5 essential social media and digital communication skills for researchers

Research communication is an increasingly important part of a researcher’s skillset. Having great digital communication skills and knowing how to use social media to network and promote your research is a vital part of demonstrating the impact of your work.

But how do you start building those skills?

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Our 15-minute podcast for researchers, produced in partnership with Vitae, explores this (and more) and offers up some expert insight. Listen to it below and read on for our top tips.

Read the 4 skills for researchers of the future podcast transcript.

1. Social media benefits, best practice, and etiquette

“If you do research, you write papers, and you want them to be read, you need to be on social media,” says Inger Mewburn.

Although social media can be daunting to start using for work, there are numerous benefits to it. Among other things, it can help you to:

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  • Connect with other academics in your field

  • Ask questions, “crowdsourcing” ideas

  • Spread the word about the research you’re undertaking

  • Publicize your article, increase downloads, citations (in time), and impact

Ultimately, it’s a powerful tool for sharing your research and connecting with the people who could help it make an impact.

Create engaging content

  • Use clear visuals such as journal or book covers, infographics, or photos.

  • Tag relevant authors, institutions, or editors to increase visibility.

  • Use platform-specific hashtags (e.g. #SportsScience, #OpenAccess) to reach the right audience.

  • Include links to your work, whether it’s a journal article, book, or website.

Keep it simple and accessible

  • Avoid jargon and academic language. Instead summarize your work in a way that’s easy to understand.

  • Look through your abstract or key findings and craft a pithy, catchy message that highlights the essence of your work.

Be creative and authentic

  • Content doesn’t need to be overly polished or professional. A genuine, relatable tone often resonates more with audiences.

  • Add emojis to make your posts more engaging and visually appealing (where appropriate).

  • Re-post content: It’s perfectly fine to repost your content to reach new audiences.

  • Share from others: Not every post needs to be original. Sharing relevant content from other accounts can be just as effective.

  • Engage more, post less: Focus on meaningful interactions rather than frequent posting.

  • Leverage AI tools: Use AI features to generate ideas, optimize your posts, or schedule content.

Be respectful and professional

  • Always be polite, honest, and respectful in your interactions.

  • Give credit where it’s due by tagging or mentioning others when sharing their content.

  • Avoid sharing copyrighted material without proper permission

Be human

  • A friendly, warm, and genuine tone will help you connect with your audience.

  • Write as if you’re speaking to a colleague – keep it professional yet conversational.

By following these tips, you can effectively use social media to amplify your work, connect with your audience, and build a strong professional presence. Remember, consistency and authenticity are key to long-term success. Happy posting!

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Insights topics

18Get published
10Mentoring and support
9Open research
5Peer review
22Research impact
4Taylor & Francis news and updates

2. Choosing the right platforms

Social Media is a powerful tool for authors to connect with their audience, share their work, and build their professional presence. Here are some practical tips and best practices to help you make the most of your social media efforts.

Choose the right platform

Select platforms that align with your goals and audience. Here’s a quick guide:

  • LinkedIn: Ideal for professional networking, career growth, and sharing academic achievements.

  • Instagram: Great for visual content, personal branding, and creative industries.

  • X: Perfect for thought leadership, sharing news, and engaging in real-time discussions.

  • Facebook: Useful for community building and connecting with personal networks.

  • Bluesky: A growing platform for professional and academic conversations.

Optimize your profile

  • Add a professional photo and an engaging bio that highlights your expertise, interests, or mission.

  • Include a clear call-to-action, such as an email address, website link, or link to your latest publication.

Showcase your expertise

  • Use the “About” or “Summary” section to tell your story. Highlight your skills, achievements, and what makes your work unique.

3. Connecting, engaging, growing your network

Social media is a valuable space for building professional relationships and engaging with your research community. Check out how to connect effectively below:

Vector illustration showing a line of people handing each other discs with hearts, hashtags and speech bubbles, leading up to a smartphone with graphs showing on the display.

Engage with others

  • Interact with posts by liking, commenting, and sharing.

  • Follow relevant accounts such as industry leaders, peers and organizations in your field.

  • Join groups and communities related to your interests or profession to expand your reach and visibility.

Personalized connection requests

When connecting with someone (especially on LinkedIn, personalize your request by explaining why you want to connect. This adds a personal touch and increases the likelihood of acceptance.

This work will pay off when you promote your own research because the people you’ve engaged with are then far more likely to share your posts.

You also need to show people a bit of who you are. Even though you might be there for a purpose – i.e. to promote your work – don’t just share links to your articles. Talk about your day-to-day research life and things that matter to you outside of work.

4. Blogging

“Blogging has become a huge and popular way of disseminating research and talking to each other as a community…and sharing knowledge,” explains Inger Mewburn, Associate Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, who runs the Thesis Whisperer blog.

Blogging also allows you to hone your writing and editing skills (vital for your academic articles) by distilling a paper or thought process into a brief, readable blog post.

If you’ve never written a blog before, don’t panic – there’s plenty of advice for researchers available. For example, if you want to turn your research into a blog post, you can start by reading our how-to guide for writing an academic blog post, including how to structure it and examples.

5. Keeping up to date with new communication channels

Blogs and certain social platforms have already been part of the research community for a while, but are you up to date with newer ways of communicating your research?

“YouTube is huge,” says Inger Mewburn. “YouTube your papers. I get more readership through my YouTube videos of my papers. There are many ways you can do it, you can just simply talk over a PowerPoint deck, or you can have yourself recorded at a conference. Universities sometimes offer studios and you can make them look professional at quite low-cost.”

Researchers are even putting to use short-form video content for platforms like TikTok to help explain complex topics to a wider audience.

Where to next?

If you’ve found these tips helpful make sure you look at:

  • Our podcast series for researchers – 15 minutes to develop your research career (which includes the episode mentioned in this post)

  • The Thesis Whisperer – a blog that contains a wealth of useful advice, whichever research skills you’re looking to develop, from general writing tips to presenting and publishing.

  • Our Insights newsletter – the latest news, tips, and resources delivered straight to your inbox.

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