Ziylan, aka @Djaanan, has 618 followers on Twitter.
Are you surprised you came out on top as so influential?
‘‘No, not really, because there are so few twitterers at Wageningen UR that it’s not difficult to end up one of the most influential.’
Do you consciously tweet a lot about Wageningen?
‘I don’t see myself as an ambassador. I tweet about things I find interesting, such as conferences I attended or the research I’m working on. I like to share the fact that we were voted the best university again on Twitter even if that isn’t so interesting for me from a research point of view. Wageningen may be small but it has a lot of impact and that makes me proud. But I also tweet about private matters such as traffic problems.’
Do you think your colleagues should make more use of Twitter?
‘Lots of colleagues are doing really interesting things that could be a real draw on social media. But unfortunately it’s often difficult to convince them of the benefits of Twitter. Many people think it’s just about messages like ‘What should I eat this evening?’