Understanding Social Media

Hi Reader, which is your favorite social media platform?

Indeed, you can imagine that each of them has a different “character.”

As a result, you’ll find very different cultures – what is liked, celebrated, or said. What kind of content does well differs a lot.

Let me therefore give you an overview so you can decide which fits your style and preferences best:

YouTube

The juggernaut of content. You’ll find everything – from casual vlogs to highly edited educational videos, lectures, or just funny science content.

Shorter trends exist, but individual styles often dominate. To succeed, you either need a distinctive style, deep expertise, or a professional/expensive production approach. However, once you do, it seems the most reliable, loyal, and profitable platform for content creation.

• Special features: Endless niches – whether clumsy natural videos or polished studio productions. Give it a creative spin, and you’re set
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• Science content: Ranges from in-depth discussions lasting 30+ minutes to answering rhetorical questions with formulas in under 5 minutes. Find what you enjoy most
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• Hack: Hacks aren’t really a thing here. Best advice: find your style. Even something like an ugly pencil drawing as a video can work if it creates an immersive vibe

Instagram

To a large extent, this is a community driven platform. People look for a break from real life and some engagement – ideally with people and topics they enjoy.

That means everything goes, as long as it fits your community, whether quick business success or emotional support. However, it seems that either a large following or hopping on trending topics is important for reach. Again, it’s mainly about communities people already know, so you have to show why they should accept someone new.

• Special features: Once you find an entry point into a community, chances for engagement, likes, and views are high
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• Science content: Story-driven, visual, and overall engaging content can do well (with an established following). But short, vlog-style, personality-driven content and everyday lab-life moments dominate
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• Hack: Share something peculiar about your lab life or highlight your story with reference to a common unfairness

TikTok

Just as you’d imagine: if it’s not a trend or highly engaging, it doesn't do well. There is some deeper education, but rather little.

You’ll find funny dances, jokes, trending music, and overly emotional stories. Choosing the right soundtrack is often more important than originality. The more extreme or silly, the better. Much science content falls flat unless it rides a trend. However, especially during COVID, you could film yourself on the street, mention PCR and science, and get a lot of traction.

• Special features: An amazing algorithm (you need to try it to appreciate it)
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• Science content: Good storytelling or crazy stories that spark imagination are essential
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• Hack: Silly lab jokes or content that fits lip-syncs/music

LinkedIn

The professionals’ and career platform. Here, the culture is much more serious and adult.

Overall, people share accomplishments, insights, expertise, personal career stories or opportunities here. However, there’s a lot of fake exaggeration going on as well. Nevertheless, it’s a great place to make professional connections and build a serious image/brand for yourself. Few short-lived trends, but overall "templates" that can be repeated over and over.

• Special features: Great for building a brand and finding specific contacts to network with
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• Science content: Informative with some engagement. Much more toned down than on other platforms, but good graphics go a long way
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• Hack: Share a picture of yourself at an event or with a certificate and say how great it was and how much you learned, and you’ll get above-average engagement. Otherwise, figure out the common structure of posts – LinkedIn is rather repetitive.

The Others

I don’t consider the others as valuable for building your presence, although more than a few people have done it successfully there as well:
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​Facebook: Now apparently mostly used for groups, events, and staying in touch with existing networks.

X: Has become increasingly controversial, now known for highly debated political topics, and less about science updates.

Bluesky (and Mastodon): I don’t see much happening, though others say you can find some close-knit communities.

So, should you post across platforms? We’ll answer that next week.

For now, to find what fits you best, go in with an analytical mindset and don’t judge whether you like the content – just observe the patterns of posts that do well. Considher that Instagram and LinkedIn allow posts with pictures and text, which might make them the easiest entry point.

How We Feel Today