Maximizing Your Reach

Hi Reader, are you getting the maximum out of your efforts?

Online communication will very likely dominate the future of distributing science. Therefore, we talked about how to choose your channel and some experiences.

Again, it's not just for fun, it's also about getting you attention, followers, registrants for your events, customers, or readers of your papers.

However, few people know whether they are missing out in terms of their potential.

What You Should Expect

Take, for example, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

A little while ago they decided to actively invest in social media.
The result: they went from average to becoming a major science communicator, now reaching over 100 000 people every month.

To give you a sense of whether it might be worth investing more, here are some concrete benchmarks I would expect from the people and clients I work with.

If you are below these benchmarks, there is a good chance that a few simple tweaks could significantly increase your reach.
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Individual Creators

• Goal: 100,000 views per month, with >200 likes on strong posts
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• Just starting out: 1000 views per month, 2–10 likes per post
• Common: Reaching 500–5000 people per month, 10–20 likes per post
• Moderately successful: Reaching 10 000 people per month, 100 likes on strong posts
• Successful: Reaching 10 000–100 000 people per month, 20–100 likes per post, with >500 likes on strong posts
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Organizations

With 1–3 people involved part-time

• Unfortunate Reality: 10 000 impressions, 10–50 likes per post
• Lower End: 100 000 impressions, 30–200 likes per post
• Average Goal: 500 000 impressions, >1,000 likes on strong posts
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With 1–3 people involved full-time

• Lower end: 100 000 impressions, 40–100 likes per post
• Typical: 1 million impressions, 40–200 likes per post
• Average Goal: 10 million impressions, >1 500 likes on strong posts
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If You Post Across Multiple Channels (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)

• You should probably aim to reach between 100 000 and 10 million views per month across all channels combined.

PS: If you are far below that, it may be worth focusing on just 1–3 channels instead of spreading your efforts too thin.

Disclaimer: Please take these numbers with a grain of salt. They are just my benchmarks as of now.

Optimizing Your Strategy

I have always approached content creation intuitively.

However, for some, a few structured questions might be the best way to ensure they get the most out of their efforts.

Therefore, the following questions should help you review your progress and identify factors that may be limiting your growth:

Streamlining Creation

• Do you have a robust way to choose the topics you post about?
• Do you know how you find the right picture, thumbnail, or creative?
• Do you have a clear structure for writing your copy?
• Do you know how to adapt your posts to the social media channel you are posting on?
• Do you have reliable sources to find interesting content?
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Performance & Adaptation

• Do you have benchmarks in place that tell you when to change your posting strategy because performance has been declining?
• Do you know how your competitors are performing? For example, how successful are other creators, societies, or channels comparable to yours?
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Streamlining Creation

• Do you have a process for identifying trends and audience interests?
• Do you have a library of successful content frameworks?
• Do you know what metrics matter and whether nuances such as when to post are relevant to you?
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Publishing & Operations

• Do you have a clear outline of who in your team is responsible for which tasks?
• If you receive additional support, do you have new topics or content plans prepared?
• Do talented people reach out to you on their own initiative?
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Questions to assess whether you fulfill your potential

• Do you see steady growth in views and likes?
• Who makes up your leadership team? Are they open to more growth?
• Do you have any budget to invest in your improvement?
• Have you tried at least one innovative idea in the past quarter?
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If you check off <12 out of 17

consider joining a group to learn the basics or working with a consultant to get up to speed. Doing so can help you avoid missing out on many of the benefits that social media has to offer.

If you check off >12 out of 17

You are already well ahead of the curve. At that point, look more closely at your metrics and invest more heavily in the content that performs best. You may worry about audience fatigue, but this is far less common than most people think.

Some Personal Remarks

I provide the numbers above regardless of follower count. In my experience, if you have fewer than 1000 followers, growth is much harder, so keep going.

However, I also see organizations with more than 10 000 followers achieving very little despite posting weekly.

Of course, not every post will perform well, and that is completely normal.

However, looking only at annual statistics or your most successful posts can also distort the picture.

What I would suggest is this:

• Look at the last 3–5 posts on a given topic. For your entire channel, review monthly statistics if you post at least once per week. This gives you a much better idea of your average performance.

You may be surprised to find that many individuals outperform large corporations and organizations.

This is often because larger organizations follow "established" posting and marketing rules. That makes them lose in the long term.

Many followers don't ensure success.

How to Turn the Tide

Having trained several individuals and worked with organizations and companies around the world, here is my perspective:

For Individual Creators

If you are new, close your eyes and keep going. Try to improve with every post and publish as much as possible without sacrificing quality.

If you are more experienced, study successful content and channels more closely. Join societies or groups, or volunteer with more successful creators and organizations so that you can learn from them.
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For Organizations

Review your standards. Too many organizations underestimate the potential of social media.

If your social media efforts are not generating meaningful results (registrants, customers, visitors etc.), you probably don't use social media properly, no matter what other people say.

This could be an independent content creator or an experienced advisor.

However, avoid working with marketing agencies that are not run by scientists, or consultants who make grand promises.

A consultation can be an excellent shortcut to ensuring your organization remains relevant in the future.

How We Feel Today