Durham University
The Brand Education worked with Durham University to build a social media strategy to amplify academic work and boost the institution’s research reputation.
Durham University is one of the UK’s oldest and most prestigious universities. In recent years, leaders at Durham have felt that the high quality of research being conducted at the institution has not been reflected in academic reputation. This was felt particularly keenly with regard to the university’s pioneering interdisciplinary work.
Building a social media strategy centred on research offered a clear solution, allowing for the amplification of academic work. One of the key challenges here was to engage academics themselves, getting them to share their work through these channels.
The Brand Education were called in to help. We worked with Durham University to build a joint-up social strategy focused on interdisciplinary research, with clearly defined, measurable outcomes. We also held a social media workshop to help engage and upskill academics in using social media.
Read on to learn more about the challenge, the solution, and the outcomes.
University seeking boost in research reputation; no social media strategy for research; academics hesitant on social media
Durham University ranks highly in global university rankings, both in the UK and globally, and plays host to leading academics. Nonetheless, the research-intensive university was not scoring as highly in terms of academic reputation as university leaders felt it should be. Among other challenges, citations scores were below hoped-for levels.
Social media offered a clear channel through which research could be shared with a wider audience, celebrated, and amplified. No specific strategy was in place to raise awareness of research, however. Communicating interdisciplinary research effectively was a particular challenge. While collaborative research was among the university’s key strengths; getting academics involved was a challenge. Many were hesitant to use social media to discuss their research. Safeguarding and ethics were identified as concerns.
We delivered a social media strategy focused on interdisciplinary research strengths and held a two-hour social media workshop for academics.
The Brand Education was called in by Durham to address these issues.
We delivered a social media strategy focused on championing the university’s strengths in interdisciplinary research. This strategy turns on both thought leadership and broader societal impact. It focuses on joined-up, collaborative efforts by relevant actors.
- Enhancing Durham University’s research reputation
- Increasing Citation scores through dissemination
- Engaging the academic community to play a central role
We also helped to deliver a two-hour social media workshop for academics and university leadership. The goals of this were to upskill and engage academics in how to use social media, empower them to improve personal brand, which would lead to boosting rankings and Durham University’s global profile. The workshop focused on best practice and providing techniques to boost personal and university reputation alike. It also addressed academics’ concerns around safeguarding knowledge, and social media ethics.
We delivered the workshop alongside expert speakers from within and outside the university, offering an internal and external perspective. We took a collaborative approach, ensuring delivery was in-line with Durham University’s initiative to support academics in building a personal brand.
Social media strategy ready for immediate implementation; academics engaged and trained in social media
The research social media strategy is ready for immediate implementation. It has been designed with clear, measurable outcomes, allowing success to be gauged or necessary interventions made. Interdepartmental collaboration has been baked in, ensuring an approach that reflects the collaborative nature of the interdisciplinary research being amplified.
The social media workshop was attended by close to 50 Durham University academics, as well as senior leaders, (Pro Vice Chancellor, Director of Advancement, Head of Marketing) and the marketing team.
We hope to see both solutions reflected in improved research reputation for Durham University in the very near future.
“We much appreciated working with The Brand Education to develop and deliver a joint workshop on empowering greater use of social media by our academic colleagues. This workshop informed both those less familiar with using social media and more experienced users in how to use social media channels to share learning and promote their research. This resulted in increased profile and has helped us to build momentum in enhancing our global reputation.”Lucian J. Hudson MA (Oxon)
