THREE MILLION Classrooms Reached on @TeacherToolkit

What impact can social media have for teachers worldwide?

This blog is not to show-off, it is to allow regular readers of my blog, an insight into the mechanics and analysis of blog audiences.

In 2003 and 2008, I started using Facebook and Twitter respectively. These social media channels were both for personal use. In 2010, something changed and I created @TeacherToolkit on Twitter on 19th August 2010. This month, I mark the 5th year anniversary of using Twitter professionally. As for blogging, I’ve been writing online for well-over 10 years, but as for ‘@TeacherToolkit the blog’, this started much earlier in 2008, moving to this website in August 2012.

Three Million Classrooms Reached:

Today, I celebrate THREE MILLION views on this website, after 3 years of blogging at www.TeacherToolkit.me.

Assuming that ‘educators and teachers’ across the world are tuning into read my blog, two or three months ago, I change the website counter on my blog, from ‘Website Views’ to ‘Classrooms Reached’. I felt that it was a very subtle, yet suitable change in terminology.

You can see from the image below that there is a clear growth over time. A quick analysis states, that on average, my blog receives 150,000 views per month, with the highest audience in May 2015, reaching 203,000 views! This equates to between 30,000 to 50,000 views per week and between 2,000 and 6.000 readers every day.

It’s all very flattering! Click on the image to expand the graph and take a closer look …

WordPress also now features an insights analysis into blogpost frequency. This tells me that the vast majority of my readers visit my blog on a Sunday and that the most popular hour is in the evening at 10pm! That’s a staggering 300,000 reads! Why are you not all in bed preparing for the week ahead? You will see from the ‘blue dots’ below, that I am blogging more than ever before. (Dark blue = 2 posts per day)

Back-Story:

I always remind people who ask, that I once wrote my first professional blog and shared my first tweet on social media. This was merely for reflection and not to gain an audience. One reader led to one follower and so it went on … Over time, of course the purposes of each blog – for example this one – is not for reflection, but to communicate with those who are regularly (now) reading my blog. Some of my readers have been on my journey from the start …

In March 2014, I blogged “ONE MILLION Reads on @TeacherToolkit when I shared “One small tweet for man; one giant leap for education!”

Click to read..

What I Wish I Knew?

I have written the following blogs from my own experience. Some of them have proved very popular with many readers. I wish I had something like this – not for website traffic purposes – to help get me started on social media (for teachers) in 2010!

1. 101 Great Teachers to Follow on Twitter – 24,480 views.
2. 10 Tips for Tweeting Teachers –  19,041 views.
3. 10 Tips for Blogging Teachers –  5,751 views – disappointing!
4. 10 Simple Coding Tips for Bloggers – 2,265 views – just published.
5. 10 Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom – 2,573 views – just published.

In December 2014, just nine months later after reaching one million views, I celebrated TWO MILLION Reads on @TeacherToolkit.

Click to read.

Most Read Blogs:

1. Outstanding Teaching Using the New #Ofsted Framework – although out of date – 80,125 views.
2. The 5 Minute Marking Plan – 34,299 views.
3. TakeAway Homework – 32,806 views.
4. 101 Great Teachers to Follow on Twitter – 24,480 views.
5. The Marking Frenzy – 22,083 views.

Most Read Pages:

1. The 5 Minute Lesson Plan – 223,586 views.
2. My homepage – 221,517 views.
3. 5 Minute Plan Series – 61,410 views.
4. Resources for Classroom/School – 58,617 views.
5. Everything Indexed – 35,595 views.

Searching:

When blog readers search online – via my blog – through various search websites (known as referrers), these are the most popular ‘search terms’ used.

No surprises here then! Although in total, there are over 250,000 ‘undefined‘ search items within my blog. This means that one or two search terms are not enough in quantity, to warrant any ranking over time. Most worrying, there are an alarming number of readers who have come to my website and typed in the following (as written);

• demonstrating progress in a lesson
• who should teachers vote for
• how to show progress in lessons

Stop that now! …

Worldwide Website Hits:

According to Revolver Maps, there are visits from 191 countries. The top 10 countries who read my blog – since March 2013 – are;

No.	Country	Date of Last Visit		Percent & Number of Visits
1	United Kingdom	July 24, 2015		85.49%	415,625
2	United States	July 24, 2015		4.44%	21,579
3	Australia	July 22, 2015		1.50%	7,314
4	France	July 22, 2015		1.07%	5,180
5	Canada	July 24, 2015		0.64%	3,101
6	Ireland	July 23, 2015		0.56%	2,743
7	United Arab Emirates	July 23, 2015		0.51%	2,462
8	Spain	July 24, 2015		0.36%	1,756
9	New Zealand	July 23, 2015		0.34%	1,667
10	India	July 24, 2015		0.30%	1,473

It is obvious to see that 85% of my readers are based here in the United Kingdom. The rest, almost 400,000 views coming in from all over the world. USA, Australia and France dominate the readership thereafter … Click on the map to read the data, or click here to expand the map and take a closer look.

Rankings:

And finally, not that it is any aim of mine, but it does provide an interesting analysis of the world of education blogging/bloggers. @TeacherToolkit is consistently ranked 50th position on Teach 100 – I have made it to 29th position for one day – who rank and score hundreds of education blogs all over the world. The vast majority of blogs listed are from the USA with 2 or 3 others from Canada, India and Spain. I am very pleased to see – other than The Guardian Teacher Network and a few other blogging machines – that my blog is representing (individual) education bloggers and is consistently ranked number 1 in the UK. Again, this is a great accolade to the hours I invest writing and sharing resources online; and a ‘thank you to you’ from me for tuning in to read …

Take a look at the top 100 blogs and stay up to date via the other 800 blogs listed to read what people are talking about in the education space across the world. Click on the image to see who is top of the charts!

That’s enough analysis for now. Tweet this?

Thank you for following and most of all, reading my blog.

TT.