Once you have decided to engage in research impact the first step is to determine your audience. Strategically building and shaping your audience enables research dissemination to relevant people who have influence.
This process is important to remember at all stages of your journey, from early stage research formulation right through to post-publication promotion and awareness. If you are not thinking strategically, there is a danger that your research will exist in a vacuum.
When considering the potential audience for your research, a stakeholder map is helpful to plot the level of interest a particular stakeholder group might have in your research, and the amount of power they could have in terms of marketing or awareness creation. Who does your research need to speak to?
Sample Article:
Once you have determined likely stakeholders in your research, it is beneficial to segment each of these and analyse their needs individually. Professor Mark Reed provides a very useful template for this. Consider our sample article above:
