Go Social - Arts & Humanities Research Institute - King's College London
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Arts & Humanities
Research Institute
Go Social
A quick guide to Social Media
Marketing
By Dr Michelle Fletcher, Research
Assistant on the Visual Commentary
on Scripture and Research Fellow
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
What To Consider Before You Start 4
Key Features of Social Media to
Remember 6
Creating Content 8
2 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guide
Introduction
Social Media is just that: social. It offers ways to personify your brand/research.
People spend time on Social to engage socially, so you should do the same. Social
media should be thought of as a conversation with your followers/users; as
something that goes two ways. So, encourage people to engage; give something back
to the audience; add value to users. This includes responding when people contact
you. It is not a platform for you to say how great you are but rather a way to get
others on board to speak about your product/brand and create ‘a buzz’.
3 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guide
What To Consider Before You Start
Platform Awareness and Choice
Not all platforms will be suitable for your purposes, and you should not feel the need
to post on all of them. Choose the ones that are right for you. Users come to each of
the different Social Media platforms with different purposes and different sets of
expectations. The age profile also alters from platform to platform, as does the choice
of device for engaging. For example, more users engage with Twitter on their
computer (alongside work tasks), whereas Facebook tends to be more popular on
phones in out of work hrs. Instagram is far more popular with 20-30s. Twitter is now
becoming the most used place to find out the latest news. Youtube is now the second
most popular search engine on the web after google.
Find out the latest information on demographic trends for 2021: Social Media
Demographics to Inform your Strategy in 2021 | Sprout Social
Set Targets
What is it that you want to achieve from using Social Media? The answer to this
question will guide how you go about your campaign and how you present yourself.
Do you want to raise awareness of your research? Engage users to share thoughts
with you? Promote a particular product/platform? Working out what you want to
achieve can then help shape the kind of content you produce, assist decisions around
platform selection, and plan how to present yourself to your future users. For
example, if you want to produce and raise awareness of your work through short
video content then Tiktok might be best for you. If you have a set of high-quality films
you want to promote, a youtube channel is likely a good idea. If you want to create a
community of like-minded researchers to share research ideas then Facebook is going
to present a good platform to do this.
Consider What Others Do Well
Think about the companies/organisations using Social that you particularly enjoy
and/or that are doing a good job in a similar sector to the one you want to engage.
What is it about their pages/feeds that keeps you returning? What is it that engages
audiences? What sets them apart (their USP?).
Innocent Drinks (@innocent.drinks) was shared as a very intriguing example, as their
Facebook page creates a buzz around their drinks and has an informal and fun
feeling. However, if you look at their posts, you will see they are very text heavy. They
are good at drawing in with an image and then delivering lots of content.
4 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guide
Casper Mattresses (@Casper) were also shared as a Twitter profile that engages users
through the persona of a tweeting mattress.
5 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guide
Key Features of Social Media to Remember
Community Focus
Social platforms are spaces to create a community, and community is what people
want. Social is realistically the new word of mouth and so the aim is to get people to
get on board and want to share the ‘great thing’ they have found out about i.e. you!
One way to do this is through hash tags, as these help create unity. For example, you
can create a #my version of your product where people can share their own material
related to your platform/product/research. For ideas, think about platforms you
engage with where you can share an image of yourself wearing/engaging with a
product.
For example, made.com’s Instagram feed encourages you to post an image of your
house with their products with a chance to be included in their feed/add campaigns.
Basically, think about a ‘buy in’ that brings users into your virtual community, makes
them feel a part of something, and encourages them to engage and return.
Strong Profile and User Expectation Management
Explaining who you are through a strong profile is an important part of Social
engagement. Working on your About page or your Profile is key. You want to set a
friendly tone that engages people and allows users to consider why they should
follow you, so ensure that you include your key words in your profile. What do you
offer users that would make them follow you? For example, the research project I
work on has free high-resolution images of artworks, so stating this and sharing the
number available helps users know about this desirable feature of our research.
It is also helpful to inform your users of what to expect from your feed/page. Are you
going to post daily? Weekly? What will these posts be about? Informing your users of
this helps them know in advance what to expect and what they are becoming part of.
You will be appearing in their feed, so telling them what your material will feature
helps them to make good judgements. For an example, see @Caspar above.
6 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guideEngage Users and Engage with Users
Social allows us to actively engage with people outside of our usual spheres of
influence. This can be daunting, as it becomes an unknown. It can be tempting not to
respond to users when they write responses and comments and to try and appear as
a ‘news feed’. However, the reality is that people using Social want to have this social
engagement, and so being prepared to react/respond to posts will engage people
more. There are plenty of ways to do this which doesn’t involve direct conversation.
You can create polls to garner feedback/find out views on things. You can have a
featured hashtag to encourage people to share their own opinions on a topic. You
can have a ‘take over day’ where a different person of the team/specialist answers
questions or posts content from their sphere of influence. There are so many creative
ways to get users engaged and to keep material engaging.
Curated Platform-specific Content
An unfortunate fact is that Social is something that takes a bit of time to address
effectively, but the time put in does really bring rewards. Users want to feel engaged
with you, enjoy the content, and be encouraged to spend time on your platforms.
Ensuring that you provide content appropriate to them, and that you curate this to
the needs of different platforms is a key part of Social engagement. Choosing the
right platforms for your purpose is important. The next step is to choose the right
content for that platform.
Audiences expect different content on different platforms, and so do what you can to
meet these expectations. For example, Twitter is a place for short posts and
informative retweets which engage and inform your audience, whereas Facebook is a
place to present longer, more text-heavy content (see Innocent’s page as mentioned
above). Instagram is more like a magazine.
Video is proven to massively increase engagement, so consider creating/utilizing this.
Explore the different platforms for how to go about making the most of their
features.
Key Creating Content
Creating Content
7 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guideCreating Content
Writing a Good Tweet
Place your key message in the 1st sentence
Engage active language and avoid the passive
Make your message punchy and upbeat
End with a call to action
Potentially ‘newsjack’ using hashtags
Think about your key words and use them
Rule of Thirds for Platform Posts
1/3 of your posts should be promotional material talking about what you do
1/3 should be user engagement to get likes and replies
1/3 should be 3rd party content, sharing material that your followers might be
interested in
Top 3 Tips for Researchers
1. Set Goals: Consider why you are using Social. What do you want to achieve? This
should shape your choices of platforms and your campaign.
2. Don’t Cross Post. As tempting as it is to post the same content on different
platforms, it is considered bad practise. The different platforms are require
different treatment. You can post a similar topic but perhaps start one platform’s
post with a quote, and on another share some facts.
3. Have fun using Social! The key is in the name, really. Engage your audience by
enjoying the process of being social rather than seeing it as a ‘task’ that needs to
be done.
Top Implications of the Training for Research/Teaching
These platforms reach people on an international scale. It is extremely helpful for the
REF/funding bodies to demonstrate engagement with your research through
comments, polls etc.
Further Reading / Resource list
Social Media Demographics to Inform your Strategy in 2021 | Sprout Social
Canva Pro - An Online Graphic Design Tool: Try Canva Pro Free
How to Use Social Media for Small Business: 12 Simple Tips (hootsuite.com)
8 An Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) guideGet in touch: Arts & Humanities Research Institute Room K1.18 Strand Campus King’s College London London WC2R 2LS @KingsAHRI ahri@kcl.ac.uk kcl.ac.uk/ahri
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