Promoting the site: sharing our questions?

Question

This is a follow-up to What makes a question (and its answers) worth sharing?.

I was reviewing all of the questions for which someone has earned the Announcer badge on the main site:

Share a link to a question later visited by 25 unique IP addresses. This badge can be awarded multiple times.

https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/help/badges/59/announcer

The badge has only been awarded 12 times and to a handful of users.

Let's take a look at the questions which drew those visits (that is, after being shared, they actually attracted people to come take a look).

• How to access digitised content at a FamilySearch Affiliate Library? asked Oct 8, 2017
• Catch 22: how do you know if a data provider's sub will be valuable to you — before you subscribe? asked Dec 6, 2014
• What tools exist for collecting and managing evidence? asked Oct 10, 2012
• Are there checklists or templates made for visiting the Family History Library in Salt Lake City? asked Mar 21, 2013
• What "hidden" clues are there in the GRO Indexes of births and deaths? asked Feb 14, 2016
• Was the 1939 Register really updated after the end of National Registration? asked Oct 28, 2015
• How should I record women with unknown maiden name? asked Oct 10 2012
• Organising digital documents for genealogy and family history? asked Jan 8 2013
• Finding half-sister who may still be living? asked Jun 20, 2013
• Can anyone decipher the comment above Louis' name on this 1940 census record? asked Dec 4, 2012
• How many genealogists and users of genealogy programs? asked Nov 5, 2012

Looking at this list, I see a couple of interesting things.

• Many of these questions are basic research questions, rather than specific "I can't find my family" questions.
• Most badges were awarded (with one exception) either to the person who asked the question, or to someone who had written an answer to it.

That makes me wonder: - When you ask a question, do you share it, and where? - When you answer a question, do you share it, and where? - Do you share someone else's Q/A, and if so, where?

Note that the site has been going four years now, and NO ONE has earned:

Booster - Share a link to a question later visited by 300 unique IP addresses

or

Publicist - Share a link to a question later visited by 1000 unique IP addresses

Why aren't we tooting our own horn more? How can we make our questions worth looking at and worth being shared?

Answer 1

I share questions/answers from here when I see similar questions asked in other fora, in the hope that getting a good answer to an immediate question will encourage somebody to come back here.

I don't tweet or blog about questions or share them in other social media -- my 'reach' is insufficient for it to be worthwhile and I'm not totally convinced that somebody will follow a link unless it's immediately relevant to them.

Answer 2

I think that you are right to highlight the share button beneath every post.

Although I have the Announcer badge 8 times on GIS (0 for Booster and Publicist) I have not received it here.

I think that is because my Twitter followers have been cultivated around my profession (GIS) rather than my hobby (G&FH). I am keen not to "dilute" my GIS content too much and so I rarely share G&FH posts.

Something that I am considering is to create a second Twitter handle targeted at a G&FH following.