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It takes a lot of courage to stand out. When starting a business, it’s tempting to imitate those who have gone before you. How did they do it? How difficult would it be for you to do the same?
A self-described plant geneticist turned science communicator, Niba started out on Instagram but soon transitioned to a website.
Niba took a different route. After a start that she later discarded as too inauthentic, she rebranded her SciComm website and turned it into a successful platform, Notes By Niba, that attracted followers, investors, grants, and other opportunities. She quickly decided that she wanted to make science more accessible and digestible.
“The communications that I was seeing were large documentaries and talks and that sort of thing. I wanted to build my experience using multimedia like videos, audio, and photos because as a younger person, that’s more how I consume my content: 60-second videos here and there.”
She took several notes and later reviewed them to select the best ideas. Like most people at the beginning, she looked at other SciComm communicators for inspiration, but soon decided to take her own unique approach. It started with choosing a brand name that did not tie her down to any specific science topic.
“If I wrote down biology or plants, then you’re married to that idea within the brand name itself,” she explained. “So that’s where I came up with an alliteration of notes because as someone who journals quite a bit, I thought that would be a pretty good representation.”
In the beginning, Niba took a broad approach to her topics, which she later found unsatisfying.
She was also unhappy with the lab photos she posted, finding them too stale. She wanted to add personality and color to everything, even her communication style.
“Some audiences really prefer being spoken to in a professional way, but it’s not quite my style. I like to throw in some jokes. If I happen to swear, whatever, it’s just part of the language.”
She shifted scope to explore the science behind beauty, fashion and skincare. As a former model, this combination came naturally to her. She stopped worrying about whether or not she would be perceived as ‘professional,’ and let her creativity manifest itself. Her website went from being black and white with the odd accent color to a more colorful presence decorated by her drawings and modeling photos.
The number of people looking at Niba’s YouTube channel skyrocketed.
Despite her passion for this new approach, Niba had to overcome her fear of being judged, especially by those in a position to provide her with career opportunities.
“I can’t name them, but there’s a really large foundation that does a lot of science communication grant funding, and I was talking to them,” she said. “The dude mentioned in our call that he had looked at my channel… He looked at a video that had some sort of sex joke within the first 15 seconds. I was like, “He’s going to think I’m just some young idiot who doesn’t know what they’re doing.” And it was the opposite. He was like, “This is very unique. I like that you are so casual with your viewers. I like that you’re so comfortable in front of the camera.”
After rebranding, Niba received a fellowship through the STEM Advocacy Institute at Harvard and a scholarship from the Yale Ciencia Academy, as well as a couple of grant partnerships. In her opinion, these were hard-won achievements, as she had to undo all her earlier work, and it took awhile before her video presentations were confident and engaging.
She had the following advice for those thinking about rebranding:
- Think about why you want to do it. Is it because you need to get a better target audience? Is it because you want the style to change? Is it because you want it to be more current and relevant?
- Be prepared to go back to the basics while learning from your mistakes and false starts.
- Feel free to reuse concepts that did work and make them even better.
- See every failure as a learning opportunity. “There’s so much shame around failure and because of that, you don’t really see how much value there is in it.”
If you are a science communicator looking for inspiring new ideas on how to share science, Niba offers guidance and support via her website, Notes By Niba. She also does virtual classroom presentations and science communication, video or photo collaborations. You can reach her on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Are you considering rebranding your GradBlog? Have questions about how to make your SciComm brand as unique and engaging as possible? Leave us a comment or question below!
