Tagged / promotion
Public Engagement – Understanding your Audience
One of the most important things you need to do to create a successful event is to make sure you have the right audience. Having a room full of archaeologists won’t help, if you want to share research which could shape nursing practice, for example.
To help you reach the audiences you want to connect with, we thought it might help to share a list of hint and tips, which you can use when planning your next event.
- Define your target market –
- Demographic – who are they, age, gender, profession, income,
- Psychographics – what are their interests, values, attitudes, likes and dislikes,
- Behavioural – What do they do, how do they consume media (online or offline).
- Reach your target market – What is the best way to reach your target audience? If they are busy workers – what is the best platform or time of day to contact them? If they are retired, what are the best platforms to contact them – would it be online or physical marketing?
- Identify what type of customer they are – Will you be targeting regular attendees or do you want to attract a new audience? Keep this in mind when creating your marketing materials in order to attract the right people.
- Tailor that marketing – Once you understand what audience you want to attract, you can ensure all of the communications are on message to produce the largest turnout and increase engagement.
- Who is your research looking at – Are there certain groups of people who could benefit from or are affected by your research? Think about who will be involved in those areas and what the best platform to contact them through is. If you are working in social care; what are the local organisations that would want to come along to your session, what is the best way to contact them?
- Is there a certain location your research targets – If you are looking into a certain location for your research, why not engage the population of that area by promoting and running your event there? Not only will you be able to increase the attendance from engaged members of the public, you will be able to gain insight from the people who engage with that local area on a daily basis.
- If you’re stuck and need advice on how to plan for the perfect advertising – Ask us! In the Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, we have a lot of experience in finding the right audience to invite to a public engagement event. Get in touch if you need any advice or guidance to improve your skills at increasing engagement with your event.
If you want to learn more about increasing attendance at free public events, check out our blog post to learn all the tricks to making this happen.
How to Increase Attendance at Free Events
Free events usually have a no-show rate of around 40-50% of registrations. This is due to there being a lack of investment, evident in paid events only having a rate of 10-20% no attendance.
There are many ways to combat such a high no-show rate, without adding a cost to the event! These tips are extremely useful when promoting public engagement events as the idea is to engage as many different people in the research as possible, without adding a price tag. Have a look below at the tips and tricks we have to improve the attendance at your events and get those events sold out!
- Research your target market and what they would want to gain from and event. Promote to this market using the hooks you have picked up through your research, you should get plenty of people fighting over spaces!
- Always check whether there is a public holiday on the day of your event. You wouldn’t put an event on Christmas Day – it is the same for many other holidays! You also want to check that there isn’t an event in competition of yours on the same day; it would lessen your chances of getting high attendance if the public have to choose.
- Find an incentive to get people to register early. Once you have their email, you will be able to remind them of the event on a regular basis before the day – this will help prevent double booking!
- Advertise fun activities throughout the session in the breaks – this will help add an extra attraction for those who might be worried on the length they’ll be sat being engaged for.
- As mentioned in point three, reminder emails are a brilliant way of making sure your event isn’t forgotten about. By sending them a week and 48 hours before, it will be fresh in the minds of those registered so they won’t forget. You can even make an event page on Facebook to make sure they get a notification on the day!
- Collaborate with local businesses and organisations for the event. By getting them on board, you will be able to attract their customer base as well as other interested members of the public.
- Get yourself a ‘headline speaker’ for the event to draw in the masses. Not only will their following come along to see them speak, you will get more people finding out about the other speakers through the promotion done by the speaker.
By using these tips, you should hopefully improve your chances of a full house next time you’re running a session. If you want any more advice on how to successfully market Public Engagement activities, send us an email and we will be happy to help.
