[AISWorld] communicating research results to practitioners on LinkedIn - Follow-up

[Peter Trkman]

Dear colleagues,

as promised in March, below some reflection on my LinkedIn blogging
experiment as a way to present my research papers in practitioner-readable
format (the summary of my posts is here
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/summary-my-linkedin-posts-peter-trkman)


Key takeaways:


   - It takes more 'bandwidth' than expected (not just regarding time but
   also 'intellectual effort'), it takes a different mindset.
   - This means that I had less time for 'real' research. If I were not a
   tenured professor on a full-time contract, I could not afford this. I don’t
   think tenure or hiring committees would appreciate my blogging.
   - It forced me to think about the practical implications of my research.
   We all write 'practical implications' section in our journal papers, but
   research papers are only read by researchers. On LinkedIn, I needed to have
   my reader in mind.
   - Articles attracted between 60 and 350 clicks; shorter ‘self-bragging
   posts’ between 2000 and 4000 views.
   - The attracted audience was exactly the right one; most readers have
   titles like Salesperson, CEO, Program Manager, Project Manager and (for SCM
   related post) Inventory / Logistics Specialist. Most viewers of my “I just
   had a paper accepted” were university professors. So, LinkedIn does a good
   job at ‘automatic targeting’.
   - Consequently, I’ve already received feedback/acknowledgment/request to
   connect from practitioners in IS and SCM fields (both from Slovenia and
   internationally).
   - Even when trying to write in a simple style, some things cannot be
   over-simplified  (I do not and cannot compete with the '5 steps to increase
   motivation' style of post.
   - Teaching related articles (especially those with catchy titles like
   »your lecture was racist«:
   https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/professor-your-lecture-racist-peter-trkman)
   quickly attract a higher number of clicks. However, posts with more
   'boring' titles' (e.g. »critical success factors of business process
   management«:
   https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/critical-success-factors-business-process-management-peter-trkman)
   get more clicks in the long run as the article is found through Google.


   - The diversity of my research means that not all posts are of interest
   to anyone. Focusing on one overarching theme (e.g. business analytics)
   would attract a larger and more stable audience; even more so if I would
   move away from mainly presenting my papers to writing about more general
   things.
   - Posts require careful planning; I will not be able to keep up with the
   “one-per-week” pace.
   - Attracting readership requires hefty promotion: I've just used this
   mailing list and my personal Facebook profile. If I used other channels or
   personal emails, the reach would be much higher.

Feel free to comment on any of the posts or also by email. I will convert
this email into another LinkedIn post and publish it in the first week in
September.


Best regards,

Peter Trkman