INTERVIEW with Doctor Fision, one of the main scientific disseminators on social networks in Spanish, who has a community of millions of users on social networks such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Excerpts from this interview are included among the advice of more than 50 content creators in the book «Followers. Create your community of online followers”, and now you can read the full talk:
When and how did you open your profile on TikTok? With what objective?
I started on TikTok in November 2020. My dream had always been to be a science communicator: I have been in science all my life and when I saw videos from other popularizers I felt like I could contribute something to the community, so I decided to jump into the pool and started making videos. on TikTok. Someone told me that this platform was much more than dances, and that there could be a good opportunity for communicators who wanted to do something different. It is clear that he was very right.
What have you achieved thanks to it? Did you ever imagine it?
Basically everything I have achieved as a disseminator has been thanks to TikTok. To deny it would be to ignore the truth. Without this platform this would not have been possible. Not only has it helped me reach millions of people around the world, but it has taught me to spread the word the way I do now: in less than a minute, quickly, teaching and entertaining at the same time. TikTok has meant a paradigm shift not only in how content is displayed but in how it is delivered to the audience, and that has been very important for me, because it has marked a path for me in my career.
What if I ever imagined it? I dreamed about it many times, but I never imagined it. When TikTok gave me the award for best education reference account in December 2022, I knew that dream had come true.
Do you think it is important to also have an account on other social networks such as X, Instagram? Because? Which ones do you have a presence in and why?
I have a presence on all social networks, like almost everyone who is in this. Each social network has its importance, that is undeniable, because each one has its advantages and disadvantages and allows us to reach a specific audience. To answer the question, I can tell you a detail: on my computer the folder where I keep the backup copies of my videos is called /tiktok/
And it is no coincidence, this platform is influencing the way I work, as well as many other communicators around the world.
What would be the keys to creating a community on TikTok for you?
The key, although it may seem cliché, is to be yourself. The audience doesn’t want artificial things or canned products. In our daily lives we are surrounded by things that we don’t like and in our free time, that little time we have to disconnect from everything and have fun, we want authentic things: people who are right and wrong, people who teach but who also learn, people to listen to but who also knows how to listen.
I have never pretended to be something I am not. I do not work at NASA nor am I the best astrophysicist in the world, I am just a person who is excited about science and my passion is that people want to learn more about the world around us, and at the same time learn from others myself.
I think my community has realized that. As I always say in my live shows: Together we do science!
How is your relationship with your followers? What feedback do you receive? How do you “take care of them”?
Basically we are all one big family of more than 5 million friends around the world. The community in Doctor Fisión is everything, it is not a part. We learn together, we get new ideas for videos through comments on videos, in live videos and by email and above all we have fun doing science.
Sometimes it happens that I make a mistake and a follower corrects me or qualifies the information. These contributions are commented on live, they are noted in the posts and sometimes we make new videos on the topic. On the other hand, I have great friends who have emerged precisely from the community and we have started collaborations together or I have helped them in their own projects.
The audience is everything, and TikTok is the best tool today to create a real community of enthusiasts around a topic like science.
What advice would you give to someone starting to create their community on TikTok?
Being a content creator is the most difficult and sacrificial job I have done so far. There is no margin for error or room for rest; but it is the most beautiful and exciting thing I have ever done.
I have been asked this question many times and I always answer the same thing because I firmly believe it is true: be yourself, don’t focus on others, and try to give part of yourself in each video; let it show how you really are. Don’t stop your efforts and work every day. The rest will arrive without you realizing it…
Also read the interview with Luis Quevedo, a journalist specialized in science.