CAMPAIGN STATS 16.12.19

Social media was absolutely saturated with election stuff last week, but we still managed to squeeze through with a slew of memes and videos.  While social media was a slog, the blog received record traffic, due in no small part to Richey's eight hour overnight election coverage.

Thanks to a Facebook appeal we received two £5 donations and we're very grateful.  The truth is that won't even pay for our domain name next year, let alone support Richey to continue doing this full-time.  If every one of our Facebook followers chucked a quid in each month we would not only be able to continue, we could employ three or four others!  So if you can find a spare quid or two each month please set up a regular donation via PayPal here or click the donate button on the right hand side of the page.

Blog

519,240 total page views (+24,698)

Facebook

96,344 likes (+312)
101,986 follows (+338)

2,967 most shared post (-5,058)
54 number of posts

1,834,224 post reach (-723,367)
572,461 post engagement (-380,308)

Facebook (backup page)

5,192, likes (+87)
5,510 follows (+93)

Twitter

845 followers (+18)

YouTube

237 subscribers (+11)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 09.12.19

It wasn't exactly a record week on Facebook, but we certainly enjoyed a significant increase in both reach and engagement.  Ironically enough Labour supporters themselves had a hand in this as they flooded our page on Friday night following the final head-to-head TV debate.  They hijacked a poll we ran and this clocked up almost 50,000 votes, causing them great amusement.  Here's hoping they aren't laughing following the real poll on Thursday!

No donations last week (again), but we had a little bit of sponsorship money.  If you can find a spare couple of quid in what is understandably a tight month please donate via PayPal here or click the donate button on the right hand side of the page.

Blog

494,542 total page views (+8,307)

Facebook

96,022 likes (+575)
101,648 follows (+636)

8,025 most shared post (+1,702)
35 number of posts

2,557,591 post reach (+606,891)
952,769 post engagement (+541,779)

Facebook (backup page)

5,105 likes (+395)
5,417 follows (+421)

Twitter

827 followers (+32)

YouTube

226 subscribers (+4)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 02.12.19

Another hit and miss week across the various platforms, but the figures are mostly pointing the right way.  We are still constrained by the time available to us and the next week or so is going to be quite stressful.  We have a shedload of Facebook messages to get through and almost every single one is a meme.  We don't need memes, we need money.  Some of them are actually pretty good, but at this late stage we won't be using many, if any.  Karl redesigns almost everything and he just doesn't have the time.

We have now deleted our Patreon account altogether.  It never worked out, as everyone who expressed an interest in funding us was put off by its use of the US dollar.  We are eternally grateful to Matt, our one contributor, but will be taking donations through PayPal (and sterling) from now on.  Like Patreon, you can set up a monthly direct debit.  You can donate via PayPal here or click the donate button on the right hand side of the page.

Blog

486,235 total page views (+7,451)

Facebook

95,447 likes (+671)
101,012 follows (+707)

6,323 most shared post (+783)
25 number of posts

1,557,591 post reach (-232,332)
410,990 post engagement (-31,894)

Facebook (backup page)

4,710 likes (+88)
4,996 follows (+103)

Twitter

797 followers (-2)

YouTube

222 subscribers (+47)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 25.11.19

Ups and downs last week, but crucially Karl managed to design some very good memes.  Sadly he's going to continue to be very busy at work in the run-up to Christmas, but there is nothing we can do about that.  Richey continues to eke out an existence on the breadline and we've enjoyed much more traffic towards the blog in the last week.  No new donations to speak of, so it'll be a pretty miserable Christmas except we're both hoping for one big consolation - no Corbyn in Number Ten.  Richey will almost certainly have to go back to work in the New Year, so make the most of BTLP while it's being run full-time.  You can donate via PayPal here.

Blog

478,784 total page views (+12,937)

Facebook

94,776 likes (+744)
100,305 follows (+807)

5,540 most shared post (-7,504)
26 number of posts

1,789,923 post reach (-514,981)
442,884 post engagement (-206,675)

Facebook (backup page)

4,622 likes (+73)
4,893 follows (+87)

Twitter

799 followers (+4)

YouTube

175 subscribers (+5)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 18.11.19

The figures across all platforms are currently looking very healthy and all facing the right way.  Karl has promised some hard hitting memes as we count down towards the election and also several new videos are on the way.  We also received a £5 donation last week, our first donation since May.  Thank you so much.

