Brand Ambassador Scientist
The concept of social media “influencers” is still a relatively new one. Just a few years ago the idea of someone making a living wage by posting pictures on an app would have been laughable. Now, it’s a thriving, competitive field. However, most of these living wages are earned off specific categories like fashion, housewares, travel – things that apply to a lot of people. Niche marketing – things like tattoos, books…science(!) – is not as often seen. I’m betting you can guess which niche market I’ll be focusing on here.
Science communication on social media is becoming increasingly popular with the next generation of graduate students, postdocs, professors, etc. It’s a way to share ideas, share failures, connect through similar experiences and – as I myself am finding – is an amazing support system for the pressures that accompany graduate school. I became a part of the science social media world because I wanted a way to promote my blog, but it quickly ended up becoming its own mini blog. Much to my surprise, I have gained a small following of like-minded people. Because of this, I was afforded a rare – if not non-existent – opportunity to become a sort of “science influencer.”
I have recently entered into a partnership with a brand called Zymo Research, where I am deemed a brand ambassador. As far as I know (and as far as my contacts at Zymo know), this is the first company to do a partnership with scientists through social media in a similar fashion to other social media influencers. I still cannot believe I was chosen for this opportunity, as I have loved and used Zymo products for a while now. This partnership is interesting because it is itself an experiment. A scientist promoting products they use in their lab to other scientists via social media (in my case, Instagram) is a new form of marketing for these research companies. I don’t get paid in the conventional sense, rather I am sent free research kits monthly to test out, review, and share. What’s benefits here is my research – the money I would have spent on these kits can then go toward funding other experiments!
Why partner with Zymo?
When Zymo reached out to me, I didn’t hesitate to accept their offer to be a brand ambassador because I know the company and I know their products work well. After accepting, I was a bit nervous to announce it – what if people looked down on me because I was becoming “sponsored?” Would people hate my posts about Zymo? Will they think I’ve just become a peddler for these products?
The answer to these questions turned out to be no. My little community of curious comrades on Instagram was thrilled, fascinated, and utterly supportive. My followers could see the potential impact that this has for me and the community at large. Plus, the people I’ve been in contact with at Zymo have been nothing but nice and helpful, letting me write what I want and posting images that fit the Instagram theme I’ve developed. My choice was the right one from the beginning.
Who is Zymo Research?
For those of you outside the science world (and perhaps some of you in it), you might be wondering what kind of company Zymo Research is. They are a team of fellow scientists who develop and manufacture products for molecular biology applications – essentially what I do on a daily basis. Basically, they make products to make the life of scientists everywhere easier when working with things like DNA, RNA, and bacterial cloning. These often involve specialized bacteria for cloning, extraction kits for DNA and RNA, and detection kits for epigenetics (a more complicated topic relating to DNA and how it is structured) applications.
Zymo was born the same year I was (1994), so it’s nice to be working with a company that’s my age. It makes the pop culture references easy to follow (ba-dum, tss). It was a small startup to begin with, initially starting with kits for yeast research. Through the years they’ve grown a great deal, innovating kits for DNA and RNA as well as tools for epigenetic and microbiomic workflows as they went. Their current tagline is, “The Beauty of Science is to Make Things Simple,” and to be fair they make my research life simpler. I won’t rant and rave about my all-time favorite kit (the ZymoPure II Maxi prep kit, I talk about it a lot on Instagram), but just know that it makes getting DNA from my bacteria easy and fast.
Conclusion
The main reason I started this blog and my Instagram was to practice my science communication skills. Originally, I had wanted my focus to be on the general public – communicating science with non-scientists. While I have attracted a small audience of these people, I have also been able to reach my fellow scientists on a level I didn’t really expect. The science communication community (SciCommunity) is a large and thriving organism. I never expected there to be that many scientists with the same goals as me, but it was a pleasant surprise. While this partnership won’t have a large impact on the general public (besides educating them about an awesome company they wouldn’t have heard of otherwise), it impacts the SciCommunity a great deal.
On their website, Zymo Research has a vision statement that says, “to have a positive impact in the biomedical field and to contribute to the greater good of humanity.” I think they’ve added one piece to this – impacting the science communication field. Which, in turn, will impact the greater good of humanity.
