This is the first installment of our interview series with Shorty Awards contenders and other intriguing Twitterers.
Kirsten Sanford kicks butt on a bunch of levels. She has a PhD in neurophysiology from UC Davis and made the leap into science journalism 10 years ago as cofounder and cohost of the engaging radio show This Week in Science with her friend Justin Jackson. Since then, she’s been busy producing and hosting segments for the Science Channel’s variety show Brink, Rad Science segments for PopSiren’s video podcasts, and the ON Networks program Food Science. Oh yeah, and she has a black belt in tae kwon-do. We wanted to learn more about how this science ninja uses Twitter, where @drkiki has more than 10,000 followers:
When did you join Twitter and what prompted you to start using it?
I first joined Twitter probably two years ago now. I was looking for new ways to reach out and find people who were interested in science. Twitter seemed like a really fun way to do that.
How do you make decisions about who to follow and what to write?
There’s this stream of random people and you don’t know who they are so it’s intimidating at first. I went to find people I know in the video podcasting community. I started following them, looked at their followers, and decided to follow them. Social media is social networking—it’s the same thing as your friend introducing you to someone they know.
How has Twitter helped your career?
It’s been better for me than Facebook. It’s the simplicity of Twitter, being able to have conversations. It’s short and to the point, it’s gotten more people to listen to my radio show, it’s helped to get my name out into the broader community. I’ve got a lot of people who are interested in science and technology following me, but I’d like to get people who are interested in art, fashion, and movies. That’s the next step.
Are you afraid you’ll lose people?
You lose people at every step of the way. People unfollow you all the time and that’s just part of putting yourself out there. Twitter relationships, most of them are not close personal friendships. You hope that if you change your hairstyle your close friends are going to stick with you regardless. Even with a lot of science reporting, there are people who don’t like it because it’s not as strict science as it could be.
How should scientists use Twitter to their advantage?
It depends on what that advantage is. Are you a scientist who wants to communicate only with other scientists? You can use Twitter to do that well, but FriendFeed is a bit easier than hashtagging to have a conversation. On Twitter people can find other scientists they haven’t met before in their area.
What is the most interesting connection you’ve made though Twitter?
The most exciting connection that I’ve made through Twitter is Liam Lynch followed me and I followed him back. I’ve always been a big fan of his work—back on MTV. Who knows if we’ll ever work together in any professional manner but it’s my celebrity moment.
Do you have favorite Twitter tools and resources?
I was really into TweetDeck for a while and then I updated it and it deleted everything that I’d set up: all the streams I was following, everything. I haven’t gone back.
What happened?
They had an update for the software. Great! Closed the program, updated, and turned it back on and nothing was there. It was completely empty. It didn’t see the Twitter feed. It was like it was dead. I tried another Twitter app called Twangle that a friend of mine created and never got into it because, like TweetDeck, it takes time to set the app up the way you want it. I’ve also been trying out a new online interface called TuneIn. If you have a link within your tweet it will display whatever media is there. So the feed along one side of the page is all the media that is being broadcast—pictures, websites, and videos. They’re still in beta so there are a few bugs that are mainly an issue of scale, but most people won’t have problems at all. It’s a great interface.
How did you react when TweetDeck stopped working?
There was that moment of panic: Oh my gosh I spent so much time putting this together. So I just sighed and went back to the Web interface. At least I have the Web.
On a happier note, which Twitter feeds should get gold stars?
The people I appreciate the most have valuable content and interesting opinions. I really like Tim Street. He’s a video producer and on the ball with new media insights. I love astronomer Phil Plait. He’s funny, he’s interesting, and he’s got interesting links in relation to astronomy in general. I also like following Mark Drapeau. He’s an ex-biological scientist who has gone into policy. He has some really neat social media, policy commentary. I really appreciate Andrew Maynard. He’s in general science, but he works in the interface between research and policy and deals with nanotechnology. He’s got good insight. Christie Nicholson is a fabulous science writer with a great understanding of new and social media.
Have you gotten story ideas through Twitter?
I have actually, a lot. I’ve met people through Twitter who I’ve invited onto my show for guest interviews. People say it’s maybe not here to stay, it’s just a fad. But it’s a useful fad in the meantime.
I’ve been using it for a while and I’m not one of the huge people on Twitter with millions of people but I don’t need millions. I’m happy with how I’m using it and who I’m meeting. As long as I’m happy it’s all good.
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