Sharing how we can communicate our science effectively, whether in posters, papers or on social media!
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SciCom – Finding Out What You Should Post About
Published 5 months ago • 6 min read
Choosing The Right Visuals
Hi Reader, hope you are doing well!
Today, I will give the webinar on whether social media is for you and how to succeed there. If you like, you can still register here and join.
However, a question many who want to communicate their science have is:
“What should I post?”
Let’s find out what fits you or your organization best:
Follow Your Emotions
Of course, there are many ways to find out what you should post about.
But what feels most natural to most people is to start with what you’re actually passionate about.
This is Mark Rober, who normally makes physics, engineering and educational videos, spending six months filling a pool with Jello. Watch the video to see what I mean by “do what you are passionate about” even if it is silly at times.
This can be something you’re interested in, something you feel you have to share, or something that truly moves your heart.
An important point to understand here is that this doesn’t need to be something “prestigious” or “impressive.” It can be a silly hobby, a weird obsession, or something you simply want to explore, build, or invent.
I, on the other hand, would consider this somewhat childish and silly; my passion drove me more toward DNA origami or mitochondrial transfer between cells.
Conversely, you should also consider choosing something you feel strongly about in a negative way - something that makes you angry, frustrates you, or that you genuinely dislike.
This can work because social media (and storytelling) is driven by emotion.
Of course, this requires courage and the ability to strike the right tone, because you don’t want to blatantly offend people or scare them away by posting only anger and hate. But posts that uncover or expose malpractice can be powerful.
If you can channel your negative emotions into something constructive, such as providing education, offering alternative perspectives, or uncovering malpractice, your content can become truly valuable.
Nevertheless, you need to consider that passion alone often doesn’t work right away.
Apart from the struggles a small channel faces, posting about topics that you're passionate about can make you somewhat blind to your audience’s perspective:
The Major Challenge
In essence: you focus too much on what you like and how you want to say it, instead of how your audience needs or wants to hear it.
Although I like their posts in theory, the issue with channels such as Animal Free Research UK is that although they make valid points and often share interesting information they haven’t yet figured out how to shape perception and deliver a compelling story. That means, if you are too blunt, too short, too long, or share what seems obvious without making it emotional, people will simply think, “Yes, I know that already…”
This means, with passion-driven posts you will probably need to rework how you frame your posts.
Even if you think your message is obvious, it often isn’t - especially in an emotional context. You must pay close attention to the words you use, the order in which you tell the story, and the background or structure you provide.
You will probably need to refine your story multiple times until you see which perspective your audience actually shares.
Especially for volunteers, societies and companies, that is an important point. You think offering scholarships, giveaways, or events is something inherently good.
It simply doesn't work like this - your reader must see what you are offering and how this is actually valuable to them right away.
However, if people don’t see its worth or don’t know you, it is just another post requiring mental effort.
You are passionate about doing good or offering opportunities, but it might not be perceived as such:
If we don’t frame things properly, people simply write the topic off. It might be your biggest passion, or you might think it’s the world’s biggest problem- and you may be right. But if people don’t care, it’s nearly impossible to make them care.
So what if you don’t think you can approach your topic from another perspective?
What Are You an Expert In?
Another approach that cuts the issue of relevance shorter is expertise.
Many people find success by focusing on something they have deep expertise in. This could be a hobby or professional expertise.
This is one of the posts that only I can create, as I’m one of the few people worldwide who has advised labs and institutes on making their research more sustainable. The challenge, however, is that when you have expertise that few others share, building a niche requires a lot of testing. Problems people aren’t aware of are much harder to sell.
If you have a lot of experience, you have not only insights to share but probably many stories to tell.
You don’t need to be a technical expert; pragmatic advice or interesting experiences can be enough.
Working with your experience is great because it lets you create many types of content: stories, overviews, checklists, pragmatic tips, documents, and more.
Still, feel free to build in public. Even if you are not yet an expert, but want to become one, this can work.
While The Thought Emporium already had a lot of expertise, I think their style pretty well resonates with the idea of building in public. If you don't yet have the skills you would need, acknowledge it (openly, through your storytelling or through humor) - also NileRed does it well as you can see in this video.
People love to learn with you, especially as you know what newcomers struggle with. However, also here, make sure you make it obvious why people should care about your story.
The Analytical Approach
What if you don’t want to share anything that is dear to your heart?
Probably, the most successful approach is simply to find out what other people are interested in.
I talked about the “lab girls” previously - the seemingly organic content created by female scientists who share more about their everyday work. Your goal is to identify nuances like the fact that this approach works extremely well for many on Instagram but much less effectively on YouTube. Once you’ve found insights like these, figure out what they mean for you. Can you create content in a similar style? Can you combine multiple ideas into a new format? Instead of thinking about something very specific, like using microbes to digest plastics, go into microbiology more generally, or maybe even biology, and see what people talk about.
Focus on the broader fields that interest you and see what people are paying attention to in those.
See what they like and engage with.
Picture: Following button with “use it tactically”: Following one or two channels isn’t enough; the algorithm will eventually feed you relevant content. Do this across multiple platforms if possible.
Observe what people talk about and what is liked on each platform. Different platforms have different preferences.
You can also hop on trends.
When talking about trends, dancing on TikTok might be the first thing that comes to mind. And although these trends can be incredibly annoying, the key for you is to figure out why they work. What is it that makes the most annoying posts so well liked? Ignore what you think or feel and start trying to understand the psychology behind their success.
This can be powerful because the algorithm often pushes trending topics. We all know how certain music trends on TikTok have turned songs into chart hits.
Picture: As a pragmatic tip, don’t force it. Trends fade, and you’ll need to pivot. And if you don’t like a trend, it’s hard to make good content about it.
Some Personal Tips
To be honest, you will probably find yourself sticking with an approach that represents all three tactics mentioned above to some extent.
When choosing among ideas, consider what moves you the most - you need a strong motivation to dig deep and produce good content.
LearnWithSherlock has developed a unique style of bluntly sharing his critique while connecting it to his expertise. It’s essentially a blend of passion-driven and expertise-driven design.
Most importantly, as mentioned before, study other channels. Watch a lot of content and immerse yourself in posts that do well.
Try to figure out why they do well and why others don’t. This is key.
Also, remember that many successful posts that you see required significant production. What looks like a spontaneous bathroom singing video may have taken three hours to record and ten hours to edit. So, start by posting something you have the skills for. Learning to edit and record high-quality audio takes time, but free or cheap tools often do the job. You don’t need the Adobe Suite necessarily. PowerPoint and free editing software can be enough. Start with simple, cheap tools and aim for acceptable quality. I, for example, made these motion graphics in PowerPoint to explain statistics.
Even if your topic is interesting and has huge potential, you won’t succeed if you don’t know how to phrase it or catch attention with a good thumbnail.
Finally, remember this is a journey. It takes time to get used to it. In the beginning, it will fluctuate.
You will probably test multiple ideas. Don’t think you have to cling to one, no matter what.
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