RealScientists Nano was launched with a goal of reaching 500 or at the most 1000 organic followers. In less than 3 years we reached whopping 3000 followers, carving niche for materials/nano scientists. We want to give you a sneak peek behind our success story!
What is Twitter?
(I am sure most of you do not need this so feel free to skip to next section, my scientist brain compels me assume the reader doesn’t know much about the field and hence start with providing background and explaining terms.)
The microblogging and social networking service was founded on Mar 21, 2006. At first with a character limit of 140 which was doubled in November 2017. Twitter has more than 330 million active users. The word active is important as the platform houses ‘egg accounts’ which are essentially idle accounts whose creators either forgot the password or are uninterested in the platform.
Science Twitter accounts
Scientific publishers, journals and institutions also contribute heavily to the #sciencetwitter world. In addition, there are three main types of science accounts on Twitter.
RealScientists Nano is a guest account. Every week a new materials/nano scientist takes over the account and tweets about their research, career, pains, wins, wisdom, experiences, lab etc. Basically everything under the sun. There are only a handful of this kind of special accounts (3 come to mind, IamSciComm, RealScientists, RealScientists German).
What do curators on RealSci_Nano get?
- Engaged and curious audience of 3000+ on Twitter
- Podcast episode
- Dedicated webpage on this website
- Multiple shoutouts on socials
- Video interview on The Science Talk YouTube
Check out our amazing curators, soon to hit the 100 mark!
In Twitter language the guest is called a curator as they curate the content for their week on the account. Each curator features on Under the Microscope podcast where they answer fun questions about their research, their wishes to improve the research experience, experiment closest to their heart and learnings from the pandemic* (we stopped asking about the learnings from COVID-19 time as an attempt of moving on from the dark times).
You can volunteer yourself or nominate someone to take over RealSci_Nano for a week and feature on Under the Microscope. The only criteria is the person is/was an active materials/nano scientist and familiar with the know-hows of Twitter.
*During the pandemic the account was a hit as it provided space for materials/nano scientists to connect, interact, ask questions and share a laugh or two.
How it all started?
In the later half of 2019, when I finally had the bandwidth, I started scouting for digital spaces dedicated to materials/nano science. This definitely comes from my background in metallurgical and materials/nano science. After a lot of research and finding 0 results which fit what I was looking for, I decided to create a space I wanted to exist in. I pitched the idea to RealScientists founder who loved it and green lit the project. Plan B was to brand the project under The Science Talk as I was convinced this idea would work.
Back in 2019 we launched with the idea of getting maybe 500 or 100 followers. It was often difficult to find curators, still is, but the team kept moving forward. RealScientists Nano and Under the Microscope started with a team of two, soon we became a team of 4/5 and now we are an experienced team of 3. We find the curators, record podcasts, edit podcasts/videos, create graphics for socials and run all promotions on socials. Now when I take a moment to reflect, this has become a mammoth of a project which I am extremely proud of. I mean 3000+ organic followers in less than 3 years for an extremely niche field of science is a badge of honor!
Thank you and we appreciate your support!
We wanted to celebrate this milestone with you and thank you for supporting the project. We take pride in being a diverse and inclusive while empowering scientists tell their story.
You can support us to run RealScientists Nano, Under the Microscope and The Science Talk by getting being our patrons, buy the team a cup or copious amounts of coffee. 😉
Dr. Pranoti Kshirsagar
Owner and Founder of The Science Talk
Congratulations everyone! Here’s to the next 3000 🍻