How to effectively use social media to reach your desired audience
By Rachel Wolfe
Using social media platforms is a great way to promote your research on your own, but it can be difficult to figure out which platform is best for your goal. You could be interested in your content reaching a lot of people, discussing ideas with peers, or building a community of researchers. Knowing which platform is the best for you will help you save time and energy for more research endeavors.
Twitter/X
Twitter, now called X, is a very popular social media platform which is great if you want to reach a large, global audience. It is also ideal if you want to reach a younger audience as Millennials (ages 25-34) are among the leading age group of the site.
Twitter allows posts consisting of 280 characters for free accounts which makes it the ideal site for posting short blurbs to promote content. Twitter makes it very easy to share and interact with posts to spread your research to different people. If you really want to reach a bigger audience, make sure you are posting highly relevant topics as Twitter tends to push content that is timely. You can use hashtags or specific wording to get featured on the ‘Explore’ page when topics are trending but be sure to not take advantage of tragic situations when promoting your research.
If reaching a large audience is not your goal in promoting your research, Twitter can be great for building a network with other researchers. The platform has long been a popular option for academic researchers to post and discuss research because of its ability to reply to posts and directly message accounts. However, some academics have started to leave Twitter after SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, bought the site in favor of some other sites such as Mastodon.
Mastodon
Mastodon has become known as academics’ alternative to Twitter post-Musk takeover due to its community-driven format, but it has many differences that could make it the better option for your research. For one, there is a much higher word count (65,535 words) that makes the site better if you want to post all your thoughts at once, rather than posting a link or having multiple posts that dive deeper into a topic.
Mastodon also uses something called “federated instances” to organize content on the site. These are independent communities based on specific categories that are available for users to join when they sign up for an account. You can publish content in this chosen field, discover similar instances, or block instances you have no interest in interacting with. These instances are perfect if you are looking to grow your network of researchers or discuss topics with other passionate users. However, instances are very limited. Right now, most instances are full and not admitting any more accounts so your options are very niche communities that could have nothing to do with your research.
This is ideal for people who already have a Mastodon account or for those who do not mind waiting for instances to open. Otherwise, it might be difficult to actively participate in discussion for now.
Weibo is a popular social media site in China, but it has users all over the world. It behaves in a similar way to Twitter and YouTube while having even more abilities. Weibo is the Chinese word for “microblog,” encouraging longer posts by users. In January 2016, the site increased its character limit to 2000 words (much higher than the Twitter character count) and allows for live-steaming videos, as well as uploads of pre-recorded videos.
As it promotes Chinese-language content, this platform could be a great choice if you would like to connect with a primarily Chinese -audience, both fellow researchers and non-researchers. The audience on Weibo also tends to lean toward the younger side, with almost 78% of users being under 40 years old. Due to the microblogging format, this site would be best for discussion on research.
Another popular social media channel in China, WeChat has over 1 billion users worldwide. It can be described as the “everything app.” With features including instant messaging, social and news feeds, short videos, a payment gateway, and workplace communication, many people compare this site to a Facebook equivalent.
Like Weibo, this platform is ideal for researchers hoping to promote their content to a Chinese-language audience. Because there are so many features on WeChat, the possibilities are endless for how you can interact with users.
This popular social media site has transitioned many times since its original creation in 2004. You can still post personal updates to your friends on Facebook, but a newer addition is the ability to join groups or “like” pages around your interest, area of expertise, school, or workplace. These groups are great for researchers because you do not have to be “friends” (the Facebook equivalent of following another person) with people in the groups to share your research and discuss topics that you are passionate about.
If you like the community aspect of federated instances on Mastodon but are not able to find one that has an opening this could be a great alternative to connect with other academics in your field. With this, Facebook can be a great tool for building your community and network with researchers and other people interested in your field of study, but you most likely will not be reaching the everyday citizen in one of these groups.
A part of the Facebook parent company, Meta, Instagram has positioned itself as one of the most popular photo-sharing apps. This can be great for research that has visuals attached to it. Posts on Instagram allow for 10 photos or videos and long captions (2200 characters). These posts of multiple items, called carousels, can be a great place to show graphs, pictures, or video explanations of your research so you can visually attract readers to the material. You can also share links that show further information on your profile, or you can share links on stories. Stories are different from posts because they are designed to only be available for 24 hours, however you can keep them on your profile by adding them to ‘Highlights’ so people can come back to them.
Instagram would be a way to engage with an everyday audience, who are looking to learn through a more casual setting. The platform has one of the highest engagement rates of any social media platforms through the ability of users to like, comment, share, and bookmark posts, as well as direct messages to other users. The addition of stories to the platform has also increased the ability to share posts so more people are able to see your research.
LinkedIn is much more than a jobsite. A global network of professionals, it can be used to connect with peers as well as share your research and accomplishments. LinkedIn recommends to think of being on their site like “being at a conference.” Connect with as many people as you can that interest or inspire you, highlight important aspects of your research, and be active.
This can help you find colleagues, especially early career researchers, who want to know more about your content or who would be interested in collaborating in the future. You also have the opportunity to reach corporate audiences on LinkedIn. These can be companies that already exhibit similar values as your research or companies that you would like to inform with your research.
Read Sage’s Social Media Guides to help you in your next steps:
Using social media to enhance your visibility
Twitter Guidelines
Facebook Guidelines
LinkedIn Guidelines
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