If someone were to Google you, what would they find? Would they see what you want them to see? Through curating your online and professional image, you control the narrative of what people find when they search for you. At its heart promotion is communication, about who you are as a researcher, the quality of your work, and the message you want your audience to know.
By building and developing your personal brand as a researcher, you are able to benefit through increased visibility in both the academic and broader community. This may in turn lead to increased citations on your publications, as well as other evidence of impact such as alternative metrics, which can be used to support jobs, grants and promotion applications. Being able to capture evidence to measure and describe the quality and influence of your research is crucial.
Promoting your research enables you to build your reputation as a researcher and to communicate your research far and wide. There is not a one sized fits all approach to promotion. How you do so will be influenced by your discipline, research area, and personal preference. There are some basic steps that every researcher should undertake to ensure that their research is communicated to the audience that needs to hear it, and that their identity is consistent and verified across their publications and activities.
