One way to increase its popularity is to nab people before they find other languages. Create Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc accounts and start talking about something else to get people's attention, then when you feel you have enough, start talking about perl. On Twitter I have a vast array of follower "groups", and one day I may use one or more of those groups to promote perl through things like apps for their mobile devices about the reason those in that group followed me. Most of my followers don't even know how to write markup for webpages, but I might nab a person or three who might want to know how I did such a nifty thing. If I can get just one person interested in perl, I did my job at promoting it.

Leave the sanctuary of the Monastery and preach the good word. ;)

.oO(I used to have a module named Nifty.)

ps. I was nabbed into perl before learning other languages were out there. In this case, I am happy to be nabbed.