{"id":5705,"date":"2020-09-02T13:39:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T08:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.impact.science\/?p=5705"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:25:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:25:32","slug":"5-academic-societies-that-are-acing-their-online-content-strategy-powerful-tools-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cactusglobal.com\/media-center\/5-academic-societies-that-are-acing-their-online-content-strategy-powerful-tools-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Academic Societies that are acing their online content strategy\u2014Powerful tools revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\u201cWe need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.<\/em>\u201d said Craig Davis, the former Chief Creative officer, J. Walter Thomspon, and this is the mantra for content marketing today. Any brand, whether it\u2019s a commercial entity or an academic society, that wishes to build, scale, and sustain itself will need to address its audiences using content.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the key challenges faced by scholarly societies includes effectively leveraging the rich content that they have across digital and social platforms, to attract, engage, and retain their core audiences. We will examine some interesting cases where scholarly societies have adapted their content for delivery across digital and social formats.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For instance, American Chemical Society\u2019s podcast Stereo Chemistry is about chemistry news with a focus on the chemists behind it. In addition, they have a blog called ACS Axial which provides ideas, insights, and advice from the scientific community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It has also been observed that academic societies like the Academy of Management and the Royal Society of Chemistry use visually appealing media and videos to engage with their authors on different social media platforms.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The important question one must ask then is why scholarly societies are producing so much content using non-conventional methods. The objective behind their powerful content strategy is two-pronged\u20141) to stay relevant to their readers and 2) for increased visibility. Therefore, the content generated by these leading societies is aimed at creating interest, brand recognition, and author engagement,<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It is estimated that 77% of B2B marketers<\/a> use educational content to enhance brand reputation and awareness. 1<\/sup>Academic Societies with their repository of rich content libraries are likely to find that simplifying their content and making it available to a larger audience will help them reap rewards in terms of audience growth and engagement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We have listed the top 5 academic societies that are using content marketing strategies to build a community, advance outreach, and engage their audiences.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

1. Academy of Management (AOM)<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The 21st century introduced two major challenges for AOM<\/a>, one of the largest publishers in the field of business and management \u20141) the sheer number of publications and 2) the world was going digital. Despite these challenges, AOM stands tall with its community of 20000+ members across more than 120 countries. So, what still makes them so attractive to the community?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In September 2018, the Academy of Management launched AOM Insights<\/a>\u2014an online magazine for managers and business leaders featuring easy-to-read summaries derived by turning tedious research data into intelligible and actionable information. Leveraging science over speculation, in a time when online content is cluttered with misinformation and confusing opinions by self-proclaimed experts, Insights only features content based on the latest research published in top management journals. But that\u2019s not all\u2014Insights also is a storehouse of powerful management content developed in several engaging and shareable formats, including explainer videos<\/a> and infographics that can be used in classrooms and boardrooms, and shared on social media.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Figure 1 An example of an infographic created by Impact Science for AOM Insights<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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These engaging media formats are not just used to accompany their digital magazine summaries but are also repurposed as postcards and fashioned cutouts and disseminated on social media to draw users to their website. Naturally, this led to an increase in readership, as well as online engagement with AOM\u2019s target audience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

John Pescatore, the Managing Director of Publications and Content at AOM says: \u201cBefore we had one single piece of content, a journal article which got promoted through social media once. Now we have a journal article that gets promoted to social media along with an infographic and in some instances a research brief. As a result, we are providing 300% more content from one single article that we can then use to disseminate not only to our members, but now to our wider audiences.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

2. Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This 175+ year old chemistry publishing house is known to make heads turn (and we aren\u2019t talking about the RSC bestowing an Honorary Fellowship on the greatest fictional detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Earlier this year, the Royal Society of Chemistry launched a refreshing new campaign that featured a series of short videos<\/a> aimed at inspiring young adults to pursue careers in chemical science. This campaign has been running on all social networking sites that are popular with the Gen Z\u2014YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Bold, exciting, and inspirational, not unlike campaigns created by a big commercial brand like Nike, RSC creative strategy has equipped them to draw an audience with a high digital aptitude and a low attention span.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But, once you\u2019ve attracted an audience, how do you keep your readers engaged?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

RSC does this in several ways. MyRSC<\/a> is an online community of 69,000 registered users which is the ultimate destination for chemistry enthusiasts with its wide array of blogs, discussion forums, community groups, resources, and more. Talk Chemistry<\/a> is an online group that connects chemistry teachers, and includes monthly interactive videos and other resources, tips, and articles that can be easily shared with students. Chemistry World blog<\/a> is yet another online blog by RSC that covers a range of topics in multiple formats including science news, research updates, podcasts and opinion pieces.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On their main website, RSC has been carefully selecting one article every week for showcase commonly known as \u201cChemSci Pick of the week<\/a>\u201d. For greater impact, these top research articles are accompanied by visually-appealing infographics that summarize the entire research paper.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Infographic created by Impact science for the Royal Society of Chemistry<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Besides improving the recall for chemistry research, the reads and downloads of articles in this section doubled, in addition to the more traditional impact parameters like citations and Altmetric score. RSC has also partnered with Impact Science to create content in engaging formats like video summaries<\/a> and special posters on social media and to extend their reach to local markets like China.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

3. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. (JBJS)<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

JBJS\u2014one of the most widely recognized and trusted sources of orthopedic research, is a great example of a brand that quickly adapts its content strategy to stay relevant and keep users engaged. In fact, within three years, The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery increased their online readership from 58% to 74%. JBJS presents content in various formats\u2014clinical summaries, news articles, infographics, and videos to keep busy medical researchers and surgeons up to date with the latest developments. JBJS also collaborated with the Impact Science team to create concise and quick to consume 2-minute animated videos<\/a>, and visually appealing infographics. The impact of such easily shareable content was tremendous:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n