13.07.2025 14:52
28

Cross-posting Engineering DIY Content

I started going beyond my personal blog, it seems like some content deserves wider reach, at least personally I would be interested in following such content. Besides the caretaker project, at least a couple more big projects are planned, without electronics, but with lots of other engineering DIY solutions.

I already posted the caretaker project on Habr, Thingiverse and YouTube - got quite a nice response, thanks to everyone for that.

I decided to research where and what to publish to attract attention and systematized it all into a clear guide. Some things are quite obvious - short vertical videos for TikTok, detailed posts for Habr. But for those social networks or services that I personally had almost no experience with - it turned out surprising that neither Reddit nor HackerNews favor long detailed articles - rather short announcements with links to external content (YouTube, Medium, etc).

I think the guide will be useful not only to me, I periodically see similar posts on Habr and other platforms, tried to format it as concisely as possible.

Content format: technical DIY projects, builds, mechanics, electronics, 3D printing, programming, demonstrations, fails, engineering process.

Main services I considered:

  • YouTube — video content core and main funnel.
  • Telegram — community, drafts, feedback.
  • Reddit/HN — reputation and traffic through technical presentation.
  • Medium — article hub for English-speaking audience and HN/Reddit.
  • TikTok/X/Instagram — visual reach channels and conversion.
  • Facebook — reach expansion in DIY groups and adult segment.
  • Pikabu — Russian-speaking viral channel through storytelling, photos, drama and fails.

Summary table: where and how to post content

Platform Audience What to post Format How to post Features
YouTube Everyone (tech, DIY, casual) Main video 8–20 min, video, voice Post as main video Center of attraction, requires editing
Telegram Loyal subscribers Backstage, drafts, fails Photos, polls, text, voice Posts, voice messages, additional materials Main thing — regularity and intimacy
Reddit DIY, engineers, makers Photo + story + link Photo/text, no links in body Photo + text, link in comments Doesn't like direct self-promotion
Hacker News Engineers, open-source Brief tech overview + link to article Link + 1–2 paragraphs of text Submit link + Title, write business-like Text in English, doesn't like "selling"
Habr Russian engineers, IT people Full text breakdown Article 5–15k characters Format as engineer blog Authority + citability
Medium English tech people and geeks Article translation, beautifully formatted Article with photos, code, video Publish as regular blog Perfect for linking in HN/Reddit
TikTok / Shorts Youth, viral seekers Teasers, before/after, fails 15–60 sec vertical video Publish with link in bio or comment Need to hit trend format
Twitter (X) Tech community, brands Thread with photos, mini-story 3–5 tweets with video/photos Thread with comment and link Good for networking and reactions
Instagram (posts) DIY and visually-oriented audience Photos + story in captions Carousels, 1 photo, text Posts in feed + hashtags Great for general visual reach
Instagram (Reels) Visual users, youth Short vertical videos 15–60 sec video Cuts with music and titles Overlaps with TikTok, helps reach
Instagram (Stories) Constant audience, current subscribers Intermediate updates, polls Photo/video 5–15 sec Through stories, with gifs, questions Disappears quickly, works for retention
Facebook (posts) Adult DIY audience, tech people 35+ Photo + story, link to video Standard posts with photos and links Works better in DIY groups Traffic goes through groups and reposts
Pikabu Russian-speaking viewers and random readers Story + photos + result (link in comment) 5–10 paragraphs + pictures Format as entertaining or useful story Can bring lots of traffic, but unpredictable, doesn't like external links directly

Strategy by content type

Platform Full video Drafts, fails Teasers / short clips Technical breakdown Photos of parts & stages Links to article/video
YouTube ✅ ❌ ✅ (Shorts) ❌ ✅ ✅
Telegram ✅ (link + teaser) ✅ ✅ ⚠️ (simplified) ✅ ✅
Reddit ✅ (post with photo) ✅ ✅ (video/gif) ⚠️ ✅ 🚫
HN ✅ (link to Medium) ❌ ❌ ✅ ⚠️ ✅
Habr ✅ (link in post) ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ (at end)
Medium ✅ (base) ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ —
TikTok ❌ ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅ (in bio)
X (Twitter) ✅ (tweet with link) ✅ ✅ ✅ (thread) ✅ ✅
Instagram ✅ (announcement) ✅ (Stories) ✅ (Reels) ⚠️ (briefly in caption) ✅ (post or carousel) ✅ (in text)
Facebook ✅ (link in post) ✅ ✅ (video post) ⚠️ (inside text) ✅ ✅ (in text)
Pikabu ⚠️ (in comment) ✅ (personal and funny moments) ✅ (before/after, gif) ❌ (too dry won't work) ✅ 🚫 (link in body — bad)

Posting to so many services manually and adapting content is quite a task, and tracking comments/statistics kills a lot of time (yes, I'm one of those who constantly presses F5 after content release) - developing an automation service suggests itself.

I think I'll start with tracking views/statistics/comments, auto-posting is still far away.

For now, small projects in short video format I upload manually to YouTube / Instagram / X / TikTok - the biggest response and views are on English YouTube, TikTok also works well even with an empty account. But Instagram and X so far don't catch the audience at all, although there's tons of similar content from the DIY segment in my feeds.

Tags: Blog
More exclusive content and real-time updates in my Telegram channel

No comments yet

Latest articles