How to create science content people actually like

Welcome to Episode 2 of The Communication Lab — where I’m going to teach you my tips and tricks for science and health communication on social media (if you’re new to this series, start here).

This week we’ll dive into something everyone in scicomm struggles with at the beginning: how do you create science content that people actually like?

My number one rule

My number one rule for making engaging social media content is this:

If I think it’s boring, everyone else probably will too.

Coming out of academia, we are often rewarded for just getting words on the page, even if they’re not the most exciting. On the internet, the rules are different — you’re asking for people’s free time. We are rewarded for keeping people’s attention, not word count. This, in my opinion, is one of the most difficult (and important) transitions from academic writer to science communicator: write less, and make it interesting.

You, the creator, are your best first judge of interesting content. Would you read your post all the way through? If your reel showed up in your Instagram feed, would it stop your scroll? If there is some nagging feeling of gahh not quite, then take out the boring bits, and make it shorter.

But how do I make it interesting?

Easier said than done, to be sure. In later episodes we’ll dive into tricks for different types of media (video, short-form text, long-form text), but here are my top 5 tips that apply across the board: