Joining the Conversation
07 Dec 2017
From the political turmoil in Zimbabwe to whether it’s still OK to watch Kevin Spacey films, our academics have got the answers for a global audience seeking true expertise…
Universities are home to all manner of experts and academics, from scientists and linguists to engineers and poets. Effectively promoting their research to the outside world is a crucial part of marketing and communications activity at universities. But it isn’t just about telling a story. It’s also about finding the right audience.
This is one of the fundamental reasons why the University has joined the Conversation. It gives our researchers a unique platform to reach a wider audience beyond traditional academic circles.
An independent, not-for-profit news website providing expert analysis, comment and opinion on current affairs topics, the Conversation is unique due to the fact it’s written by academics and researchers, making its content distinctive and authoritative.
Since joining on 1 August 2017 academics at the University have already published 41 articles on everything from the current political turmoil in Zimbabwe to exploring whether it’s still ok to watch Kevin Spacey films.
Together, in total, these articles have received nearly 370,000 reads and been republished by 90 different media outlets. These include some of the world’s biggest and most respected international news organisations, such as the BBC, the New Statesman, Newsweek, the Huffington Post, The Independent, Time and the Washington Post.
In November alone we garnered more than 180,000 reads from 17 different pieces. In comparison, if you look at our numbers from 1 August 2016 to 31 July 2017 (before we became full members), the University published just 38 articles in almost a year with 260,846 reads. If we maintain our current performance, the University’s articles could potentially generate over a million reads this financial year alone. At present the University’s total reads stands at 1,174,871 from 200 published articles since the Conversation was launched in the UK in 2013.
It isn’t just the readership numbers that are impressive, it’s also the geographical spread of our audience. This demonstrates the platform’s effectiveness in reaching a more diverse readership and potential new markets. For example, our biggest readership is in America, with 28% of our audience living stateside. This is closely followed by 25% reading in Australia, from where the Conversation originates. The rest includes 14% from the UK, 10% from the EU, 6% from India, 3% from Canada and 14% from everywhere else.
Not only does the Conversation provide academics and researchers with ways to reach a whole new audience, it also helps them find the right voice and style to engage with that audience. The Conversation’s expert editors have already carried out several training sessions and writing workshops on campus with some academics from our research beacons, with more training scheduled for the new year.
If you want to know more, here’s how:
- View a very short presentation about the Conversation.
- Read some of Manchester's most recent pieces to see what our academics are writing about.
- See who’s on the Conversation team.