Your helpers
David Lubinski manages INSTAAR's social media channels. If he's unavailable, Shelly Sommer can help you.
INSTAAR channels
Submit posts
Contact David to suggest a post or to pass on info. Posts with photos tend to do better than those that are just text, so bring along any pictures you have handy. If you are posting on your own timeline or stream, please tag @instaar so that we can repost or otherwise amplify your post.
Take over Twitter
We occasionally have someone "take over" our Twitter feed for a day. The takeovers introduce a person and their work to our audience of 4500 Twitter followers. The tweets are saved as an online document, so the person can use them as an outreach tool or to engage potential students. Would you like to be the author of our next takeover?
Generally we feature INSTAARs, though the occasional special guest is also welcome. We look for people from a variety of backgrounds in different fields, career stages, etc. They can be about your research and how it's done, or very personal about your experience in science. The takeover can:
- Publicize you and your work.
- Show what it's like to spend a day in the lab or in the field or just in your life in science.
- Introduce people to a scientist in real life, working on real problems, and facing real-life situations.
This is a way for you to get your story out there, in a low-key way. You don't need to be on Twitter to do this—in fact it might be a fun way to try it out. If you are already on Twitter, a takeover can gain you new followers.
Typical takeovers have from 6-18 tweets (each max. 280 characters). Most will have a photo or meme attached to them. The tweets should assemble into a larger message or story. The content of that message is up to you, but it should hang together as a kind of short essay.
Interested? Or just curious? Have a chat with Shelly to explore the idea. Or see some previous takeovers by exploring people lower on the Meet an INSTAAR page
Get social media tips
Shelly and David can help you with questions about your social media presence and strategy. Do you even need to be on social media? How can you use social media as a lever for your career? What should you do or avoid on specific channels? What is the deal with hashtags anyway?
