The name Another Angry Voice is not ideal, but as of January 2014 I have started to use it in connection with a statement of clarification which reads "Anger at injustice is the fundamental driver of progressive social reform" in the hope that it tempers the immediate impression that I may be some kind of shouty political ranter.
The Another Angry Voice Blog
January was a great month for the Another Angry Voice blog with over 272,000 visits. Of the 15 articles I posted three were particularly popular, each of them finding their way into my top five most visited articles of all time. The three articles in question were a very brief (by my standards at least!) reflection on the closure of 10 London Fire stations, my article on Michael Gove's ludicrous comments about the First World War and one lamenting the passage of the Tory "Gagging Law".
I've begun seriously planning to move Another Angry Voice off the blogger platform and onto it's own web domain. I have several ideas about how the neww AAV would work, but the most important thing would be to enable much more user interaction, so that people can contribute by uploading their own images, blog posts or links that they would like to share with a like-minded community of politically engaged people.
Social Media
I've finally started getting the hang of Twitter, my @Angry_Voice account is gradually picking up a few more followers and there has seemed to be ever more activity on in my Twitter interactions feed.
The Another Angry Voice Facebook page is also doing very well indeed. Another Angry Voice content was seen in people's newsfeeds an average of over 1,000,000 times per week for the whole of January! By far the most popular meme of the month was the one comparing Michael Gove with Baldrick, which shared over 24,000 times.
One thing that a lot of people don't realise about the way Facebook works is that the number of followers you have in total is nowhere near as important as the number of interactions (likes, comments and shares) that your Facebook posts generate. I'm going to churn out a few statistics now to put my previous assertion into context.
During the week to January 31st Another Angry Voice generated 50,829 interactions, whilst the official pages of all three of the official pages of the Westminster establishment parties (the Lib-Lab-Cons) generated 43,655 between them. This means that the political content of just one bloke, working in his spare time is more politically engaging that the combined output of all three establishment parties.
When we step beyond simple comparison between the crude interactions of one part-time bloke vs the Facebook pages of the political establishment, the figures are even more convincing. In order to generate a fairer measure of engagement, the number of interactions can be divided by the total number of page followers to give an interaction to size of audience ratio.
The Another Angry Voice interaction to audience ratio is 177.4%, ie. 1.774 interactions per week per follower. The ratio for the combined political establishment is 43,655 divided by the 413,426 people that follow the three pages, giving a result of 10.6%, ie. 0.106 interactions per follower per week. That makes Another Angry Voice 16x as engaging as the Lib-Lab-Cons.The Labour party seem to have got a much better grasp on how the New Media functions and their total of 37,501 makes up 85% of the interactions the three establishment parties managed between them.
With a following of 163,996 the Tory party managed just 5,631 interactions, giving them an interaction ratio of just 3.4%, making my page a mind boggling 50 times as engaging as theirs.
The most embarrassing performance of all came from the Liberal Democrats who managed a feeble 523 interactions despite their audience of 92,049 (more than 3 times the size of mine) giving them an interaction ratio of just 0,6% which is 295x smaller than my interaction rate.
Apologies if you were irritated by my burst of Facebook statistics, but I've explained them for a reason, rather than just to blow my own trumpet a bit. These statistics show that the old political establishment is utterly failing to engage the New Media of independent blogs, social networking interactions, viral content and organic publicity. If one bloke working part-time can outperform all three of their home pages combined, despite the enormous wealth of labour at their disposal, it shows how rotten and unacceptable their message has become. People are so disenchanted with the old establishment order that they are far more likely to engage with some random bloke they've never even seen a picture of, than with the political parties.
I feel like I'm riding the crest of a wave. A wave of independent bloggers with the editorial freedom to condemn crony capitalism, corruption, injustice, hypocrisy, dishonesty, greed, malice and totalitarianism wherever we see it. It took me several years to establish myself here, but I think perhaps what I have achieved can be an inspiration to others. If we really care about things and we try to speak out as best we can, there are people out there that will listen, and it is possible for us to make a positive difference. If by speaking out I have activated just a few people to get more involved in politics and to try to make more of a difference, I have multiplied what I could ever hope to achieve alone.
Thanks for all the support
The most important thing really is to say thank you to everyone that has got involved and helped to spread awareness of my work, without your likes, shares, comments and Retweets I would just be another voice shouting in the political wilderness. With you guys behind me I can be heard by millions, so thanks again for all your support. Your support is absolutely crucial to me.
If you like my page - check these guys out too
Here is a short list of some other bloggers and social media activists that I classify as part of the New Media movement (in no particular order) and highly recommend.
Scriptonite Daily (Facebook/Twitter)
Tom Pride (Twitter)
Mike Sivier (Facebook/Twitter)
The Artist Taxi Driver (Youtube/Twitter)
Unlearning Economics (Twitter)
Johnny Void (Twitter)
The last person to enter parliament with honest intentions was Guy Fawkes
And a special mention for Max Keiser (and Stacy Herbert), who although backed by the financial might of Russia Today, deserve an honourable mention. In my view Max is the man who has done more to popularise the subject of economics than anyone else in decades, and he is a personal inspiration of mine. Although he is undeniably nuts, and I often disagree with certain things he says, but his enthusiasm is infective that his show is a must watch.
If you have any suggestions for other individuals that deserve a mention as part of the New Media, feel free to leave them in the comments section.
Another Angry Voice is a not-for-profit page which generates absolutely no revenue from advertising and accepts no money from corporate or political interests. The only source of revenue for Another Angry Voice is the PayPal donations box (which can be found in the right hand column, fairly near the top of the page). If you could afford to make a donation to help keep this site going, it would be massively appreciated.
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