Spotlight on…Lynda McIntosh

Please can you tell us a little bit about your role?

As the Research Communications and Marketing Manager for the Faculty of Humanities, I help our researchers to find the best way to get their research into the hands of the people who really need to hear about it. I help to support the delivery of the University’s research strategy by working closely with the research support team, and I work to create the University’s reputation for excellence within the communications and marketing team. I’m currently leading the development of research communications plans for the next REF which is a new piece of work. In my day to day I advise and train staff in our research institutes to help them set and achieve their communications objectives.  I work with the research beacon leads and our media and social media teams so that we are all working together to raise the profile of our research.  Like most of us, I’m always learning how to use new software but today we have analytics that tell us how effective we’re being! It’s fun to geek out a bit and see what the data is telling us, but we always start each piece of work with the fundamentals of why are we doing this piece of work and who do we need to speak to. More recently I’ve enjoyed running social media campaigns on ageing, sustainability and data science to promote our expertise in these areas.

What do you most enjoy about your role?

The best part of my role is that I get to work between two worlds – research and communications and marketing. I work with researchers and postgraduate researchers (PGRs) to assess what they’re trying to achieve through their communications activities, and who their key audiences are. Then I work with colleagues across the media, policy, business engagement, web, content and digital marketing teams to find the right angle and approach to help to bring it to life. I like that we have to adapt what we produce to match how people choose to stay informed. So today, everything is created with digital first in mind (eg blogs, responsive websites, videos, infographics, e-newsletters, and podcasts) for people to use on their iPads, tablets and smartphones. It’s never boring!

I also enjoy speaking to researchers about their work, because apart from their loved ones, this is what makes them get up in the morning. I’ve never met a researcher with only a mild interest in their area of study – and that enthusiasm is catching! I like it when my contribution makes a difference to how well our research, and staff, are being perceived outside and across the University. It always amazes me how far reaching and important our research is to improving every part of society. It’s hard not to be interested because everything we study and teach is related to the human condition: how we engage with language, religion, privacy, ethics, history, poverty how we treat our ageing population and how we will solve problems around consumption and inequality. 

What, for you, is the best part about working for the University?

I’m always grateful for the training and development opportunities on offer to staff – sometimes as courses and sometimes through secondments and job shadowing. They’re a great way to learn new ways of working across teams and to get perspective on the way your team usually operates. 

But the best part of the University would have to be the people, who are the friendliest and most professional staff that I’ve ever worked with.  No matter the project or problem, someone will always spare a few minutes to answer a request, or point you in the right direction. They also seem to endlessly run, bake, volunteer and fundraise to support a huge number of worthwhile causes – they make it a pleasure to be here!