While I often do my best to find something that will be of interest to the readers of Connect-Bridgeport each week in my personal blog – whether it’s serious, light hearted or simply something out of the ordinary – I don’t usually get a chance to do something I should do more often. I want to thank everyone for coming to the Web site and taking a read of what we try to offer.

 

I was reminded of just how important our readers are this past week when I noticed one of the areas where we share our content – the Connect-Bridgeport.com Facebook page – had surpassed more than 10,000 likes. It was the last of the major milestones that I hoped we would reach when we officially kicked this thing off in April of 2012.

 

Understand, however, getting to 10,000 Facebook likes was something I figured would happen in five years at the earliest and more than likely closer to six or seven years if things were going well. Thanks to a lot of really good people we reached it well ahead of my own time frame. And we reached it without giving away thousands of dollars in prizes. To date, the only things that we’ve given away are a few “Roll Tribe” t-shirts and we did ask you to like our page in order to get a chance for backstage passes to meet Peyton List when she came to the Meadowbrook Mall. As for a spoiler alert, that could change in the future.

 

For the most part, that means that most of you that like the page like it for the content. And I’m fully aware that we get folks that “unlike” us each week. That’s okay. What we offer isn’t something that may cater to the tastes of many individuals.

 

Although originally intended to serve as a news and information Web site with some fun features not offered by most media to Bridgeport, we’ve branched out some on our own and often with the big help of our media partner WDTV who we share content with. We also hyperlink stories from MetroNews, WBOY and others who understand the value in how social media works in helping the sources get traffic to their sites and – most importantly – readers get needed and wanted information.

 

The reason I know we’ve went beyond Bridgeport is that there are a little more than 8,000 residents in Bridgeport. In a little more than three years, we’ve had nearly 1.1 million visitors to the Connect-Bridgeport Web site. Those folks have viewed more than 12 million pages as part of 4 million sessions on the site.

 

For those who have asked - and many have - the most clicked on story on our site is the story of Megan Krohe being named BHS Homecoming queen. More than 20,000 of you clicked on that story. As for the number of views it produced of impressions on Facebook, those I don't readily remember - other than they were high.

 

As for "Facebook impressions," the number one story of all time is the recent announcement of the opening of Ulta at the Meadowbrook Mall. The story, the second most viewed on our site, had at last check months ago more than 250,000 Facebook views. And in third place on most clicked stories is the story of the bear sighting a few years ago that featured a photo of a huge bear in the parking lot of the Burnside Funeral home.

 

While those are great numbers, there are also other key marks that involve plateaus I've hoped Connect would eventually reach - and we have. The Web site itself has more than 5,000 registered users – most all of which are active users. And our Twitter account has surpassed more than 2,100 followers. Our still relatively new Instagram presence is also approaching 600 followers.

 

For the most part, it’s been a pleasant experience dealing with the individuals who come to the Web site or our social media components. When you see there are nearly 20,000 folks engaged through all aspects of Connect-Bridgeport, to know that less than two dozen individuals have had to be banned (primarily for heavy profanity purposes), it shows that most of the readers get it.

 

We have plenty of readers who offer nothing but praise, and many that are mainly critical of the content. That’s okay, too. As long as no one crosses the line with personal attacks or profanity, we usually allow comments to stay up and managing that aspect of it is among the most daunting tasks our small staff faces. We even try to respond to as many things as we can when possible and try to respond to all things sent to us via the private message feature on Facebook and our direct emails.

 

It should be noted that we’re aware that we make mistakes and many are kind enough to politely point them out for us to fix. Of course, there are some who feel the need to insult a mistake, which is okay as well.

 

There are times we post things inadvertently, or with the wrong photo. There are times the headlines aren’t exactly as we wish. There are, well, times we could do things better.

 

Yet through it all, so many of those folks who are regular visitors to Connect-Bridgeport get what we’re trying to do and know that we’re far from perfect. We’ll continue to try to get better and all we ask is that you continue to understand and support us.

 

In the meantime allow me to once again say “Thank You” from our staff at Connect-Bridgeport. I never realized how much fun it would be to provide free news and information to thousands of wonderful individuals. Please take a bow for helping make this operation successful and something we hope to continue well into the future.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo is of the members who work daily on Connect-Bridgeport including, from left, Hannah Cantrell, Julie Perine, Michelle Duez and yours truly being hugged by Santa during the most recent Christmas holiday. Second photo is of our most popular story ever involving the crowning of Megan Krohe as homecoming queen, while the bear siting in Bridgeport still ranks third. Second photo by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.