If you want to increase your funding, influence and profile, the first thing you need to do is to get on peoples’ radar.
By this, I don’t just mean appear on television or in media interviews. You need a compelling online profile that helps your target audience find you and understand your motivation, your vision and your impact.
A few years ago, I was working to raise the profile of a particular research institute and its scientists. When I caught up with a friend from a big tech company and told him about the project, he said that he wished I’d mentioned it earlier. His company had recently undertaken a corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign in my client’s field of research, and had struggled to identify the top researchers in Australia.
It’s a common problem, because of all the researcher’s profiles I’ve encountered, I’d say 99% of them are targeted at other researchers. Not only do they require a certain level of expertise to understand them, but they’re also often dry and out of date.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t have a profile that targets domain experts. But how many opportunities are you missing because the people who you want to reach – funders, media, philanthropists, venture capitalists, angel investors, the public, local community and industry, for example – can’t easily find you or understand your work or impact?
So, how do you create a compelling profile that helps your target audiences find you?
Here is what you need to pull together to write your own profile, or brief someone to write it.
1. Set your objectives
Your goal could be to:
– create more industry partnerships;
– grow a broad public profile;
– become known globally on a specific topic;
– attract PhD students or engage a local community;
– build diversity in your field.
2. Define your audiences
Decide who your key audiences are and prioritise them.
Ask yourself, what do they regularly ask you about your work? Ensure that these frequently asked questions are addressed somewhere in your profile.
3. What is your ‘why’?
Figure out your key messages. This isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – it’s crucial.
What is your ‘So what?’ factor? What is your ‘why’? What is your point of difference? What is it that you do in collaboration with community, industry, government etc that makes you stand out?
This is critical for everything you do, whether it’s applications for grants, prizes, jobs, or talking to philanthropists and policy-makers.
4. Audit your impact – not just your publications
What is your impact? Have you influenced policy or worked to bring greater diversity of people into your field? Have you won awards, joined boards, engaged your local community in a citizen science project?
5. Create case studies
Are there industry, philanthropy or government partnerships/collaborations that you think people should know about? Create these case studies – and make sure you’re highlighting the outcomes. What are the problems you solved and how did your unique way of thinking get you across the finish line?
6. Define your work – in one sentence.
It’s harder than it looks, but it’s something that you should master if you want to grab peoples’ attention on your online profile and on social media.
Here are some examples for clients that STEM Matters has worked with. The headlines are simple, pithy and immediately give audiences an insight into what the researcher is striving for. They wouldn’t look out of place in a story written by The Guardian or The New York Times – publications known for their ability to attract eyeballs.
7. Fast facts
This is where you can sum up your professional achievements:
– companies launched and sold;
– policy contributions;
– number of industry collaborations;
– publications;
– funding grants, prizes and awards,
– fellowships, and so forth.
8. A great photo!
One of my biggest bugbears is trying to get great photos from people we write stories on. Invest in a professional photoshoot (if your institution’s PR team won’t organise one for you).
When I’m updating my professional photos, I make sure to involve a makeup artist and hair stylist to get the best results. These photos can be for years and will be an invaluable resource to hand out to publishers and the media.
You need head shots and full body shots, taken in a variety of angles. Be sure to get shots in different outfits and locations. And your personality needs to shine through.
It’s important to make sure that all of the photos aren’t close-ups: you need photos that have space around you. This gives whoever is using the photo more flexibility in how they use it including on social media.
I love this photo of Fenwa Milhouse taken by Ayaka Sano, that we used to accompany a profile we published recently. It’s easy to adapt because of how much space there is around her:
Here is how I used it on The Brilliant’s Twitter account to promote the story we wrote about her. So easy!
9. Other visuals and soundbites
Be sure to do a selection of television and radio interviews so those can be added your profile page. This will show the media that you are an experienced talent.
10. LinkedIn is key
LinkedIn has more than 800 million users and is a great platform to promote what you do and why – especially for government and industry.
Be sure you use the banner and the one-line descriptor.
Check out my profile below. Both the headline (‘Making the complex compelling’) and the banner (‘revolutionising science communication’) work together to explain what I do:
And the About section is where you can actually write the profile that LinkedIn users can understand.
With my profile I don’t lead with my experience, I talk to my vision…
In summary
You need to prioritise your online profile. Talk to your institution and see what it can do to help you build something compelling. Explore how you can include multimedia elements, such as video, radio and podcast interviews.
If there isn’t much flexibility on your institution’s CMS, use your LinkedIn profile or even create your own webpage.
As someone who has written and published countless profiles, I know how important they are to building your profile.
Take the randomness out of people finding you online!
If you need some support, STEM Matters can work with you to help create your profile, whether it be mentoring and guiding you through the process, or interviewing you and creating the stories and other assets.
Opinion by Kylie Ahern, Publisher of The Brilliant and CEO of STEM Matters