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SciCom – Why You Should Invest in Social Media
Published 26 days ago • 4 min read
Investing in Social Media
Hi Reader, why are so many talking about science communication on social media?
Because beyond sharing new research, it’s becoming the main avenue for communicating what’s happening and what to pay attention to.
A few posts can double the number of applications for your event, bring in new members, or turn you into a renowned invited speaker.
And it’s easily repeatable. Once you have an audience and know how to post, it becomes ever faster and easier. But how do you get there?
Scientific Social Media
Social media is not just a set of silly platforms for teens. It’s replacing TV, newspapers, email campaigns, and even some forms of personal groups.
Silently, social media has become a true hub of scientific communication. Whether it is The Bumbling Biochemist offering real-life lab tips, Joseph Everett debunking false concepts with current research, or Veritasium providing insights into physical concepts that some don’t even encounter at university, there is tremendous expertise and dedication to be found on social media.
What most people underestimate is how much serious business is conducted through social media - and the actual reach they can build.
As discussed previously, it’s probably the easiest way to gain attention, attendees, citations, or reputation.
Unfortunately, very few have unlocked this level of success, probably because they think it’s on them to figure it out.
Why Many Get Stuck
Unfortunately, simply doing due diligence on social media is not going to work. Instead, you need to understand the game.
Yet it’s not you (or the people in your organization) who are best equipped to do that, because it’s not easy - especially with a full schedule of other responsibilities.
It’s most effective if you can get someone to work with you on your content who has been successful in the same niche you are in. Although I am a big proponent of figuring out things yourself, my problem with much of the advice you find online is that only a few selected channels provide generalizable insights that will truly help you. Unpacking that information and translating it to your own niche can be difficult - not least because some people try to sell you on ideas they have only remotely participated in (here is a great example of someone giving amazing business advice, but would that actually help you do effective science communication?)
Working smarter, not harder, is key.
It’s not necessary to hire an entire social media team. Someone working on social media part-time can double your followers in a year. At least if they get the right input...
While it is possible to learn it on one's own, the most effective way might be getting an advisor who has worked in a similar field.
To my mind, “social media” is now a rather outdated and misleading term. It’s better understood as attention media, the place where attention actually is caught. The graphic represents my personal perception of how educational, social, and (short-term) attention-driven these platforms are. It is highly subjective and, to some extent, influenced by the history of these platforms - remember, Facebook started as a dating platform.
Yes, it costs money (or at least time) to get advice from the outside.
But those who try to figure it out themselves often get stuck because, without a large channel, it’s hard to know what truly works.
The Trap of Doing It Alone
You can post regularly, but if you don’t get good reach, you end up searching for answers in the noise.
If you get around fifteen likes on average, it’s unlikely that you can draw meaningful conclusions, as chance plays too large a role.
Yet I’ve heard of people building entire analyses on such data – very unfortunate.
Someone with experience gives you access to that experience and a much broader perspective on what works beyond your own channel.
Only a small fraction of channels capture the majority of attention. Favoree has visualized this for YouTube, but the same pattern holds for LinkedIn and other platforms. The challenge is that content with few views often tells you little more than that your approach wasn’t effective. This is why creators who have already succeeded are able to build and grow new channels much faster, again and again.
This is especially important because it’s often small tweaks that can make your posts go viral, the second challenge many people face when working on their own:
The Details Matter
That means the difference between reaching 500 people and 50,000 people is sometimes just a matter of phrasing a few words differently.
Figuring out how to consistently get more views often depends on identifying a few fundamental patterns.
Yet those patterns differ across platforms, across types of content, and sometimes even across the audiences you’re trying to reach.
This is a perfect example from a recent post of mine. As you can see on the right, simply changing the phrasing of the second sentence increased my post’s reach from a few thousand views to nearly 100k. Of course, this isn’t a controlled A/B test, but to my mind, it illustrates how important experience and attention to detail can be.
It’s the experience and intuition you build by working on different topics and across multiple channels that help you notice these nuances.
And sometimes, it only takes a few words of advice to help you see these differences.
You Shouldn’t Miss Out
Especially since the early 2020s, it has become clear that you can go viral with almost any kind of post, no matter how big or small your channel is.
Yes, you can reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions, from the very beginning - if you know how.
Click to enlarge. Social media is big with over 5 billion people using it. When you read “finding content,” think of it as increasingly replacing search engines like Google. “Keeping in touch” replaces, to some extent, traditional social groups or communities, while “seeing what’s talked about” is taking over the role of TV, newspapers, radio, and journals. This data comes from Cropink, with other sources such as the Pew Research Center showing fairly similar trends.
Therefore, learn from those who have made it themselves. Get inspiration, adapt, and look behind the scenes.
The great thing about a good advisor is that they have been through the same struggles and know what is normal growth pain and what is a mistake.
So, my tip: take the step and reach out to someone you know can help you. It can feel intimidating, but what can go wrong if you just ask?
You don’t need to post dancing videos to go viral, attract new applications, or establish yourself as a leading voice.
And you’ll receive plenty of appreciation from your colleagues once they know they can ask you to help get their work seen!
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