Leveraging Social Media to Improve Your Article’s Reach: Crafting Your Message

Promoting your research on social media can improve the discoverability and reach of your published work. The first installment of this two-part series covered what to do before you write your first post, including creating social media profiles and building your network. In this part, we share tips for crafting your social media post and maximizing its impact.

Rather than trying to include all the nuances of your research in a single post, think about how to distill your research into a short takeaway message that will entice your audience to read your full article. Try the following techniques to craft the most effective social media message about your work.

• Lead with the most exciting or interesting finding reported in your article to capture your reader’s attention. Can you tie your findings back to a provocative question or a compelling vision of the future?
• Make your post relatable and understandable to a broad audience; they may have less specialized knowledge of your particular field than you do.
• Consider including an easy-to-understand image or short video that synthesizes your work to catch the reader’s eye.
• Tag your co-authors; their networks will see your post and help spread the word even further.
• Include a couple of #HASHTAGS related to your article’s topic so interested readers outside of your network can find your post.
• Finish with a link to the article on IEEE Xplore so people can find it easily.

After you post about your article on social media, track your article’s performance. Go to your article’s page on IEEE Xplore and scroll down to the Metrics section to see how many times your article has been viewed and cited. These data are updated monthly, so check back frequently.

Following these best practices about posting, while continuing to expand your social media network over time, will improve your visibility and influence in the field.

Tips For Reviewing Your Article Proof

Once your article has been accepted, you will be prompted to upload your final source files. When IEEE Publishing Operations receives your final source files, they are converted to an XML-tagged format, edited to IEEE style, and an article proof PDF is generated.

An email notification invites you to download your proof from the IEEE Author Gateway when your article proof is ready for review. 

Tips for reviewing your first proof: 

1. Download the proof. Even though you have been informed that no changes are permitted after an article has been reviewed and approved, changes may occur during the editing and formatting process. Sometimes the team that has converted your article to the IEEE format has follow-up questions or needs to confirm formatting-related changes. These are captured and listed as queries at the top of the proof.
2. Respond to any queries and provide corrections. These may include confirming information such as funding and author affiliations, or providing page ranges, issue numbers, and publisher information for references. You can either annotate the proof with comments or provide your corrections in list format, detailing page and line numbers. New source files as corrections cannot be accepted. Revised graphics and tables should be supplied as image files.
3. Read the proof carefully. Check the following parts of your article:
   1. Byline (author names; IEEE membership status; ORCIDs)
   2. Funding information
   3. Corresponding author
   4. Affiliations of all authors, including department name, institution, city, postal code, and country

If your article incurs mandatory overlength page charges or you have opted to print figures in color, an invoice will be sent via email from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC).

Open Access publishing charges are billed separately. 

If you have any questions about your proof, email your Journals Production Manager; their contact information can be found in the IEEE Author Gateway.

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the Author Center Newsletter.