I often see PhD students use social media to communicate about their research. Some posts worked very well: they shared papers, demos, ideas, questions, or reflections that others could engage with immediately. Others were less effective, often because they announced something too late, or because the post was more about the fact that something happened than about why it mattered. This made me write down a few tips I try to apply myself when using social media for science communication. They are not strict rules, but they help me think about whether a post is useful for others.

The more personal, the better

Post from your personal account when possible. People usually engage more with people than with institutional accounts. A project, lab, or university account can be useful for visibility, but it rarely replaces the voice of an actual researcher explaining why something matters. Ask colleagues, co-authors, project accounts, or institutional accounts to boost the post. That way, the post remains personal, while still reaching a broader audience.

Avoid announcements without value

A communication principle I try to live by is: avoid announcement politics, or aankondigingspolitiek in Dutch. I.e., do not post announcements for their own sake. A post should give people something they can use, read, explore, watch, try, or respond to today. It is not enough to say that something will happen, or that something has happened: what can someone do with this information now?

For example, “I decided I’ll start working on a framework for solving a problem” while there’s nothing tangible yet is not very useful. But “I will present this contribution tomorrow, and here is the preprint, demo, codebase, or question I would like to discuss” gives people a reason to engage.

Post while people can still act

When you are presenting something at a conference, build up interest before the presentation happens. At that point, people can still decide to attend the session, read the paper, try the demo, or come talk to you. The presentation is also often not the most important part

For example, you can post:

  • what questions you hope to discuss with others;
  • a link to the paper, preprint, abstract, or teaser;
  • a link to a demo, video, specification, dataset, codebase, or project page;
  • a short explanation of the results;
  • why the work matters.

The overall idea: you communicate because you’re engaging into scholarly communication, that nowadays become more than just the paper or the presentation. It’s the spec, the demo people can try online, the short video you created, the discussion of a controversial idea online, etc.

Just posting “I presented our work at X” is not very engaging. By then, people can no longer join the session. It may also give the impression that the post is mainly about your presence at the conference, rather than about the work, the community, or the discussion it created.

Make the post useful for someone else by sharing what others can learn from

I believe (I know I am) people are genuinely interested in reading how you experienced a conference. This is even more so when you mention specific talks, demos, papers, or discussions that influenced your thinking. Conferences are full of ideas, conversations, and questions that are useful beyond the people who were physically in the room.

For example, you can post about:

  • what you learned;
  • which talks, demos, or papers inspired you;
  • who you interacted with;
  • what questions people asked about your work;
  • what feedback changed your thinking;
  • what conversations should continue;
  • how the work connects to the future of the field.

A format I really love are trip reports. I usually already start writing them during the conference in telegram style, and only process them afterwards in a full trip report. It costs a bit of time but it’s rewarding: you can look back at what you did in the past, and other researcher will be genuinly interested in reading what you learned from them and their peers. I know for example that Paul Groth is always writing a trip report, and it’s something I always enjoy reading.