Improving our social media outreach

Welcome to Volume 9, Issue No. 4 of 2023.

Regular readers of our journal would be aware that the primary highlight for 2023 has been the rejuvenation of the Editorial Board, which was announced in my Editorial in September 2023. Behind the scenes, we have also taken significant steps to enhance the social media outreach of Communication Research and Practice – or simply CRP (as used in our social media lingo).

In July 2023, we started a new LinkedIn account and improved our presence on CRP’s Facebook and Twitter/X accounts. Our new social media administrator, Howard Lee from Murdoch University, is a seasoned hand at running online campaigns in his professional work, and has transferred some common industry practices to the way we have been using these channels. Our dual-focus for social media covers both quantitative and qualitative elements. The approach has been to increase online presence by sharing the articles published with each issue (quantitative) and maximising engagement by highlighting their most relevant and interesting traits to our followers (qualitative). This effort would not have been possible without the high-quality articles that we have been receiving regularly from our growing pool of authors within our region and globally.

We are already starting to see improvements in our social media outreach. Our Facebook page witnessed a three-fold increase in interactions and engagement since July 2023, and our initial foray into LinkedIn has been very positive, receiving a steady number of impressions and followers. We are encouraged that our practice of tagging our posts has helped increase the visibility of our authors and their institutions. Our social media efforts have not only enlarged the online presence of CRP but have also helped built a community of communication researchers around the journal. We will continue to keep our authors at the centre of our engagement efforts. Meanwhile, please connect with us on our new LinkedIn channel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/communication-research-and-practice-journal-805050281/), along with our existing Facebook and X sites, and share CRP’s posts with your networks to help increase our reach.

As this issue goes to print, the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA), the peak scholarly body that supports the operation of Communication Research and Practice, is preparing to host its 2023 Annual Conference in Wellington, the capital city of Aotearoa New Zealand. The conference theme of ‘Ka mua, ka muri: Bridging communication pasts and futures’ is certain to elicit much discussion among delegates attending the event in November 2023. I hope to feature some of the papers in forthcoming issues of our journal.

This being the final issue of 2023, I want to take the opportunity to thank our readers once again for their support through the course of the year. Please continue to make CRP your go-to academic journal. Keep asking critical and scholarly questions, probe, think, write, et cetera with the full knowledge that we remain committed to publishing well-researched articles centred on communication research and practice.

Next year, 2024, will be an auspicious year for Communication Research and Practice as it will mark the tenth year of its publication. I very much look forward to commemorating this milestone with everyone who has been involved in the journal – whether you have been a member of the editorial advisory group and editorial board, an author or co-author, a reviewer, reader, or follower.

As we will soon bid farewell to 2023, I send all ANZCA members, our writers, and readers best wishes for the year-end Season, and a great start to the new year.