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SciCom – Posting Across Channels
Published 10 months ago • 3 min read
Publishing Across Platforms?
Hi Reader, on which social media platform have you already posted?
If you start sharing your science, you will ask yourself where to begin.
I want to share with you the experiences I’ve heard and had myself, as I think they will serve as good guidance.
So, should you post across platforms?
Different Platforms - Different Strategies
Last week, we saw that different social media platforms have different cultures.
It’s somewhat subjective, different people might describe those “platform personalities” differently. But the fact that a difference exists has implications nonetheless.
Watch the video on YouTube or Instagram. Please note that the Instagram version is also shared by other accounts which can simulate the effect of a large following.
If you simply copy-paste your content, you will probably see differences in performance. And in my experience, these differences can mean barely a thousand clicks on one platform and 10+ million on another.
Be Honest With Yourself
The issue is that, especially if you are just starting out or don’t have a big team around you, it is unlikely that you can adapt your content to different platforms.
The challenge is twofold: You would either need to create videos to post the same content on all platforms, or convert between long-form and short-form written content (and exclude YouTube and TikTok).
The things you might have to change across platforms are extensive:
CTA (links, calls to comment, community shout-outs)
These are the formats I normally use. I find them to work best – although you can get away with a 1:1 style in a 9:16 format if your video is of low quality. Of course, you can post on X or LinkedIn in 16:9 too, but in my experience these posts don’t do as well. You can check out my LinkedIn to see that 1:1 is all you need. 4:3 and other formats might have their purpose, but I haven’t found them to be useful. YT = YouTube, IG = Instagram
My advice might surprise you, but I would still argue you should probably post across platforms. Let me explain:
Post Across Selected Platforms, I Say
In my opinion, it is almost impossible to know where your content will perform best before testing it.
If you have the time, or you’re just starting out, test your way through to see, for example, where your kind of humor is understood or where your writing/image design style lands better: on LinkedIn, Instagram, or X.
However, this only accounts for finding your style. You probably won’t succeed if you don’t become an “expert” in your domain.
Therefore, test all platforms, but pick one or two and study them deeply. Watch content from others who have success and try to analyze what makes people watch their content. It will take weeks and months to figure that out.
This was my path: I started with video content on YouTube, Instagram, and X. I decided to study some basics about Instagram but focused mainly on general editing (primarily for YouTube) and LinkedIn posts. Finally, I now target mainly four platforms - Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and YouTube - while X and Instagram receive the downstream feed just to keep them active.
Which platform to analyze? I’d advise going with the one you feel most passionate about.
The outcome? Nowadays, for example, I often cut away the last 3 seconds of a video in which I made a joke for the YouTube audience and put softer music on before publishing on LinkedIn. Some content I post on LinkedIn I don’t share anywhere else.
A Special Treat for Scientists
You should also consider that if you do science communication with broad appeal, you’re probably hitting the taste of curious minds no matter which platform.
For example, if you were to communicate about politics, you would have to edit a lot, but SciCom can be very forgiving and broad — allowing you to post the same video and do well on several platforms simultaneously.
Bonus Tips
Track metrics of your content. If you already have a small following, test how many of them are actually consuming your content.This can help you decide whether you should keep posting there.
Don’t get discouraged if, even after a year or more, some channels simply don’t do well.
If you don’t put active effort into studying them and learning how to edit your content accordingly, it is unlikely that you will improve. Therefore, re-editing content just to get a post out is not always advisable.
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