There are many reasons why a blog can help you promote your research. Here, we outline some of the most important:
Blogging gives your research personality
A blog can allow you to introduce the team behind the research. From the PI to the PhD student, all members of a research group can contribute to a blog and the conversational tone of blogs can allow personalities to be expressed and opinions shared.
Increase the people seeing (and understanding!) your work
Academic papers can be difficult to digest by those not in academia, or used to reading research. However, many of the people who could benefit from your research won't be academics - they will be practitioners - politicians, CEOs, teachers, doctors etc. A blog allows you to explain your research in non technical terms, and acts as a space to talk around your work - how it was done, who funded it, who was involved, and to tell people what the results were and why they should care.
Record your activities and achievements
A blog acts as a diary as well as a tool for promotion. We all busily get on with day-to-day activities and then look back unable to remember the details. Blogging allows you to record all of the activities of your research group, from conferences and events attended, talks given and papers published through to welcoming new team members, office moves or the arrival of new equipment. When you need to talk about these activities to secure resources or evidence your impact, you'll easily be able to access the details.
Blogging can make you a better researcher
This thoughtful article in the THE gives not one, but seven ways in which a blog could help you improve your academic writing and your research practices. From shaping research questions to developing concise thoughts, blogging can help train a variety of research skills.
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