Communicate your

research through:

Social Media

• Which platform should I use?

• Should I use social media at all?

• How do I increase my audience?

• How often should I post?

• What do I post?

• I can’t be bothered.

2 billion people

Storytelling

Thilina: Hey Ana, have you looked into the

Hubble internship?

Ana: I can’t apply for that. There was a

problem.

Thilina: What happened?

Don’t start with ‘once upon a time’

What if Cinderella was a news

story?

Press release:

Cinderella, a slave labourer, has won the reality

TV competition “Whose Shoe?” to be the next

Queen of Fairy tale Land.

Noise

Noise: less is more

Pick the most relevant

Be where your audience is

Language

“When in Paris, you speak French, when a

mother of a toddler, you use baby talk and if

you want to talk to a person who cannot hear,

you use sign language. Every time we

communicate with another person we seek a

common channel and adapt to the status of

the interlocutor. We role play in every

conversation (Goffman, 1959).”

Visualisation

Pay attention to your colours and fonts.

Humanise your message: focus on feelings and

emotions.

Videos

Create micro-moments

Pickup trending topics

Be where your audience is

Risk management

(social responsibility)

Turn negative content to positive

React fast

Relate to the audience

Conclusion

Productive conversation:

• News stories are very limited

• Help them by summarising your work

• Remember your audience (keep in mind that the journalist is not the

audience)

• Avoid being misquoted

• Consider not only the message that you want to say, think about what

you do not want to say

Keep it simple, not simplistic:

• Don't use jargons, if you must use technical words, explain what they

mean

• Use day-to-day comparisons (speed of satellites - 30 times the speed

of an airplane)

• Try not to use abbreviations and acronyms ('alphabet soup' can be

confusing for audiences)

Easy on the eye/ear:

• Tell a story, use a three-part structure (beginning, a middle and an

end)

• Let the graphics/animation tell the story.

“Identify your audience and talk to them in a

language that they can relate to, using visuals

that evoke emotions and feelings. Share your

content through a story. Keep it short by

creating micro-moments for daily lives.”

Topics:

Known variable stars

New variable stars

Transits of exoplanets

Stellar spectra

Content type:

30-60 seconds video

Social Stories

Workshop

30-60 seconds video

Social Story

Topics:

Known variable stars

New variable stars

Transits of exoplanets

Stellar spectra

Content type:

30-60 seconds video

Social Stories