Utilizing Content Marketing to Build a Personal Brand as a Researcher
Personal branding has become the name of the game. As said recently by Forbes, “Branding isn’t just for companies and corporations. Professionals are managing their personal brands to achieve career success.” Over the past 25 years, with the growth of the internet, the concept of personal branding has increasingly become more important. The COVID pandemic dramatically accelerated the value of having a personal brand; people were no longer connecting in person but instead relied on virtual methods of interaction, where they could get to know each other through their personal brands online. Personal branding is no longer about just opening doors for jobs, but having a strong personal brand can result in a wide network of opportunities. For scientists, creating a robust personal brand can lead to increased funding opportunities and attracting more inbound talent.
Effectively using content marketing is a key way for researchers to establish a strong personal brand. Content marketing is a cost-effective and efficient way to disseminate information to a target audience. Now is the perfect time for scientists to build personal brands. As discussed in our blog covering content marketing trends in 2023, consumers are looking for reputable sources of information that share original and interesting data. By establishing a personal brand, researchers will increase their exposure and topic authority; with broader exposure, researchers will also increase their citations. As scientists build larger audiences and become recognized as topic leaders, funding sources and potential talent will more likely approach them. Not only will building a personal brand increase inbound opportunities, but it will also make outbound fundraising efforts more effective.
Scientists have a variety of content marketing options to utilize when building a personal brand from infographics to podcasting. When considering what type of content marketing strategy to utilize they should take two questions into consideration:
- What type of content is most attainable for them to create? If they are a great writer and would prefer to connect with their audience through written words, blogging might be the best method. On the other hand, if they prefer conversation, podcasting and utilizing video clips on social media may be better content marketing strategies for them.
- Who is their target audience and what type of content do they consume? In addition to considering the type of content scientists would prefer to produce, they should consider what type of content their target audience likes to consume. If their audience mostly consists of academic readers, blogs and infographics may be ideal, while if they are trying to reach a broader young audience, short video clips may perform best.
As you enter the last weeks before the winter term break, it is an ideal time to encourage your researchers to spend some of their downtime reflecting and thinking about building a personal brand in 2023 by utilizing content marketing. As your researchers build their personal brands, it will increase funding opportunities and attract top talent for your research institution.
OpenScholar provides universities and medical centers with an easy-to-use website-building infrastructure that empowers researchers to upload, update, and optimize their content marketing to improve and expand research funding opportunities.
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