You can donate here.

Blog

465,847 total page views (+4,228)

Facebook

94,032 likes (+1,273)
99,498 follows (+1,394)

13,044 most shared post (+5,349)
29 number of posts

2,304,904 post reach (+261,459)
649,559 post engagement (+103,480)

Facebook (backup page)

4,549 likes (+50)
4,806 follows (+53)

Twitter

795 followers (+7)

YouTube

170 subscribers (+4)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 11.11.19

It was a bit of a frustrating week for both of us last week.  Output on Facebook stagnated with reach and engagement both down, but this is largely down to Karl having been busy with work commitments.  On the plus side this blog had record traffic and Richey has also continued to make strides on Twitter.  Once again not a single donation was received, something that is continuing to sap Richey's motivation.  On the bright side a small amount of money will shortly come in on the back of the sale of the door posters.  If you've bought one we can't thank you enough.

You can donate here.

Blog

461,619 total page views (+7,031)

Facebook

92,759 likes (+711)
98,104 follows (+785)

7,695 most shared post (-4,393)
36 number of posts

2,043,445 post reach (-392,612)
546,079 post engagement (-260,146)

Facebook (backup page)

4,499 likes (+25)
4,753 follows (+25)

Twitter

788 followers (+127)

YouTube

166 subscribers (+12)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 04.11.19

News of a looming general election has given our campaign a much needed boost following the censorship of our Facebook page two weeks ago.  If we can maintain our presence at least until the election we will easily surpass 100,000 followers by then.  Obviously in the event of a Labour/SNP government we may well be silenced indefinitely at some point.  Critics and freedom of speech don't fair well under communism and make no mistake, that's the kind of authoritarian regime we can look forward to under the direction of John McDonnell.

Contrary to last week's update (when we did not expect an election), we'll now be increasing Facebook activity.  Engagement is still relatively low compared to reach, but we expect that to change in the coming week.  It was a record week on Twitter, largely thanks to this guy.  We also picked up a handful of new YouTube subscribers.

Blog

454,588 total page views (+5,111)

Facebook

92,048 likes (+1,630)
97,319 follows (+1,851)

7,695 most shared post (-518)
35 number of posts

2,436,057 post reach (+2,199,854)
806,225 post engagement (+744,668)

Facebook (backup page)

4,474 likes (+47)
4,728 follows (+52)

Twitter

661 followers (+129)

YouTube

154 subscribers (+14)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 28.10.19

Last week's enforced retreat to the backup page on Facebook was a blessing in disguise.  We have had to re-evaluate how best to proceed in the light of what we now feel is the inevitable demise of our Facebook presence.  In many ways we have been preparing for this moment by expanding our online presence and once again urge our Facebook followers to engage with our campaign on as many of the following outlets as possible.  As a consequence of the threat of Facebook censorship we intend to concentrate more on building this site and YouTube going forward.  We would also urgently request that some of you chip in a couple of quid (or whatever you can afford) to help keep us going in 2020.  Richey's computer is ancient, we need better editing software and at the moment there is not even enough money coming in to pay for our domain fee.  PayPal users can donate here, everyone else can donate via the button on the right hand side of this page.  Thank you.

Blog

449,477 total page views (+4,580)

Facebook

90,418 likes (+102)
95,468 follows (+122)

10 number of posts

236,203 post reach (-722,127)
61,557 post engagement (-235,335)

Facebook (backup page)

4,427 likes (+1,016)
4,676 follows (+1,057)

13 number of posts
8,213 most shared post (+2,911)

Twitter

532 followers (+7)

YouTube

140 subscribers (+4)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 21.10.19

The main Facebook page will continue to be out of use for the rest of this week thanks to a shocking act of censorship last Friday.  We will remain on the backup page during this period and possibly beyond.  We were ticking along quite nicely up to this point, but even with no new posts since Friday we are still receiving huge traffic and, remarkably, post engagement has shown a small increase on last week's figures.  As we are now using the backup page new likes and follows will hopefully balloon in the week ahead.

