The National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) was recently awarded the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America InSpire Bronze Best of Category Award for the social media category.

Bronze InSpire awards acknowledge exceptional public relations achievements and the individual components of campaigns. A panel of experts associated with the Public Relations Association of Mississippi evaluated the submitted entries.

NISS and its sister institute, the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI), have built a following of statisticians and applied mathematicians from around the world on the @NISSSAMSI Twitter account. This account has 566 followers, most of whom are statisticians and applied mathematicians.

NISS and SAMSI use Twitter to promote research projects, papers reporting research, workshops and events, and other information of interest to their target audience. They also post photos using Twitgoo, which entices more people to read about events and projects.

Neither institute, alone, has enough information to tweet, so NISS and SAMSI employ the one account to promote both institutes at the same time. During conferences and workshops, tweets are delivered about the speakers. Later, URLs are offered from which people can download copies of speakers’ talks.

“We have been amazed at the amount of response we have received from our Twitter account,” said Jamie Nunnelly, director of communications for NISS and SAMSI. “At wefollow.com, @NISSSAMSI is now rated as the #1 most influential Twitter account for statistics.”

The award was presented on May 5 at the Brier Creek Country Club. Bill Leslie, anchor for WRAL News, was the master of ceremonies.