Promote your research internally by contributing to the BU Research Blog
Blogging is an excellent way to share your research, reach new audiences and join new networks (see my previous blog post ‘The benefits of academic blogging – should you enter the blogosphere?‘). You can add your own posts to the BU Research Blog to promote your research internally and as the BU Research Blog is available externally then you get the added benefit of reaching external audiences too. Here are some top tips for contributing to the Blog:
1. Figure out what it is you want to blog about
You may be a researcher wanting to share your research findings, or you may want to raise your profile or find new collaborators. Maybe you’ve read something really exciting about HE policy or research in your discipline and want to share it? It may be that you may want to comment on one of the topical research discussions going on in the sector (such as open access). Whatever your reason for wanting to blog, think about who you want to reach with your writing – be it potential collaborators, potential employers, or people on the street.
2. Get access
If you don’t already have access to contribute to the Blog then contact Rhyannan Hurst in RKEO and she will set you up with an account.
3. Write good headlines
If you want people to read what you’ve written, you’ll have to make them want to. Don’t fall into the trap of typing up any old headline and hitting publish after spending ages polishing the blog post itself. Always ask yourself if you’d click on a link based solely on the headline (and be honest). If you wouldn’t, change it.
Descriptive headlines that tell a reader exactly what to expect often work well. You should think about getting key words in there, but don’t fret too much about search engine optimisation. It’s more important to make actual humans want to read your work.
Google Analytics shows us that the most popular posts on the BU Research Blog are those with interesting and sometimes bizarre headlines!
4. Use the internet properly
Remember to add links to sources, news articles and other people’s blog posts in your own. Use images or video when they are a better way to communicate than words.
And, thanks to the unlimited space online, you don’t have a word count. But as well as giving you the space to go in-depth when you want to, it means you can write short if the subject doesn’t need a dissertation-length exploration. Don’t write an essay just because you can.
5. Promote your blog post
After publishing your blog post then you should shout about it, ideally using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Don’t be afraid to send the post directly to certain people who you think will be interested in it.
These have been adapted from Kelly Oakes, Science Editor of BuzzfeedUK’s blog post on ‘How to Start a Science Blog‘.
Internal Promotion – Associate Professor, Professor 1 and Professor 2
We are pleased to invite applications for Associate Professor, Professor 1 and Professor 2 appointments.
The title of Associate Professor will be conferred on staff normally with a Doctorate and track record of excellence in one of the following areas: Education, Research, Enterprise or Professional Practice, with an evidence based potential to develop significant national/international standing.
A Professorship is awarded to individuals who have achieved distinction and esteem both at national and international level over and above that of a Reader or Associate Professor in one of the following areas: Education, Research, Enterprise and Professional Practice.
Full details regarding the role, application process, including job descriptions and person specifications are available here:
I Drive\OVC\Public\Professors & Associate Professors.
There will be 2 sessions held during August with the Pro Vice-Chancellor and members of the Professoriate to outline the promotion process, define the role and expectations of Associate Professor and Professorial post holders and outline the evidence you would be expected to demonstrate as part of your application. If you are considering applying for one these posts you are strongly encouraged and expected to attend one of the following sessions:
Applying for Associate Professor – Monday 6 August 2012 at 2pm .
Applying for Professor 1 or Professor 2 – Wednesday 8 August at 2pm.
If for reasons of annual leave you are unable to attend one of these sessions then please contact the Pro-Vice Chancellor for an appointment via Kathryn Hill (ext. 65868) and he will endeavour where possible to meet you individually.
Please contact click here to book on to one of these events. If you are off-campus and experiencing difficulty accessing the staff intranet please email your booking to staffdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk
The closing date for all applications will be Wednesday 5 September 2012.
It is expected that applications for Associate Professors will be assessed during September 2012 and shortlisted applicants invited to attend an interview during October 2012 subject to panel availability.
It is expected that applications for Professor 1 or 2 will be assessed during September 2012 and shortlisted applicants invited to attend an interview during December 2012 subject to panel availability.
If you would like any further information regarding this process then please speak to Katherine Jabbari on 61145 or your Academic Manager in the first instance.
Kind regards
Human Resources