all about?"


Engage - connect with your audience, translate and explain, discuss. Engaging with your audience goes one step further than communication.

For effective engagement, you can create opportunities through:

  • social media: make sure to answer posts, comment on chats, etc.
  • non-academic events: (e.g. patient conferences, public talks). Be present and use the networking opportunity to engage. You will find a list of interesting events in Groningen below, under question 4.

Extra tip

Explore tips and links on promoting events to the public, provided by the Medical Research Council.


Co-create - invite the audience and stakeholders in your field to discuss your research and create a project that addresses multiple viewpoints.

There are several benefits of co-creation:

You create your research project together with people that might gain the most out of it.

You are still the research expert and that should stay that way. But acknowledge that they are the experts in their fields.

Cooperation and exchange will lead to a project that has the most impact, because you actually can be sure that what you do will be taken up by your fellow experts and the people you invited to your round table.

We will learn more about the best audiences for your goals in the next question.

Who is your audience?

Your peers

People in your field are always interested in innovative ideas and in finding new collaborations. They are usually very busy, so it is important to find the right channels to communicate with them and to improve your writing in order to engage with them. The best way to reach this audience are public talks, LinkedIn, Twitter, ResearchGate and blogs.

To reach out to other researchers, here are a few possibilities:

  • contact your communication department to publish a press release of your achievement or paper;
  • add your paper to PURE and to ResearchGate and get in contact with journal editors to publish short news;
  • write an article on LinkedIn and share it in your network and on social media;
  • write a blog (and share on social media);
  • go to conferences, give a talk, present a poster, network and make yourself be seen.

Patients

Patients are eager to get to know your work and to share their perspective. Many of them would like to be engaged in your research. Read about the value of patients’ engagement and the importance of embedding patient insights and perspectives in your strategic and operational plans here. The best way to reach this audience are public talks, blogs, Facebook and Instagram.

General public

Citizens need to know about new developments in science because they affect everyday life. Think about climate change or new therapies. Laypeople are interested in science, but the scientific jargon can be difficult to understand at times. Simplify your message to communicate and engage with them.

  • This blog gives 9 tips on how to communicate with non-scientists.
  • See the Medical Research Council for activities to promote public engagement.
  • The best way to reach this audience are public talks, blogs, Facebook and Instagram.

Non-academic partners

Communicating with this audience has more than one benefit. Academics are one part of a much wider and collaborative professional community which comprises industry organisations and businesses, government, municipalities, civil society organisations, NGOs, hospitals, charities, museums, etc. The communication between academics and non-academics increases the opportunities to maximise impact. When academics work with non-academic partners, they are able to produce better solutions (Twin-Win model). This collaboration helps overcome knowledge resistance. This post explains really well the impact of this collaboration. The best way to engage with this audience are public talks, blogs, conferences, and all social media.

Communication Channels and Best Practices

We list the most commonly used communication channels below.

  • Blogs are a good way to communicate science in and beyond academia. Most people prefer reading a blog that summarizes your research topic as an introduction to a long manuscript.
  • LinkedIn is the largest professional networking platform. LinkedIn is the best place to engage with your peers and also with non-academic partners in your network. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, do not lose time.
  • Research profile pages such as ResearchGate, academia.edu and Mendeley are arguably the most used social media channels among researchers. You can share papers, ask and answer questions and find collaborators.
  • Twitter is science communication in 140 characters. It can be an important platform for discussing science, forging collaborations and creating support networks: it is the perfect way to reach your fellow researchers and the general public. Given the short length of tweets, you need to be effective in communicating.
  • Public talks and events are a great way to engage with the general public, patients and the non-academic sector. Ideally, you not only want to share information, you also want to make sure it is heard, understood and critically discussed by the right audience, so that your research can gain from it.
  • The target audience for Facebook are patients and the general public. To reach this audience it is important to know how to use Facebook as a ‘work’ account to share your research.
  • Instagram is a great platform to connect with young people, patients and the general public. You can type as much as you want and include pictures or video; keep in mind that they have to be interesting! People only click on your text if they think the picture or video is interesting enough.
How often should I post on social media?
  • For Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin, it is optimal to post 1-2 times per week.
  • It is optimal to post on Twitter 1 time per day and retweet.

I'm afraid I don’t have enough time?

There are many programs to help you manage all your social media accounts in one place and schedule social media posts for your preferred times. Publish automatically, according to the posting schedule you put in place.

Here are three programs that will help you to manage all your social media accounts: Sproutsocial, Coschedule and Hootsuite.

When is the best time to post?

Facebook

  • The best time to post is during the week is the afternoon and the best days are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
  • Tuesday is the worst day to post on Facebook.

Instagram

  • The best time to post is during lunch and evenings. The best days to post are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
  • Sunday is the worst day to post on Instagram.

Twitter

  • The best time to post is during lunch and the best days are workdays.
  • Weekends are the worst days to post on Twitter.

Linkedin

  • The best days to post are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, because LinkedIn is a social network used by professionals.
  • Weekends and after work hours are the worst times for engagement and visibility.

Check this blog for more details.

Should I use hashtags and what are hashtag best practices?

The hashtag is one of the most powerful tools you can use on social media. The typing of a simple pound sign could help your research reach thousands of new followers. Because hashtags are so easy to create, it is important to use them wisely.

Which hashtag should I use?

  • Use simple hashtags. As an example, you may find your latest paper on cyanobacterial endosymbiosis riveting. However, tweeting #bacterialendosymbiosis isn’t going to garner much attention. Choose simple hashtags relevant to your field, such as #biology or #ecology.
  • Don’t overdo it. Don’t hashtag every word. Consider which hashtags will be the most impactful for your research or field of expertise.
  • Don’t use spaces. Do not use spaces in multi-word hashtags (#MeToo, not #Me Too).
  • Look for hashtags at meetings, workshops and conferences. By using hashtags at these events, you have opportunities to connect and engage with fellow scientists in real time.
  • Know some trending hashtags. Keep updated on current hashtag trends related to science. Popular hashtags within the scientific community include #scicomm, #iamscicomm, #livingbreathingscientist, #iamascientist, and #womeninSTEM.

To find out the most popular hashtag in your field and also who is using them, please visit this page and simply type in your research area.

What if I don't want to be present on social media?

Fair enough!

Maybe you don’t have enough time for social media ?

Check whether your institute or department has a dedicated social media page and maybe your output could reach the right audiences through these channels instead.

Last modified:21 February 2024 1.33 p.m.