While you tirelessly research pressing societal challenges, your work often goes unnoticed outside of the university, limiting its impact. To help overcome this issue, I have created a short blog series on how to strategically position yourself on the most impactful platforms for an online presence. I previously explored how to optimise your LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) profiles.
In the third and final blog of this series, I discuss how to get your opinion pieces published online, allowing them to inspire a broader audience and establish you as an academic thought leader.
An online presence is useless without work to back up your reputation. Publishing your work in reputable journals is essential. However, alongside your research papers, it is valuable to write short pieces that are easy for a non-academic audience to discover, read, and use.
In these blog-length pieces, you should share your expert opinion on current issues related to your research topic. Unlike an academic article, you should share your opinions, ideas, and experiences to make it engaging. Keep it accurate and specific to be well-received; sweeping claims and generalisations are not the way to go. When done right, these opinion pieces (or “Op-Eds”) can help establish you as a thought leader both in academia and beyond.
You have various options for publishing these pieces:
1. Create and maintain a personal blog or website
Starting a website is simpler today than ever before. Weebly and Squarespace offer all-in-one solutions with editable templates. You just need to find and register a domain, design your pages, and start writing. If you need help, you can find assistance on Fiverr or Upwork. Although it incurs a monthly subscription, this approach gives you full editorial control and the opportunity to truly grow a following, which allows you to direct them to your written work, from short pieces to full academic papers.
2. Guest blogs
If you prefer not to create and maintain your own website, you can write blogs for others. Many bloggers welcome guest posts if your topic is relevant to their audience. Send an introductory email with a quick pitch about your proposed blog to the contact email on the website. Don’t be discouraged if you need to send a couple of reminders. This allows you to discuss your research and its implications in a more accessible format without needing your own blog. Share your guest posts through your own networks to reach a broader audience.
3. Guest blogger for Acume
Feel free to reach out to us. We welcome topics on making academia useful and impactful, tips for academics, and decolonising research. Send us a short pitch about what you would like to write and how it will serve other academics and we will be in touch. Alternatively, you can publish practical summaries on our platform at your convenience and for free. Our summary structure allows you to concisely and effectively share the story of your research, ready to share with our community and your network – or be discovered through our search.
4. Start a newsletter
You don’t need a website to start a newsletter. Substack is a solid platform for this. If you already have a significant social media following, advertise your newsletter through these channels. If not, you can send a few emails to colleagues and research groups interested in your topic.
5. Pitch The Conversation
This platform publishes articles from an academic perspective, allowing you to communicate your expertise to a general audience. To contribute, your university needs to be a member of The Conversation. If it is, there will be a contact at your university to help with the process. Writing for The Conversation involves sending a pitch and writing a timely piece that comments on current affairs or links your research to broader public discussions.
6. Ask University World News
University World News speaks to a global audience, primarily academics. Your university does not need to be a member for you to contribute, making it a more accessible option than The Conversation.
7. Your university’s own blog
This might be one of your easiest options. If your university has an established blog, get in touch and ask if your content is suitable. If it is, they will support you through the process and share your blog on their social media channels to reach former alumni. If the blog does not have an established readership, it might be just as effective to self-publish.
8. Self-publish on Linkedin or Medium
For unrestricted self-publishing, LinkedIn and Medium are excellent options. Share new articles on LinkedIn or set up a Medium account to let others discover your work through its search feature.
By publishing op-eds and having them read, you can significantly broaden the reach and impact of your expertise and ideas, serving not only the academic community but also the wider world.
