Research studies continue to find that media coverage and social media visibility increase scientific impact (e.g. citations). Research productivity and impact are typically important factors in promotion and tenure decisions, getting hired as well as marketability. By engaging with the media (popular media, news outlets and social media) academics can enjoy the benefits of their research. These benefits also include the ability to increase income by landing paid speaking engagements and keynote speaking opportunities. With the increased access the public has to news media outlets and journalists (through social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn), academics can easily leverage their research in order to increase media coverage and visibility.
If you have an advanced degree and/or are a subject matter expert you might be wondering how you can increase your visibility, brand recognition and social presence. In this article, I will share 3 strategies I have successfully used over the years to land feature pieces in places like the L.A. Times, NBC, Washington Post and more.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the media outlets and coverage that you want are going to be different depending on your specific field or area of research as well as your own personal goals. Maybe your dream is to be on CNN or your niche area’s biggest media outlet. At one point, my goal was to be interviewed on The Breakfast Club – and I was.
So, first think about these questions, where do you want to be? what audiences do you want to get in front of? What media outlets would make the most sense for your background and academic brand? From there, you are going to build out and implement the strategies briefly outlined in this article. We’ll cover, The Create and Repackage Formula ™ , “borrowing audiences” and when to use a publicist (hint: only under very special and specific instances).
1) The Create and Repackage Formula™
The Create and Repackage Formula™ is how you will be found when someone types in something related to your topic (area of research/ expertise) in Google or even just your name. You want people to find you when they type in something specifically related to your area of expertise or the thing you want to be “known” for. This, of course, begins with publishing your work. Whether you have one article publication right now or one hundred you need to engage in The Create and Repackage Formula ™. You need to think about publishing outside of the confines of academe and academic journals. Once you publish in an academic journal or book, then repackage the content so that it gets in front of other audiences and thus becomes discoverable. For example, when I took my sabbatical, I did a research study on affirmative action and millennials. I spent a few months doing this study, including interviewing millennials about their views on affirmative action. What I started to realize was that this conversation around millennials, race and higher education was a conversation that lots of people were already having. And there were lots of publications already out there on this particular area of study. So I said, okay, how can I take the research that I’ve already done and get it before a wider audience? I wanted to make it more palatable for people outside of just academe. The question was, how can I take it from academe and put it in front of a larger mass audience?
I used The Create and Repackage Formula ™ to produce a 30 minute documentary on higher education race from the perspective of millennials. I used the interviews that I conducted for the research paper as the foundation of the film. I spent a year trying to make this film – I had no film experience at all. I knew, however, that if I wanted this subject to get more visibility, this would be the best way to do that. In 2016, I finished the film, went on a film screening tour around the country and now the documentary is free on YouTube. This one repackaging idea allowed me to line up a yearlong speaking tour, loads of local and national media coverage and great Google search results (when someone types in my name or something relevant to the films topic). In addition to the tour, I did a premiere of the film in Philadelphia at the Landmark Movie Theater to a sold-out audience. Now, I’m not telling you to go do a documentary about your work, if that’s not what you want to do. But what I am pointing out is that there are many different ways to repackage your work, to get in front of new audiences and to get more media coverage. How can you repurpose your already published work and/or ideas?
FREE 30-MINUTE WEBINAR ON THE CREATE & REPACKAGE STRATEGY
2) Borrowing Audiences
The second strategy is to “borrow audiences”. Simply put, in the film, I interviewed some heavy hitters in academe who had much larger audiences than me. The academics featured in my film had upwards of 21k Twitter followers. As soon as they shared the film, I was getting major social media exposure from their audience. So, get yourself and your work in front of the audiences of others. Let me give you another example.
Dr. Mike is one of the most popular people on YouTube. He’s a medical doctor. Just talking about medicine and biology is not going to get you media coverage and visibility. If you go to his YouTube channel, you will see that he has millions and millions of followers and subscribers. So how did he do it? Well, he borrowed audiences. Specifically, he started to do reaction videos and social commentary on popular television shows about being a doctor and being in the ER. He did reaction videos to episodes of shows like Grey’s Anatomy and House. That means, when somebody searches YouTube looking for information about one of these extremely popular shows, they’re likely going to be recommended a video of Dr. Mike’s reaction videos. So, he’s borrowing audiences from popular culture. He’s bringing that audience right into his world. I talk specifically about how you can bridge the gap between your industry and society/culture in the Power Your Research e-course as well as the free private Power Your Research Facebook group.
LEARN STRATEGIES TO BORROW AUDIENCES IN ANY NICHE
3) Publicist or Nah?
If you have thousands of dollars and you just want to go out and get a publicist because you have money to waste, go for it. However, that is not an effective way to get media coverage and you will be wasting your money and time. Publicists charge a lot of money and you have to work with them over a long period of time in order to see any results. There are specific instances (read: very specific), when you might want to hire a publicist. Here is one specific case, where you might consider using a publicist: If you have one specific goal and you want to land a spot on a specific high-end show/ media platform.
LEARN HOW ACADEMICS CAN GET MEDIA COVERAGE WITHOUT THE EXPENSE OF A PUBLICIST
For example, my one specific goal in 2016/2017 was to get an interview on The Breakfast Club (all the major Democratic presidential contenders stop by this when they are running – it’s pretty high end). However, before even using a publicist, I did a few things on my own. I used the pitch strategy I teach in the Power Your Research course, to get in direct contact with the main host of the show and I got the exact email address of the show’s producer. Again, this is all BEFORE hiring a publicist. If you want to hire a publicist, make sure it is something specific and do the groundwork first. This will save you thousands of dollars and guarantee results as long as you are working with a reputable publicist.
Start implementing these strategies today to get the results you want tomorrow. I can guarantee that you will start to gain media coverage, visibility and social proof by engaging in one or all of these activities.
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