Creating science content with personality
Personality makes a huge difference in social media. And although it absolutely doesn’t mean your organisation has to become all LOLs and GIFs, you do need something more than robotic press release drivel. But how do we carry that unique tone of voice and identity into our videos, graphics and images, particularly if you don’t have an actual on-screen presenter to build your brand around week after week? Here is some wisdom from a few people doing it really well.
Above all, it’s about knowing who/what you are. Personality doesn’t just mean making jokes (especially not the same ones everyone else would make). It means being uniquely you (or uniquely your organisation). There’s no stock social media personality for you to paste onto your organisation. Think about who you are, and play to that.
Branding
This is the obvious starting point. Take a look at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (OK, not a science museum, but so impressive that it’d be foolish to ignore them).
Their consistent use of colour, branding elements and design mean that as a follower you instantly recognise their visuals, and associate whatever they’ve posted with the strong identity all of their posts have crafted in your mind. This is branding basics, but if you haven’t taken your brand guidelines and created (or commissioned, hi there!) some bold and beautiful social media templates and guidelines for image and video, do that now.
Style
Popular Science videos have a totally recognisable whiff of whimsy in their video style, both in terms of visuals and tone of voice. This largely stems from the style of their producer Tom McNamara, but it gives such personality to their content, even on low-fi ‘text-only’ videos like this one:
Don’t be afraid to develop a unique visual style. In Tom’s words, ‘be a Scorcese’, or in Anna Rothschild’s — the creator of Gross Science, which had a very unique aesthetic — ‘embrace your own brand of crummy’. Our productions styles are inevitably crafted in part by our strengths and weaknesses, and don’t be afraid to embrace those to make something uniquely you.
Know who you are
This is really important to lots of what this project recommends. Try to be really clear about the identity you want to portray. Really boil it down — take your organisation’s core values or mission and apply those to your content. Are you about deep explorations of a subject, or enthusiastic engagement into the world of science in general? Do you want to attract those who think they don’t care about science, or do you want to feed curious minds? It’s OK to admit that you’re not targeting absolutely all of the ‘general public’. Think about what your organisation really does, and align your work.
Luke Groskin at Science Friday gets this very well. At its heart Science Friday has always been about conversation with scientists themselves. So all of their social content builds on this, and that’s what his videos do.
When I asked Luke whether there’s a chance that sticking rigidly to his principles (both in terms of this consistency and also a commitment to a certain style and quality of videos rather than bowing to the simple-and-square shorts that the Facebook algorithm so loves) sometimes costs him views, he said a confident yes. But if getting views is a higher priority than representing your science in the way you believe in, then you’ve gone wrong somewhere.
This post forms part of the publication, ‘Communicating Science with Social Media’, which is the product of a 2017 Winston Churchill Fellowship. Read more about the project here, and for more about me, including examples of my own work, visit anthony-lewis.com.
