Weekly update on audience-building for the [Popular STEM] community - January 1, 2023

Sorry I missed last week due to the Christmas holiday, but it was unavoidable due to family activities. Here is an update on our audience-building activities for the Popular STEM community during the week from December 25, 2022 through January 1, 2023.

TL;DR:

• We continued our STEM Saturday post promotion tradition for its 32^nd consecutive week;
• Our second 30-day/30-dollar Facebook ad finished two weeks ago after generating 355 link clicks, and we launched 2 new Facebook ads which have generated 112 link clicks;
• We shared 16 posts from the Steem blockchain on the Facebook page, Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain; AND
• Several authors have been included in the automatic post-pinning service that's provided by @mod-bot after setting @null beneficiaries on their posts.

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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 for one month 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 16 posts on Facebook. The picture to the right shows the top-10 of them, sorted by "Reach". The top three entries were by me, so 25% of beneficiary rewards for this post are placed for the author of fourth entry, @mauromar. That post is, Construction begins on the building that will house 9 million people/Comienza la construcción del edificio que albergará 9 millones de personas. Here are the links to the top-5 posts.

1. [Popular STEM] 2022: The year in review - Selections of favorite articles from myself and the community, @remlaps
2. How are brain waves like choral music?, @remlaps
3. Screening for kidney failure with retinal scans and deep learning, @remlaps
4. Construction begins on the building that will house 9 million people/Comienza la construcción del edificio que albergará 9 millones de personas, @mauromar
5. Hunting for a Comet, @jorgebgt

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Facebook advertising

Our second $30/30-day ad completed for the post, Good looking students stopped getting higher grades with the transition to online learning by @sarahjay1.

It finished on December 18, 2022, and it generated 355 link clicks at a cost of $0.08 per click.

Our 3^rd $30/30-day advertising campaign was launched for the post Can a plane really be invisible?. So far, that campaign has generated 110 link clicks at a cost of $0.13 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 is promoting 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.

So far, it has generated two link clicks at a cost of $0.26 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

This week, as an end of year special, three Popular STEM posts were promoted to the top of the /promoted page. They were:

• Are We Witnessing a Mass Extinction? by @o1eh
• SETI Astronomers find two potential technosignatures after examining 12 exoplanets by @sarahjay1
• Problems on the ISS by @jorgebgt

Proof of resteem / Proof of share

Since I didn't post last week, there was no opportunity to participate in Proof of resteem or proof of share for the week. Sorry for that.

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

No new burn labels were applied for authors during the last two weeks. As described in the December post, I'm changing the labeling this week so that it will give an idea about how much STEEM/SP has been burned and so it identifies the community that applied the label in any mixed community views. Here's the new 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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