How to come up with content ideas for your research.
So you went through our earlier posts (you did, did you?) or you stumbled here on accident because you want to talk about your research, but you have no idea how to get started.
In this post we’ll look at a practical exercise designed to help scientists and researchers create engaging social media content from their work. We’ll see how you can brainstorm possible topics to talk about or even better, come up with a bunch of ideas that you can turn into social media content. Let’s get started!
Topic webs & Idea dumps
One of the most effective ways to generate a continuous stream of content is to start with a broad and diverse base of ideas. Writing down a variety of options not only kickstarts your creative juices, but also helps you see how your research connects with other fields, which can potentially broaden your audience base.
By exploring how your research relates to other disciplines, you can find unique angles and stories that may be appealing to your followers who aren't specialists in your field but are curious about its implications or applications.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Set Up Your Space
Choose a comfortable environment where you can think freely and without interruptions. That means no doggo or little pupper, no kids and no annoying lover or parents!
You can use a large piece of paper, a whiteboard, or digital tools like Miro, Freeform or Notion, which are great for organizing thoughts visually.
2. Start with Your Core Research
Write down the main topic of your current research or a project you want to communicate about. Place this at the top of your paper or screen as the starting point of your idea dump. Below are some questions to get you started:
3. Start an Idea Dump
First, I want you to set a timer! Over the next 15 minutes you’ll start brainstorming related sub-topics, questions, and themes. In the creative sector this is called ‘Proliferating your ideas’. Consider various angles such as:
Applications of your research
Common questions or misconceptions
Connections to everyday life
Relevant historical background
Possible future developments
Think about how your research might intersect with other fields. Could a technological aspect relate to engineering audiences? Does your environmental study have implications for local communities or policy? This step helps in broadening the relevance of your content.
To do this, start writing a list of 15 to 25 numbers. In those 15 minutes you’ll try to get as far as you can down that list.
4. Creative Selection
Once you have a substantial list of ideas and formats, take a step back. Give it some time — a few hours or even a day — before reviewing to clear your mind and approach the next step with fresh eyes.
When you come back, it’s time for the next step: creative selection. This phase involves reviewing your idea dump to identify the most promising concepts. Selection criteria might include the relevance to current trends, potential interest among your audience, the educational value, or simply the feasibility of turning the idea into engaging content.
During this selection process, consider also the storytelling aspect:
How can you craft these ideas into narratives that capture and hold attention?
What medium works well, and does it align with the skills you have or want to improve on?
Can you turn it into a format? Possibly a series of posts? And do these formats work on the platform you have in mind?
The final chosen ideas should be those that not only fascinate and inform but also spark conversation and interaction.
A remote sensing example
Here is a quick example I made for a workshop I was preparing. The idea was simple: look at my own master thesis and see if I could come up with a format idea that connected with my thesis topic. Here’s what I got:
My topic:
My Idea dump:
My Format idea:
After some time looking at the list, I got an idea. Because I’m so involved in climate topics and climate communication, I started thinking of ways I could use the information we get from remote sensing tool, such as satellite images, in showing how our world is changing in our own lifetime.
The idea is simple, all I need is a location that has changed in the past decade, and the context for that change. A great place to have a look for this is Nasa’s initiative called ‘Images of change’. Small note, you can use these images, as long as you credit them: “…Unless otherwise noted, you may use our content and imagery without permission, as long as you provide due credit…” - nasa.gov
From here it’s literally showing the two images side by side, then adding the context and voila: we have a concept. Each post I make can just be a new location with it’s own context.
As you can see in the image above, I also started brainstorming on how I could use this format on different kinds on media.
A slideshow or carousel on LinkedIn or Instagram, depending on the audience I want to reach (professional vs casual).
A quick visual with a witty text on X/Twitter or Threads to start a discussion.
A short form video on Youtube shorts, TikTok or Instagram reels
A long form blog or newsletter that explores these location and their context in more detail.
A Content mockup
To give you a better idea of what those content pieces could look like, here you can see a quick mockup I made for each of the bigger formats:
A square 1x1 slideshow
A Widescreen 16x9 visual
A vertical 9x16 video
Now you.
Hey, you got a starting point! To continue, you can do some more research into possible ideas or follow ups and look at the next steps you’ll need to take to get the post up and running on your desired platform. Good luck!
When you post something online, don’t forget to tag us @creatorsforclimate so we can see what you’re up to!
What’s next:
Community driven knowledge
We’re testing the workbook with a handful of driven scientists at the moment. Please join the waitlist if you want to be notified when we launch.
