Weekly update on audience-building for the [Popular STEM] community - January 8, 2023

Here is an update on our audience-building activities for the Popular STEM community during the week from January 1, 2023 through January 8, 2023.

TL;DR:

• We continued our STEM Saturday post promotion tradition for its 33^rd consecutive week;
• Our third 30-day/30-dollar Facebook ad is still running. So far it has generated 219 link clicks over 21 days;
• Our 7-day/$14 end-of-year Facebook ad finished after generating 64 link clicks; AND
• We shared 10 posts from the Steem blockchain on the Facebook page, Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain.

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Introduction

Continuing our effort to become an audience first community, and previously described in Delivering an audience for the [Popular STEM] community, we have a six-pronged effort in place to help STEM bloggers build an audience here in our community. They are:

1. Sharing posts on the Facebook page, Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain
2. Facebook advertising campaigns
3. Weekly STEM Saturday post promotion.
4. Automatic post pinning for authors who burn rewards through post promotion or burning of beneficiary rewards (Visibility as a service [VAAS]).
5. Incentives for resteeming posts from our community (proof of resteem) or sharing them on Facebook (proof of share).
6. Using "PS🔥" through "PS🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥" badges/labels to recognize and highlight author accounts in the community who burn more than one STEEM (or the equivalent amount in SBD).

^{Any/all of these programs are subject to change or discontinuation at any time without notice.}

Click through to Delivering an audience for the [Popular STEM] community for more information about any of those initiatives.

The purpose of today's update is to report back on some of those initiatives during the week.

Facebook post sharing

This week I shared 10 posts on Facebook. The picture to the right shows them sorted by "Reach". The top post was Lockheed Martin blew up a prototype of an inflatable orbital module [VIDEO] by @sarahjay1, so a 25% beneficiary reward has been applied to this post for her. Here are the links to the top-5 posts (actually, top-six, since there's a three way tie for four, five and six).

1. Lockheed Martin blew up a prototype of an inflatable orbital module [VIDEO] by @sarahjay
2. Our time sensors. by @jorgebgt
3. Oregon Archaeologists confirm the intriguing oldest projectile points of America (16,000-year-old) by @sarahjay1
4. SETI Astronomers find two potential technosignatures after examining 12 exoplanets by @sarahjay1
5. James Webb telescope helped detect stars in very distant quasars for the first time by @sarahjay1
6. Are We Witnessing a Mass Extinction? by @o1eh

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Facebook advertising

Our 3^rd $30/30-day advertising campaign is continuing for the post Can a plane really be invisible?. So far, that campaign has generated 219 link clicks at a cost of $0.10 per click.

The ad began on December 18 and should finish on January 17.

We launched a special holiday ad campaign for 7 days and $14. This campaign promoted the post, [Popular STEM] 2022: The year in review - Selections of favorite articles from myself and the community. It began today and it will run until January 8.

It generated 64 link clicks at a cost of $0.22 per click.

Finally, both of the posts from our last two 30-day advertising buys remain in the "Featured" section on the Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain Facebook page.

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STEM Saturday post promotion

The 33^rd STEM Saturday post promotion was for Equivalent density and different forms of fluid circulation in an oil well by @carlos84.

Proof of resteem / Proof of share

Last week, @steemit.contest took advantage of the "proof of resteem" opportunity, by replying with this comment after resteeming the post, Are We Witnessing a Mass Extinction? by @o1eh.

We are renewing the opportunity here. 25% of this post's beneficiary rewards have been set to @penny4thoughts for distribution to accounts that resteem articles from the Popular STEM community or share them from the Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain Facebook page.

Recapping from Delivering an audience for the [Popular STEM] community, here's how to be eligible:

Proof of Resteem

1. Find a Popular STEM post that you think would interest your followers. (It can be before or after payout time)
2. Resteem that post (not this one)
3. Post a reply to this post with a link to the post that you resteemed, a screencap of the resteem on your blog, and a sentence or two describing the reason why you thought the post would interest your followers.

• Note that the replies must be posted at least 1 day before this post's payout time.

Proof of Share

1. Go to the Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain FB page and find a post that you think would interest your followers. (It can be before or after payout time)
2. Share that post (not this one).
3. Post a reply to this post with a link to the post that you shared, a screencap of the share on your Facebook timeline, and a sentence or two describing the reason why you thought the post would interest your followers.

• Note that the replies must be posted at least 1 day before this post's payout time.

I invite other curators to monitor these comments in order to add to the incentive for audience-growth.

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Label for burning STEEM

The burn label, "PS🔥🔥🔥" was renewed for @pygmalion34 after the post OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company. | by pygmalion34 burned 10 SP in beneficiary rewards. Here's the label/badge system that will be applied to recognize authors for burning STEEM (or the equivalent amount of SBD):

Badge	Burn amount
PS🔥	1-2.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥	3-5.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥🔥	6-11.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥🔥🔥	12-24.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥	>25 STEEM burned

( PS stands for "Popular STEM" )

Note that I don't yet have any way to monitor/track this easily, so authors need to let me know when they are eligible for a badge, and I'll be able to verify it.

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Conclusion

If you are a STEM enthusiast and you'd like to help build a more vibrant STEM community on the Steem blockchain, then please join our community, Like our Facebook page, and help us build our audience. If you are a STEM blogger, and you want to build an audience for your blog, then we want to help. Please contribute your content here.

As a community, we succeed or we fail together, so let's get to work building our STEM topical audience!

Note that any and all of these initiatives are subject to change or discontinuation without notice at any time.

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Thank you for your time and attention.

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

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^{Pixabay license, source}

Reminder

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