LinkedIn has become an important platform for researchers to share and discuss their work. Posting research articles on LinkedIn allows you to disseminate your work to a broad professional audience, get feedback from your peers, and expand the impact of your research. However, there are some best practices to follow when sharing research on LinkedIn to ensure your work gets the visibility it deserves. This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to effectively post a research article on LinkedIn.
Why Post Research on LinkedIn?
Here are some of the key benefits of sharing research content on LinkedIn:
– Reach a large targeted audience – With over 310 million members, LinkedIn provides access to the world’s largest professional network. You can reach colleagues, peers, and practitioners in your field that can benefit from your research.
– Get feedback and discussion – Posting your article allows others in your network to comment, providing a platform to get insights and have scholarly discussions to advance your work.
– Showcase your work – Adding published articles highlights your research productivity and thought leadership in your field for your connections.
– Expand impact – LinkedIn provides metrics on post views and engagement, allowing you to quantify the reach and amplification of your work.
– Increase citations – Shares can lead to more people reading and citing your published research.
– Brand building – Demonstrates your expertise which can lead to career and funding opportunities.
Step 1 – Select the Article Title and Description
The title and description you choose are important for attracting your target audience and encouraging engagement. Follow these tips:
– Title: Create a compelling, descriptive title that communicates the core focus and contribution of your work. Avoid overly technical jargon.
– Description: Write a short paragraph summarizing the aims, methodology, and conclusions. Describe why it matters to your target audience. Use accessible language suitable for a professional audience.
– Length: Keep the description under 150 words so it is skimmable. You can link to the full article for those interested in more details.
– Keywords: Include main keywords and terms readers may search to help with discovery. The title and description are searchable on LinkedIn.
Step 2 – Upload the Article File
LinkedIn allows you to directly attach a file with your published article. This allows viewers to access the full text and figures/tables in your publication. Here are tips for uploading your file:
– File type: Upload a PDF version of your article. This maintains the formatting and is easy for viewers to download.
– Publisher permissions: Confirm that your publisher allows posting a full-text PDF on professional networks like LinkedIn. Many publishers have policies that allow this for promoting published work.
– Version: Use the final published PDF version with the journal formatting, page numbers, and DOI. This is preferable to an author manuscript.
– Accessibility: If your article is open access, provide a link to it as well so those without LinkedIn accounts can still access the work.
– Size limit: LinkedIn has a 100MB size limit on files. Contact the publisher if you need a smaller version to meet this limit.
Step 3 – Compose the Post
The content you include in the post itself provides valuable context. Here are some tips for what to include:
– Explain motivation: Describe what gap your research addresses and why the aims are important. This provides helpful background, especially for those outside your niche area.
– Note methods: Briefly summarize the methodology and essential details on the study design, data sources, analytical approach, etc. This gives readers insight into your process.
– Highlight findings: Identify 2-3 key results from your study to emphasize in 1-2 sentences. Bulleting can help make them stand out.
– Discuss implications: Interpret what the findings mean for theory, practice, policy, or future research. This drives home the impact for readers.
– Call to action: Prompt viewers to like, comment, share the article, or connect with you to continue the discussion. This facilitates engagement.
– Links: Include links to the published article and publisher as well as any supplemental materials that add additional context.
Step 4 – Add Rich Media Elements
Visuals help make your research more engaging and digestible on LinkedIn. Consider including:
– Figures: Embed eye-catching figures and charts from your article to communicate key information visually.
– Video abstract: Record a short video highlighting and explaining the core findings to make them more memorable.
– Media embed: Insert an embed code to display media from research demonstrations, presentations, lectures, or interviews discussing the work.
– Infographics: Create simple infographic images that use visuals to represent research data, concepts, or takeaways.
– Graphic abstract: Develop visual abstracts that use color, shapes, typography, icons, and arrangements to illuminate research details.
Step 5 – Tag Relevant Connections
Tagging relevant connections brings your post directly into the feeds of targeted audiences who may be interested. Consider tagging:
– Co-authors: Tag any LinkedIn profiles of researchers you collaborated with on the article. This helps spread the post within your networks.
– Journals: Tag LinkedIn pages for the journal you published in as well as their editors. Journals often reshare articles promoting their publications.
– Institutions and departments: Tag affiliated institutions, departments, labs, and centers to enable sharing with their followers.
– Funders: Tag foundations, societies, or other funders of the research to keep them apprised of outcomes.
– Industry connections: Tag any professionals, businesses, or industry groups for whom the research is especially pertinent.
Step 6 – Use Relevant Hashtags
Including hashtags makes your post discoverable by those searching or following particular subjects on LinkedIn. Strategically choose hashtags that will be seen by your target audience such as:
– Field/Subfield-related: Include hashtags denoting your general field of research as well as any niches or subareas.
– Topic-related: Use hashtags on your specific research topic, methods, population, or other relevant details.
– Publisher-related: Add any journal hashtags recommended by the publisher.
– Event-related: Tag any associated conferences, seminars, or events using designated hashtags.
– Trending: Identify 1-2 trending hashtags in your discipline to take advantage of increased visibility.
Step 7 – Publish and Share the Post
Once your post is ready, publish it and leverage sharing to boost its distribution. Considerations:
– Post timing: Pay attention to when your followers are most active, often mid-week during typical business hours.
– Share the post: Email the post link to co-authors and colleagues encouraging them to like, comment, and reshare with their own networks.
– Cross-promote: Share the post link on other platforms like Twitter using your profile or lab/department accounts.
– Send updates: Repost the article periodically with new commentary or insignts to recirculate it.
– Monitor analytics: Review LinkedIn statistics on post impressions, engagement, and clicks to gauge the impact.
Best Practices for Maximum Impact
Follow these best practices to optimize your research posts:
– Post consistently – Regularly share new articles over time to grow your audience.
– Vary multimedia – Use a mix of text, images, graphics, and video for an engaging post.
– Comment and interact – Reply to any comments and discussions to foster dialogue.
– Simplify insights – Distill findings into key takeaways that are skimmable for the non-expert.
– Time posts strategically – Pay attention to when your target audience is most active on LinkedIn.
– Promote posts – Circulate posts through social media, emails, and other channels.
– Analyze performance – Review post analytics to identify what gets engagement and what can be improved.
Potential Challenges
Be aware of some potential challenges with sharing research on LinkedIn:
– Limited engagement – LinkedIn algorithms determine visibility so your post may not get high reach, especially at first. Patience and consistently posting is key.
– Publisher restrictions – Some publishers limit the full-text version allowed to author manuscripts so be familiar with journal policies.
– Negative comments – Be prepared to professionally address any criticisms or skepticism about your work in the comments.
– Time investment – Creating optimized posts with graphics and managing discussions takes dedication. Enlist co-authors to share workload.
– Metrics obsession – Don’t get discouraged by likes or shares. Focus on quality dialogue and making connections over quantifiable engagement.
Conclusion
Posting research articles on LinkedIn provides invaluable opportunities to disseminate and discuss your latest work with engaged peers, practitioners, and thought leaders. By following best practices for sharing full-text articles with optimized multimedia content and strategic tagging and promotion, you can maximize the visibility and impact of your scholarship. Leverage LinkedIn to enhance the reach of your research to those who can most benefit from it. Consistently posting studies over time helps build your reputation as an expert in your field and facilitates important exchanges that advance discovery. While it requires effort, taking the time to share your work on LinkedIn is worthwhile for extending the influence of your research.
