Case study · Higher education
Northumbria University wanted its researchers to become trusted voices online. We trained 71 academics from six of its Research Peaks of Excellence face to face, then measured every one of them before and after. Their online influence rose by an average of 59%.
- 71 academics trained
- 6 research peaks
- +59% average online influence
- 43% improved how they use social
- Client Northumbria University
- Sector Higher education
- Training Social media for academics, personal branding, influencer outreach
- When September 2023 to April 2024
- Audience Academic researchers
- Format Six face-to-face sessions
What did Northumbria need?
Northumbria organises its research into Research Peaks of Excellence. The university wanted the academics in those peaks to use social media to reach prospective students, journalists and research funders, and to become influential in their own fields.
It also wanted proof. The brief asked for “a clear set of measures and KPIs” linked to its goal of more share of voice in its research theme areas.
- Business objective: grow Northumbria’s share of voice and reputation in its research theme areas.
- Training objective: equip academics in each peak to build their own online influence, with at least a 30% average increase in delegates’ scores, measured around three months after training.
What was the insight?
Academics don’t need another generic social media course. They need to see how social works in their own field, and someone checking whether anything changed afterwards.
So the idea was train, tailor, measure. A core course agreed with the marketing team, 20% of every session rebuilt around the peak in the room, and a bespoke influence score to prove progress.
What did the training cover?
- Influencer mapping. We first mapped the external influencers in each peak, so academics knew who to engage with.
- A pre-training survey. Each group told us what they used and what they struggled with. We tailored the sessions to match.
- Six face-to-face sessions. Chris Norton and Will Ockenden trained Solar and Space Physics, Energy Materials and Systems, Ice, Microbial, Volunteering, and Creative and Cultural. Each covered the channels that matter for research, building a personal brand, content planning and growing a network.
- A bespoke influence score. Every delegate got a score out of 100 based on their profile, posting frequency, engagement, outreach and impressions. We scored them before training and again in April 2024.
- After-care. Profile reviews and a “strategy on a page” for each academic, to stop learning fade.
What did it achieve?
Results by stage of the AMEC evaluation framework, with the source for each figure.
| Stage | Measure | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outputs | Face-to-face training sessions | 6 | Training wrap report, April 2024 |
| Outputs | Academics trained | 71 | Training wrap report, April 2024 |
| Out-takes | Delegate feedback | “Very helpful, and practical training” | Delegate feedback, wrap report |
| Outcomes | Delegates who changed their social media use for the better | 43% | Influence benchmarking |
| Outcomes | Average change in delegate online influence | +59% | Influence benchmarking, before training and April 2024 |
| Outcomes | Biggest rise by peak | +148% (Energy Materials and Systems) | Influence benchmarking |
| Impact | Further training commissioned | Executive LinkedIn sessions, online module refresh, four new Corporate Communications modules | Northumbria purchase orders and correspondence |
What did Northumbria get from it?
Academics starting to act as advocates for their own research and the university, and a measure the marketing team can report against. The average rise beat the 30% target nearly twice over.
The relationship kept growing. Northumbria also asked us to train its executive team on LinkedIn, refresh its online training modules with a new Bluesky module, and write four new Corporate Communications modules on news media, filming and podcasting.
“It was extremely useful, especially for starting to think about using social media differently and more like a tool to further my research and other goals.”
What did we learn?
- Be honest about the starting point. Some rises look big because starting levels were very low. Few academics have become true influencers yet. This is a journey.
- Most people still did nothing. 57% of delegates didn’t change their behaviour. The most engaged peaks were Creative and Cultural (62%) and Microbial (54%), so peak buy-in matters.
- What we would do differently. Keep coaching going after the session, focused on the most engaged academics, rather than spreading follow-up thinly across everyone.
Want to train your academics or staff to build their profile online? Talk to us about a social media training programme.
