Email tip for unions: don’t overload your members
Email is an excellent way to easily and cheaply communicate with your members. A good union email should always include some kind of call to action – an “ask” for the recipient to do something, whether...
View ArticleFive tips for the ultimate union campaign website
Campaign websites are different to most union websites. They have a specific, narrow purpose, which is to immediately inform the visitor to the site about the main issues of the campaign and then spur...
View ArticleFive reasons why unions should care about email
Although email has been around for decades, it is still the cutting edge of campaigning and communication. Even in the age of social media, Twitter, Facebook, and iphone apps, email is by far the most...
View ArticleThe 10 second rule for website usability
How many times have you visited a website looking for something, like contact details, an email address or phone number, or some specific information – only to spend time looking fruitlessly for it?...
View ArticleFour effective “calls to action” to use on your union campaign website
Calls to action should be the life-blood of your union’s campaign website (and indeed, your main union website). Whether you want the visitor to join your union, send an email, donate to a strike fund...
View ArticleInterview with Paul Degenstein, Partner at NOW Communications
Over at Creative Unions is an interview I conducted with Paul Degenstein, the Chief Creative Officer of Canadian creative agency NOW Communications. NOW put together this fantastic video for the...
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Thoughts on website development for unions
I’ve helped a few groups with setting up their websites over the last year or two – and set up many more for work. These have mostly been for specific campaigns or highly focused purposes – campaign...
View ArticleGo where the members are
Over at Cyber Unions (a website promoting new technology adoption by unions), there’s a post questioning whether unions should use Facebook. Author Walton Pantland has several reasons for suggesting...
View ArticleThe Qantas lockout and social media #fail
I was asked over the weekend to comment on the use of social media by Qantas, who on Saturday announced that they would lock out their workforce and ground their entire fleet. It is now clear that this...
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Can a photo of someone joining their union cause you to want to join as well?
What causes people to imagine joining their union? Can simply showing potential members a picture of someone filling out a membership application form affect the extent to which they imagine actually...
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Six tips on how to implement the new Facebook Timeline
If you manage your union’s Facebook page, you’ve no doubt noticed that Facebook pages have looked a bit different from 30 March. This is because there’s now a new type of Facebook page layout, called...
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Five steps to a simple online strategy for your union
Your union should have an overall strategy for its organising, industrial and other activities… but very few unions have an online strategy. Forming a clear vision for your union’s online campaigning...
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Why every union should be worried about the HSU scandal
Imagine a pervasive force that creates a systematic bias in how people perceive your union, based not on evidence or careful evaluation but on a “global affect” or feeling. This is the halo effect, an...
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What’s your Abbott strategy
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told his MPs yesterday that a Coalition government’s industrial relations policy would “reflect a return of the pendulum back to the middle”. What’s your union’s Abbott...
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Social media and membership retention
There’s a maxim in the union movement that I’ve heard (and repeated) that it’s five times more difficult and expensive to recruit a new member as it is to keep an existing one. Membership retention is...
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How advanced is your union’s online content communication plan?
In the digital campaigning world, good content is very important. I’ve resisted writing about the Kony 2012 campaign, but it’s worth raising here to illustrate why content is so important. Invisible...
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How to get the most out of social media
Social media is a fast-expanding landscape. New sites and tools are popping up each week, and more and more people are using social network sites than ever. Social networking is now the most popular...
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Why your union should care about landing pages
If you could do one thing to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your online campaigning, it would be to use targeted landing pages on your union’s online campaign efforts. The reason landing...
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Four member metrics every union should know about
Most unions in Australia have adopted a growth agenda — with a strong focus on joining new members to the union. This typically involves teams of organisers who specialise in signing up workers to the...
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Unions and the Age of Big Data
Big Data is all the rage at the moment. Leaders in every sector — business, government, non-profit, and unions — need to start thinking about the challenges of how to manage and constructively use all...
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