1. Segmenting and targeting members

Research societies already apply some form of strategic segmentation (such as special prices and programs for students, early career researchers, etc.). Societies can drill down to find further segments within the broader groups of members, such as by geographical location, subfield, or even type of workplace (e.g., university vs. hospital). As part of this process, it’s important to also acquire detailed knowledge about the targeted segment(s)—not just their research-related needs but also their overall lives, especially challenges. Information  behaviors are influenced by a variety of factors, including demographic, job-related, and psychological.

2. Collecting and analyzing data

With societies offering more and more online resources and communication channels, analytics are a powerful tool for identifying how exactly members engage with these resources and what generates maximum engagement. For example, are webinars more popular than podcasts for continuing education? Does making a page mobile friendly increase its views, and by how much? All these questions and more can be answered by regularly collating analytics for the society’s web properties. In addition, focus group discussions can be a valuable source of information, enabling societies to understand what underlies the numerical data that analytics provides.

3. Refining offerings to cater to the target segment(s) content consumption pattern

Using the insights gained from the first two steps, societies can optimize the content they provide each segment. In other words, the insights collected should form the basis for decisions such as whether to provide career advice and support beyond a jobs board, whether training programs for early career researchers should focus on writing skills or more specifically grant application skills, etc. Further, knowing whether a target segment, such as practitioners, uses a smartphone or computer to stay updated can allow the society to optimize the content format used to deliver research updates (e.g., podcast vs. email newsletter). Similarly, if a particular segment doesn’t have a stable, high-speed Internet connection (e.g., because they are doing fieldwork in remote areas), they would probably prefer downloadable PDF handbooks to livestreamed webinars. Knowing how many members don’t attend webinars because they are in the wrong time zone can enable societies to set up online libraries for accessing webinar content. These are some ways that existing offerings can be customized if the segments are targeted and their consumption patterns are clear.

See also: How synthesizing multiple papers into single infographics helped the American Society of Clinical Oncology ensure clinicians received critical updates

4. Employing a multichannel approach for promotion

It’s necessary to communicate offerings to the target segments through multiple channels, based on their communication preferences. Relying on a single communication channel like email limits a society’s reach and visibility. Promote your content offerings in multiple places, such as your newsletter, direct emailers, on your conference website, on your society website, and on multiple social media platforms, based on how your target segment searches for and accesses information.

Conclusion

Societies are investing significant time and effort in diversifying their revenue streams, particularly by leveraging their rich content resources and position as thought leaders in their fields. For a content plan to have maximum effectiveness, it needs to be based on strategic understanding of their members and what drives their uptake of society offerings.

Early career researchers can play a significant role in revitalizing your society. Download this whitepaper to learn more about engaging and retaining these members.

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They’re big and getting bigger

Considering China’s population and the protection Chinese digital companies enjoy from international competitors, the BAT have amassed a digital empire. Baidu provides cloud storage, news, social media, virtual assistant, and legal research solutions, among others. Alibaba owns not just domestic and international retail and wholesale businesses but also logistics and supply chain management services, cloud services, and fintech services (Ant Group in the US) as well as one of China’s most prestigious newspapers, South China Morning Post. Tencent owns not just WeChat, China’s largest social media platform, but also mobile games, payment systems, video streaming, and e-commerce services. In 2023, Baidu Inc had a revenue of over USD 18 billion and Tencent revenue was over USD 84 billion. As of December 2023, Alibaba Group had a revenue of around USD 130 billion. The BAT are big not just by local standards but also international: in 2023, Alibaba had a higher market value than Dell, Sony, and IBM.

The BAT are also striving towards a larger international presence. Baidu has an R&D center based in California. Alibaba Group has a presence in multiple Western countries, including the US, New Zealand, Australia, and France (though its US business affiliate Ant Group is facing delisting in US markets). Tencent, which already owns data centers in the US and Canada and has a stake in a UK digital bank, is rumored to be expanding outside China more vigorously, particularly through gaming and cloud-based services. Moreover, Tencent has partnered with universities in the US, Hong Kong, and Singapore in setting up labs; it has also sponsored academic conferences both within and outside China, such as IEEE/CVF’s 2022 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference in New Orleans.  

Their solutions are integral to China’s research and higher education ecosystem

Baidu Scholar, a free academic search platform along the lines of Google Scholar, is the leading search tool used by researchers in China (in fact, this has led the international publisher Wiley to enter into a license agreement with it). Baidu Research, which is co-located in Silicon Valley, includes laboratories in data science and data mining, robotics and autonomous driving, and business intelligence, all of which contribute research papers in these fields. Similarly, Alibaba Group’s Taobao set up its own “university” in 2018, which offers courses on building a digital business, and more recently has plans to launch another university that offers training on various service sectors like logistics, retail, and catering. Tencent’s WeChat is one of the main ways Chinese researchers access and disseminate research. This platform is also widely used for researcher networking, collaboration, and even crowdsourcing answers to questions about research. Some journals also use it for informal author communication; around 65% of journals indexed in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index have WeChat accounts.

They have a role in the Chinese government’s R&D ambitions

The Chinese government’s 14^th Five Year Plan emphasizes innovation and technological self-reliance. And given the above facts about the BAT, it’s not surprising that they are playing a significant role in the Chinese government’s ambitions in regard to R&D. The BAT are fueling investment and setting up additional laboratories, especially in the field of AI. They are playing a significant role in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s development strategy to build connectivity and cooperation across six main economic corridors both physically and digitally (known as the Digital Silk Road). Under the Digital Silk Road, China has also launched the University Alliance of the Silk Road, a higher education and research initiative that brings together over 130 universities across five continents. The BAT have heavily contributed to the Digital Silk Road and all its initiatives by developing internet infrastructure in the form of cloud services, payment services, etc.  

Conclusion

Building a successful presence in a new market requires publishers and societies to understand not just its research ecosystem but also its overall digital landscape and economy. This is even more true of China, which is increasingly attracting the attention of leading publishers and journals as part of a long-term strategy to attract highly cited papers. As China’s share in the global research output grows, the products, services, and solutions from the BAT will not only play an increasingly important role within China’s research landscape but will also attract the attention of international publishing giants. 

Get in-depth insights on how to build a presence in China by understanding the country’s research agenda and ecosystem. Download this whitepaper.

This article was initially published in August 2022

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