We will be adding a fifth weekly article to the blog later this week.  Each Thursday (up to and possibly beyond the next general election) we will be compiling a report focusing on a different mainland city each week.  This will not include London at present, given its huge size and no less than 73 constituencies.  Instead we will begin this Thursday with a focus on Birmingham, its ten constituencies and MPs.  The weekly line up now looks like this:

Thursday:  Focus On...
Friday:  Council By-Elections
Saturday:  Week In Cartoons
Sunday:  Most Shared
Monday:  Campaign Stats

Despite the setback on social media, thanks for continuing to make this campaign a success and don't forget to chuck a couple of quid in the online tin if you can.

Blog

444,897 total page views (+2,154)

Facebook

90,316 likes (+240)
95,346 follows (+247)

5,302 most shared post (+1,176)
26 number of posts

958,330 post reach (-65,923)
296,892 post engagement (+19,320)

Facebook (backup page)

3,411 likes (+194)
3,619 follows (+204)

Twitter

525 followers (+11)

YouTube

136 subscribers (+6)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 14.10.19

With Parliament prorogued it was a fairly quiet week as recent history goes.  This is reflected in the following stats.  We've added one more stat this week - the number of Facebook posts.  We actually posted 21 times on Facebook, but the moderators removed one on Saturday night (more on that later).  It was very nice to cross over the 90,000 threshold for likes, but again not much progress on Twitter.  This week should be very busy as we countdown to the deadline for a Brexit deal and Saturday's emergency session in the Commons (oh, and another remainer protest).

Blog

442,743 total page views (+1,617)

Facebook

90,076 likes (+283)
95,099 follows (+269)

4,126 most shared post (+1,510)
20 number of posts (one removed by Facebook)

1,024,253 post reach (-1,114,759)
277,572 post engagement (-404,633)

Facebook (backup page)

3,217 likes (-2)
3,415 follows (-2)

Twitter

514 followers (+1)

YouTube

130 subscribers (-1)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 07.10.19

It was a fairly uneventful week in the Commons, save for the hilarity of Diane Abbott's PMQ disaster on Wednesday.  Facebook engagement tailed off quickly after that, having risen to a record high on Tuesday.  This is normal, as reach and engagement largely fluctuate depending on what is happening in the news and our ability to react to it effectively.  The vital statistics are the likes and follows across our social media and maintaining positive figures on a weekly basis.  Twitter has been a particular success story this week as we finally crossed the threshold of 500.  Some minor improvements were carried out to the YouTube channel, including a custom URL and a new in-video subscribe button.

Blog

441,126 total page views (+2,693)

Facebook

89,793 likes (+730)
94,830 follows (+904)

2,616 most shared post (-12,645)

2,139,012 post reach (-1,465,821)
682,205 post engagement (-762,194)

Facebook (backup page)

3,219 likes (+2)
3,417 follows (+1)

Twitter

513 followers (+18)

YouTube

131 subscribers (+3)

Figures correct at time of publishing.

CAMPAIGN STATS 30.09.19

'Campaign Stats' will be a new weekly update on how we're progressing (or not, as the case may be) across our various platforms.  From next Monday you'll be able to see how many followers we've added/lost per platform.  We're aware that Sunday is the start of a new week, but we already have the 'Most Shared' slot appearing that day.  This way we will have weekly slots for Friday-Monday as follows.

Friday:  Council By-Elections
Saturday:  Week In Cartoons
Sunday:  Most Shared
Monday:  Campaign Stats

Last week was an exceptional week on Facebook and we clocked up over 3,000 new likes.  Post reach and engagement were close to, if not exceeding, record levels.  Post reach is the number of people who have had one of our posts appear on their screen.  Post engagement is the number of people who have clicked on, liked, commented or shared our posts.  It will be difficult to follow that upward trend this week, albeit a week is a long time in politics!

As you'll see, we are still miles behind the main Facebook page with our other avenues.  Of particular disappointment is Twitter (run solely by Richey).  YouTube is not such a big issue as it is still fairly new and and we don't post as regularly.  The Facebook backup page, despite frequent requests to do so, is still way behind where it should be.  This is where we turn up in the event of a Facebook ban, so if you are a Facebook follower please be sure to click and like.

Blog

438,433 total page views

Facebook

89,063 likes
93,926 follows

15,261 most shared post

3,604,833 post reach
1,444,399 post engagement

Facebook (backup page)

3,217 likes
3,416 follows

Twitter

495 followers

YouTube

128 subscribers

Figures correct at time of publishing.