Later this year, I will be releasing a new guide to social and digital campaigning for unions, titled Unionify: Social Campaigning for Unions. I’m releasing a few chapters as previews, and today I’m happy to announce that two chapters, “Mastering the Basics” and…
Author: Alex White
More and more unions are using Facebook to advertise, but chances are if you’re boosting your posts or advertising on newsfeeds, you’re using the standard “Self Serve” Facebook ad manager. This is potentially a big mistake, and you could be wasting time and money. I’ve…
An increasing number of unions are advertising on Facebook, either through the “traditional” sidebar ads or through promoted posts. Thanks to changes to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm, more and more unions and progressive campaigning organisations are being forced to advertise to…
Your union’s motivated and committed supporters — your activists, delegates and workplace leaders — are amongst your most important members. Most union leaders and organisers know anecdotally who these committed supporters are, but does your union have a systematic way to measure…
Chances are, if you’ve been working in union communications, you’ve been asked at sometime to “make something go viral” by a colleague or superior. If you’re like me, you probably silently sighed to yourself. I’m a big advocate of social campaigning — that…
There is a tide starting to rise in the world of progressive activism, and unions in Australia and globally may get caught in it. The tide is comprised of decentralised, leaderless, temporary movements, empowered by online organising platforms like Mov…
Michael Roston at Nieman Journalism Lab has an excellent and interesting article about the New York Times’ social media desk. With over 5 million followers on Twitter, The New York Times has some very pertinent advice and hard lessons, many of which are relevant to unions and other…
We live in a post-fact world. I assert this for two reasons. Firstly, because it crystallises the conservative approach to public discourse, which is largely exemplified by lying, lying loudly and lying often. Secondly, because increasing scientific re…
Every union organiser knows that the best person to recruit a new member isn’t the organiser but another member, a colleague. The most active, passionate members, who proudly encourage their work mates to join the union, often end up as delegates or shop-stewards. This word-of-mouth is not…
Soon I will be launching a new book for unions, called Unionify: Social Campaigning for Unions. Before I publish the entire book, I am releasing a short excerpt: the chapter on Facebook. There are more than 1.15 billion people with a Facebook account i…