On 1st September Twitter granted EMBL the use of the @embl Twitter account.  This account had been registered by an individual a long time ago and had remained dormant, which meant that EMBL was using the @EMBLorg handle. This was causing confusion, with many people naturally mentioning @embl, and many potential conversations being cut short.

Acquiring the @embl handle was a process that began in February. Big thanks to our colleagues in legal services, notably Amaranta Amador Bernal, who did a huge amount of work behind the scenes, including acquiring trademark protections for EMBL’s name in terms that are easily recognised by US-based companies such as Twitter.

The timing of the name transfer couldn’t have been better: on 1 September Laura Howes (@L_Howes) joined the Strategy and Communications team from the Science in School team as EMBL’s new Social Media Manager. Watch this space for how she goes on to develop EMBL’s social media strategy. Priorities for now are:

1. increase the frequency of social media posts; and
2. engage with people who ask EMBL questions via our social media channels.