More people than ever before are tuning into Glasgow West End Today - the hyperlocal news platform produced and based in the west end of the city.
And what’s more pleasing than the strong numbers coming to us, is the quality of the audience.
The stats show people using and engaging with our content are based in the West End, Glasgow, and the Central Belt.
They are local, on the doorstep and engaged.
Ever since lockdown began, we have been concentrating on reporting positive stories from around our communities.
Stories like the Hyndland school 'scrub hub' and efforts of the community to feed vulnerable groups have had a great reaction.
The figures say people are coming to our channels in increasing numbers to share the many good news stories that have come out of the last few months.
As editor and full-time contributor to the site, that is really encouraging to see.
After four years of establishing a local audience, I really think we are in a position to help small businesses and the community face some of the challenges ahead.
What do the stats say?
More people have followed our channels over the past three months.
And more people in Glasgow and the West End are seeing our blogs and posts.
Our web traffic has nearly doubled to more than 42,000 unique page views a month.
On Twitter, more than 1,200 followers have joined our feed in that time.
Ahead of target
We now have the largest dedicated Twitter feed focusing on the West End of the city.
In April, we had nearly 761,000 tweet impressions; 27,200 profile visits; and 1,136 mentions.
Instagram is a similar picture, with 3,200 followers now tuning in to our posts.
Our Facebook audience stands at 16,600 likes with the majority in Glasgow and Scotland, according to our feed.
In all, we now have more than 30,000 followers across all channels. And that's well ahead of target.
Why is 'quality' more important than the numbers?
More than the numbers, we are thrilled at who our audience is.
We have deliberately encouraged readers on our doorstep with targeted content.
But we are thrilled that others have joined us from across Scotland and overseas.
By posting content about West End and city issues, we have gathered a valuable commodity - a great local audience that cares about Glasgow.
According to Tweepsmap, 59.3% of our Twitter followers live in Glasgow; 70% are in the Central Belt and the west; and 83.6% are in Scotland.
Community-focused
Facebook followers are predominantly coming to us from Glasgow and Scotland.
On Instagram, 69% of our growing audience is based in Glasgow.
And that's because all our content is location-specific. Targeted. Community-focused.
Our overall audience is small in comparison to larger, established sites, but healthy for a free-to-use, resource-lite, independent platform.
However, our engagement rate on social media suggests we very much punch above our weight.
Why does any of this matter?
Well it matters to us, because we like everyone else are looking to adapt to the new landscape.
Our intent with Glasgow West End Today was always to sustain its presence commercially.
We now think we are in a position to begin working in partnership with others to do just that.
And more about how we intend to help our small independent businesses, in particular, will be revealed soon.
In the meantime, it's encouraging to see so many followers engaging with a local platform.
Thank you.
* If you are interested in working with us in any way, get in touch via ian.marland@icloud.com or Twitter @glasgowWEToday. We will be sending out details of how we intend to help businesses and organisations soon.
