Weekly update on audience-building for the [Popular STEM] community - January 15, 2023

Here is an update on our audience-building activities for the Popular STEM community during the week from January 8, 2023 through January 15, 2023.

TL;DR:

• We continued our STEM Saturday post promotion tradition for its 34^th consecutive week;
• Our third 30-day/30-dollar Facebook ad is still running. So far it has generated 334 link clicks over 28 days;
• I'm inviting feedback about the post to boost for our fourth $30/30-day Facebook ad; AND
• We shared 17 posts from the Steem blockchain on the Facebook page, Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain.

If you have an English language blog and you cover Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) topics, please consider joining and contributing to the Popular STEM community.

If you are a STEM enthusiast, please consider supporting the authors in this community with resteems, follows, upvotes, and engagement.

---

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 17 posts on Facebook. The picture to the right shows the top-10 sorted by "Reach". The top post was mine, so this week's 25% beneficiary setting goes to @sarahjay1 for the 2^nd post, Juno spacecraft went into safe mode. Here are the links to the top-5 posts (actually, top-seven, since there's a four way tie from four through seven).

1. Should the scientific peer review process be seen as a failed experiment? by @remlaps.
2. Juno spacecraft went into safe mode by @sarahjay1.
3. China will build the EAST: Asia's largest optical telescope by @sarahjay1.
4. Microsoft Is Spying On You! by @skycorridors.
5. The Harpe Brothers: America's First Serial Killers by @answerswithjoe.
6. OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company. | by pygmalion34 by @pygmalion34.
7. Problems on the ISS by @jorgebgt.

If you are a STEM enthusiast, please consider following these authors and supporting their content!

---

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 334 link clicks at a cost of $0.08 per click.

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

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.

---

STEM Saturday post promotion

For the 34^th STEM Saturday post, we promoted posts by @carlos84, @jorgebgt, @ruzmaira02, and @sarahjay1.

Proof of resteem / Proof of share

Last week, @strawberry took advantage of the "proof of resteem" opportunity, by replying with this comment after resteeming the post, Scientists find signs of Alzheimer's in the brains of three different dolphin species by @sarahjay1.

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.

---

Label for burning STEEM

No changes were made to the community badges for burning tokens this week.

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.

---

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.

---

Thank you for your time and attention.

---

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.

---

^{Pixabay license, source}

Reminder

Visit the /promoted page and #burnsteem25 to support the inflation-fighters who are helping to enable decentralized regulation of Steem token supply growth.