Weekly update on audience-building for the [Popular STEM] community - December 4

Here's an update on our audience-building activities for the Popular STEM community during the week from November 27 through December 4.

TL;DR: We continued our STEM Saturday post promotion tradition for its 28^th consecutive week; Our second 30-day/30-dollar Facebook ad is continuing; We shared 16 posts from the Steem blockchain on the Science and Technology on the Social Blockchain Facebook page; and we had more participation in the proof of resteem/proof of share program.

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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. Providing the "🔥🔥🔥" badge/label for one month for author accounts in the community who burn more than one STEEM (or the equivalent amount in SBD).

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 entry in that list was Astronomer saw an asteroid three hours before it hit Canada, by @sarahjay1, so her account has been set as a 25% beneficiary for this post. Here are links to the top-5 and their authors.

1. Astronomer saw an asteroid three hours before it hit Canada, @sarahjay1
2. We Can Now Predict Disease With Smell, @answerswithjoe
3. We are safe in the Universe, @jorgebgt
4. Scientists found the oldest viruses in the Siberian permafrost… and some of them are still contagious, @sarahjay1
5. Amazon wants to become your new mechanic/Amazon quiere convertirse en tu nuevo mecánico, @mauromar

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Facebook advertising

Our second $30/30-day ad is continuing for the post, Good looking students stopped getting higher grades with the transition to online learning by @sarahjay1. In its first 16 days, it has reached 2,032 people and generated 177 link clicks, at a cost of $0.09 per click.

Finally, both of the posts from our last two 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, @pygmalion34's post, Hikaru Nakamura | Lex Fridman Podcast #330 | @pygmalion34, was posted to the top of the /promoted page.

Proof of resteem / Proof of share

We had participation, once again, in our proof of resteem / proof of share initiative by @steemit.contest, with this comment.

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

Unfortunately, no one took advantage of this opportunity during the past two weeks, but the opportunity is still available. If you burn one STEEM or the equivalent amount of SBD, let me know and I'll apply the label, "🔥🔥🔥" to your account in our community for one month as a badge to recognize your efforts at regulating blockchain inflation.

The way it looks now, @pygmalion34 will be eligible for the burned STEEM badge after this week's promoted post pays out on December 6.

It occurred to me that this labeling might cause confusion with other communities, so starting in January, I believe I'll add a community portion to the label and restructure it into levels, maybe something like this (PS stands for "Popular STEM"):

Badge	Burn amount
PS🔥	1-1.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥	2-3.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥🔥	4-7.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥🔥🔥	8-15.999 STEEM burned
PS🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥	>16 STEEM burned

Note that I don't have any way to track this easily, so authors need to let me know when they are eligible for the badge.

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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

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