How to keep up with your social media platforms — for creators

I started off my Instagram page and blog during my PhD, where my official status was a student not an employee of the university. We get a scholarship to do research, but none really cares if you want to use your phone during working hours or do science communication. When you have a real job, that isn’t the case anymore and, while we are encouraged by universities to share our experience as students, many companies have strict policies on the use of social media and having a public profile at all. If like me your future or current problem to keep up with content creation is time then you might consider to schedule your posts.
My tips are to schedule your photoshoots once or twice a month when you have a bit of spare time, and create the content for your Instagram page or blog once a week. For example, I don’t go to university every day anymore because my research is done and I am not allowed to be there. Before my contract ended I took around 50 pictures which I am slowly releasing when I want to feature science content on my Instagram page. This is what really works best for me. Spending a lot of time in the house also means that I don’t do my make up or dress up every day. So, when I get the change to go out for some event, I usually schedule time to take a few shots around Nottingham too.
Creating content on a daily basis is non-realistic and a poor time management decision!
Content creation is another problem. I never run out of ideas but I did go through periods of time when I was stuck. I mostly talk about my research and how it’s like to do science. However, in research, and I assume this is the case for any other job, your daily routine will be quite repetitive. You end up doing the same experiments, using the same machines over and over again. How do you keep your audience entertained all the time? Since I started growing my public profile, I always wanted to create my brand around myself, not based on my job. My PhD was part of me, but it wasn’t me. I think that was the best strategy and paid off well. I finished my PhD now and can keep growing my pages because my audience isn’t only interested in my science but they also looking forward to learning from my experience.
Make sure to build your brand around your persona not around your job!
Last year, Instagram made significant changes to the algorithm and posts aren’t shown in chronological order anymore. If you have a business profile, Instagram deliberately hides your pictures from your followers. This is because the app wants you to pay for sponsored posts to increase your visibility. Everyone is suffering from this and people struggle to get visibility. My advice here: if you have the budget, sponsor your posts. You don’t have to spend millions of dollars. 5$ a day for 30 days is enough to boost your visibility and engagement. From my personal experience, I also found useful to be present on different platforms. My name is quite big on LinkedIn, my website appears in Google search when people look for PhD advice and I have a good presence on Twitter . If you looking to expand your brand, rather than scrolling feeds mindlessly, I would really recommend keeping your mind open to other social media platforms other than Instagram!
How long will it take before Instagram ends up like Facebook (aka dead)?
Finally, exposing yourself on social media will automatically come with loads of trolling and haters. I lost count of all the arguments, insults, personal offences, harassment I had to deal with. With time, I learned how to put an emotional barrier between myself and my public profile. I made the mistake to consider some people “friends” and gave too much credit to people who, frankly, weren’t worth my time and energy. People will always question you, turn out to your pages to discredit and invalidate your work. That’s inevitable. But you have a choice, you can choose how to deal with the haters. Paying attention to the opinion of a none or just ignore those individuals. You do not have to answer their comments, their DMs and hate messages. It’s like in real life. Do you really engage with everything and everyone around you? If the answer is no, then I guess it’s wise to adopt the same strategy for your social media pages too.