Strategic digital engagement for impact: Building your academic presence online -p rin t Erika E. Smith & Richard Hayman 7KLVLVDQDXWKRU¶VSRVW-print. Where possible please see the final published chapter and cite as: po st Smith, E. E. & Hayman, R. (2022). Strategic digital engagement for impact: Building your academic presence online. In W. Kelly (Ed.), The impactful academic: Building a research career that makes a difference (pp. 29-51). Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-842-620221003 This version is made available using a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. You may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for noncommercial purposes, subject to full attribution to the authors. E. E. Smith & R. Hayman (Post-Print Version) 1 Strategic digital engagement for impact: Building your academic presence online -p rin t ,QWRGD\¶VGLJLWDOHQYLURQPHQWVRQOLQHHQJDJHPHQWLVDFULWLFDOFRPSRQHQWRIDFKLHYLQJ successful, sustainable impact. Building an online presence that extends beyond the walls of academia is therefore an essential part of developing as a scholar during any stage of the career-span. In this chapter we discuss career-wide approaches for establishing yourself as a ³QHWZRUNHGVFKRODU´ *RRGLHU &]HUQLHZLF] WREXLOGFRQQHFWLRQVDQGIRVWHU communication. We also explore ways to engage your audience through open, public outputs (publications, graphics, websites, profile tools, etc.). Using the key strategies presented, scholars can build an online academic presence and increase their scholarly visibility on the web or through social media. At the core of this chapter is an exploration of how academics can develop and communicate about themselves and their research interests, to achieve their goals both in the near-term and across their career-span. While the approaches presented are not prescriptive, they are intended to encourage the reader to generate a plan for online engagement that helps establish their scholarly identity. These tried and tested activities can be leveraged for engaging different audiences in research in ways that promote networked scholarship and create pathways to impact. Authors: st Keywords: Networked scholarship; Digital engagement; Social media; Academic development; Scholarly communication; Knowledge mobilization; Academic communities po Erika E. Smith, PhD Associate Professor and Faculty Development Consultant Mount Royal University eesmith@mtroyal.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6649-9620 Richard Hayman, MA, MLIS Associate Professor and Digital Initiatives Librarian Mount Royal University rhayman@mtroyal.ca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4957-705X E. E. Smith & R. Hayman (Post-Print Version) 2 Introduction In our work with academics, we often hear that people are either too busy, or just plain uncomfortable, to engage with the idea of being an impactful academic and promoting meaningful use of their work as a networked scholar. But researchers put a lot of time and energy into scholarship, from project design to data analysis, to reporting and publishing ILQGLQJV6KRXOGQ¶WVRPHRIWKDWWLPHDQGHQHUJ\DOVREHVSHQWVKDULQJWKLVZRUNLQZD\VWKDW interested audiences can find and make use of it? We want our scholarship to be impactful, and we want people to engage with the new knowledge created, so it is surely worth the effort to ensure that others can easily find and connect with us and our work. t 2IFRXUVHPDNLQJDQLPSDFWGRHVQ¶WVLPSO\PHDQSXEOLVKLQJRURWKHUZLVHVKDULQJRXr work. We can see impact in action when people understand, experience, or do things differently based on their interactions with academics and their outputs (University of York, n.d.). -p rin Today, the ever-evolving academic job market and the research funding landscape means there are increased expectations to show impacts tangibly. Greater emphasis is now placed not only on demonstrating the quality and scholarly significance of your research, but also on mobilizing and translating your work for a variety of audiences, and across a diversity of contexts, including online environments. st Effective use of digital engagement strategies can help researchers to promote prospective and actual use of their work and capture impactful examples of how their contributions foster positive change for individuals, partners, and communities. By interactively sharing your work more widely across audiences within and beyond academia, you can develop your expertise and reputation while at the same time fostering impact in a broader context. Engaging online: Creating pathways to impact po Digital engagement has become essential for cultivating, understanding, and defining the impact of your work. Online environments are now a necessary part of extending your expertise through different networks, increasing the findability of publications and other outputs, and connecting with relevant users and audiences ± all of which are necessary pathways to impact. Whether you're an early career researcher or a senior scholar, establishing your presence and engaging online is now part of being an academic. When done intentionally and strategically, time spent on these efforts can be a useful investment in yourself and your career. Developing your online presence and meaningfully engaging as a networked scholar can foster worthwhile and rewarding interactions that create the conditions for impact to occur across your career span. Being (or Becoming) a Networked Scholar What does it mean to be a networked scholar? Social media researcher Veletsianos (2016) GHVFULEHVWKHVHVFKRODUVDVWKRVH³ZKRPDNHXVHRISDUWLFLSDWRU\WHFKQRORJLHVDQGRQOLQH VRFLDOQHWZRUNVWRVKDUHLPSURYHYDOLGDWHDQGIXUWKHUWKHLUVFKRODUVKLS´ S 0DQ\IRUPVRI E. E. Smith & R. Hayman (Post-Print Version) 3 research and scholarship today require this engagement with online networks, especially for those concerned with broadening their impact. At the heart of this idea of networked scholarship is the importance of building new online connections and relationships. For many scholars, those online networks are (or will soon become) a critical part of their academic profile and are inherently involved in mobilizing and translating their work. Building blocks of a networked scholar So how can you develop as (or become) a networked scholar? Consider your own work in the context of the seven interconnected facets shown in the building blocks below: po st -p rin Building blocks of the networked scholar t Figure 1 Note: Seven interconnected facets of being a networked scholar. The original image appears on page 6 of Goodier, S. & Czerniewicz, L. (2015). $FDGHPLFV¶RQOLQHSUHVHQFH$IRXU-step guide to taking control of your visibility (3rd ed.). University of Cape Town. http://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/2652 E. E. Smith & R. Hayman (Post-Print Version) 4 The building blocks provide a useful framework for developing and extending your academic ZRUNWKURXJKZHEDQGVRFLDOQHWZRUNV:KLOHWKHUHLVQ¶WDSUHVFULSWLYHZD\WRDFKLHYHDOOWKHVH elements, below we describe key approaches to identity, presence, and reputation through pathways to visibility and by developing your academic profile. We also outline approaches involving groups, conversations, connections, and sharing in our sections on digital engagement and using social media. Making Yourself Visible t For each of the building blocks, ask yourself: where are your strengths and where are the RSSRUWXQLWLHVIRUJURZWK"