A little about how my stories and pictures have been received
First of all… Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for all your support, followings and comments.
It’s been nearly two and a half years since I started my www.endoftheline.blog and I’ve now posted over 100 updates on my site.
I’ve also branched out across many social media platforms too. Starting with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and later onto YouTube and LinkedIn.
I started all this as a personal journey with little regard for any measure of success. But as the months passed by, and I acquired a growing band of social media followers, I started to be interested in how to cultivate a wider audience.
Consequently, I started to take an interest in my various channels to see whether, and if so how I could influence those who follow me and gradually increase my readership.
I’ll not pretend it’s been a meteoric success when compared to some influencers who are paid to endorse products; and that’s not something I set out to achieve. My success has been more of a muted growth, and it’s an approach I’m content with.
Since April 2020, I’ve been capturing insightful data from across all my channels, and I thought I would share some of this data with you by way of promoting the ‘best of post/picture by social media channels. So here goes…
Blog Site
I now have 41 followers: 23 who subscribe to my email updates on the publication of a new post, and 18 who follow my site through their own WordPress account.
My most successful month so far has been July 2020 which saw nearly 850 visitors arrive, and my busiest day was when I posted this picture within my Travel/Boats theme entitled ‘Moored under the Barrier’.
Unsurprisingly, over 90% of my visitors are from the UK, with 4% from the USA and a growing interest from China, Germany, France and Australia. Visitor journeys to my site in the early days were predominantly from Facebook and Twitter (85% in 2018), but this has now shifted to over 60% coming through search engine queries.
I started using my personal account and in hindsight I wish I had created a separate account specifically for my travels. But it’s a bit too late now as I’d have to corral my 209 followers – unless there’s anyone out there who can advise of an easy and painfree way of doing so?
Twitter insights are measured in two ways: impressions and engagements. My simple interpretation is: those who see it, and those who do something about what they’ve seen.
My most successful Twitter impression picture was published on 12/08/2020 under my Natural World/Creatures theme entitled ‘Feline Hungry’. A quick search across twitter reveals there are many cat lovers out there which might explain this picture’s popularity
My most popular Twitter engagement picture was published on 21/07/2020 under my Social/Remembering theme entitled ‘Kennington Remembers’. It was following this post I had a helpful response from the Friends of Kennington Park who helped me complete the story behind this memorial
I started my end of the line page with a loyal group of family and friends, but since I started advertising in May 2020, on a very small budget, I now have 59 followers.
Facebook has three insightful elements: Reached, Engagements and Story. Similarly to Twitter, my interpretation of these is: those who see my Facebook post, those who react to my Facebook post, and those who have viewed the separate storyline.
My most viewed and reacted to post on Facebook was published on 13/07/2020 when I wrote about my intended plans to transition from my daily picture of the day ‘Memories to Themes’. For the previous 81 days, I had published my picture of the day from each of my 81 travels, and was about to launch a new portfolio of my photographs which I’d categorised into 5 themes. If you missed it the first time around, here’s a link for another chance to read it.
My most popular Facebook story was published on 20/05/2020 from my Memories collection and was my picture of the day from my visit to Heathrow Terminal 4 on 20/12/2018
Instagram has two insightful elements: the main page, and similar to Facebook, there’s a story line as well.
Instagram is known predominantly for being a photo posting site, although there are those who post videos there as well. And it was on 30/05/2020 that I uploaded my most successful post. Not a photograph, but a video promoting my ‘draft’ photo album which I’ve ambitions of turning into a published book in the coming months. Have a look here.
I had two joint popular Instagram stories. One published on 03/06/2020 and the second on 09/06/2020. Both published as part of my ‘Memories’ collections. The first was my picture of the day from my travels to Paddington station on 10/04/2019 and entitled simply ‘9:32 pm’
The second was my picture of the day from my travels to Brixton on 28/05/2019 and entitled ‘Walking through Brixton’
YouTube
I’ve had limited success with YouTube, but what I have done is created a short video from my pictures after each of my days out. The videos on the whole last just over a minute, but it’s my belief that this may be too long to capture the interest of those who just want a quick picture to view. Nevertheless, I’ve persevered with creating the videos and offering them up through my blog site as an alternative viewing source.
My most successful video to date was following my visit to Woodford Green on 22/01/2019 and is one I created as a promotional video for The Broadway Deli & Grocery. Have a look at it here.
This is a relatively new venture so I’m testing the waters, but I see it as an opportunity to promote my photographs to a different group of interested people. My most successful post on LinkedIn was my very first post here: Memories #08 which reflected on my Pictures of the Day between the end of April and the end of June in 2019.
What next – it’s been a matter of learning from experience, but I’ve now established a pattern of posting one picture a day rounded up with a summary of why I took the pictures every 7-9 days thereafter. So for those who want a quick ‘photo fix’ they get a regular feed, and at the same time I don’t bombard those who prefer the detailed description which they get on average weekly.
If you’re a regular reader, you know that during the past 4 months, I’ve been discovering my local community through my ‘Lockdown Mayhem’ series of pictures. This has been an attempt to explore places closer to home, whilst still being able to act responsibly by not travelling unnecessarily to help prevent the spread of Covid19 .
However, as the ‘new normal’ embraces people’s behaviours, and the declaration that it’s safe to travel whilst wearing a facemask, I will soon be resuming my travels to begin my new adventure:
theendoftheline #02
I’ll be embarking on a new end of the line plan. One where I’ll be visiting Network Rail’s ‘ends of the line’ within the Tfl travel zones; and travelling on other Network Rail lines as far as I can within the Tfl travel zones. Why these limitations? Because I can still travel for free using my 60+ Oyster Card.
There are 63 stations in total to visit, so I hope that will see me still travelling and writing and taking photos into 2022.
