Thank you for all participating in our second survey! The response was brilliant; we had 3 times as many respondents as the first Blog Preston survey – hopefully a recognition of the growth of the site and the participation of the community. The survey also threw up some interesting changes from last time around.

A year ago we’d notched up just over 300 posts. Now we’ve had over 650 posts and over 700 comments. The site has come on in leaps and bounds and we’re always looking for more content, so if you want to be part of the Blog Preston team, get in touch.

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Firstly, a quick recap of the results last time around. We found out that 37% of our readers were in the 36-50 age range, with no one over the age of 51. Fulwood and Penwortham were where most of the readers came from, they liked reading about the arts and events and 93% of them thought that the content on Blog Preston reflected the city.

Almost all of that has changed with the new survey.

Instead 66.7% of Blog Preston are between the ages of 19 and 35. Not only has the readership got younger, but we’ve also attracted our first readers over the age of 51, and they make up 8.3% of the community. The shift means that we know a little better who we’re writing for, and hopefully the increased amount of people who filled out the survey means that the results are also more accurate.

The next interesting result was the answers to the question “How did you find out about Blog Preston?”. Since the last survey we’ve run Tweetups, set up a monthly social media event in Preston and been commended by Talk About Local as one of the UK’s best local websites. So people are hearing about us from a wider range of places than a year ago. We’ve overtaken the LEP on Twitter, set up a new account especially for football and other live events, and recently went over 400 members from our Facebook page.

Given that, it’s unsurprising that the bulk of people now find our site through a social network, with 42.9% saying they did. Interestingly a further 12.2% said they heard about us at a networking event while 20.4% said they heard about Blog Preston through general word of mouth. It’s really encouraging that so many of you are talking to us and finding out about us through social media, but if there’s anything you think we can do better, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

We also wanted to find out what people wanted to see more of on the site. Our coverage has definitely shifted in the past year; we’ve covered things like the EDL march, the 2010 general election and all of Preston North End’s games. All of those were received really well, but what about what people felt they wanted to see more of? Below you can see the results, and the popularity of our live event coverage is very evident. People also want to see more about charities, the arts and more photography, all of which would be great to see on the site. If you’ve an interest in any of the aforementioned topics, get in touch, we’d love to feature them.

The most important question we asked on the survey was whether you felt that the content on Blog Preston represented the city. We always try to tell stories that either don’t get covered elsewhere or aren’t considered “important” in other media outlets, so the representation of Preston is a very important part of that. Below you can see the results.

Thanks once again for participating in the survey. We’ve taken all your suggestions on board and will be in touch with those of you who voiced an interest in writing for us. Soon we’ll be starting our role in the NESTA Neighbourhood Challenge which will involve training and content based around Ribbleton, St. Matthew’s and Deepdale which will mean that the rest of the year is going to be as exciting as the year since the first survey. And we couldn’t have done it without any of you, the community, so thank you once again!