Communicator | Online Strategist | Considered Opinions
More and more unions are starting up Facebook and Twitter accounts, but the fact is that your union’s website is much more important than all your social media combined. In Australia, there are more people using social media than ever, but when it comes to actually interacting with your union in a meaningful way (such [...]
Why has your union joined the social media world? Some unions may be there because of the motivations of a single person — the secretary, or an eager organiser or communications officer. They join because they feel they must. Some unions may be there to broadcast their activities – they don’t want a conversation, just [...]
At the end of September, Facebook announced massive changes to pages, profiles and its “social graph”. For union communicators just getting the hang of setting up a Facebook page for their union or their campaign, what do these changes mean? Thankfully, Wildfire, a social media marketing company, has produced a good summary of the changes [...]
Tip: if you looked at the photo on this article before starting to read the text, then you’re like 90% of voters. If you’re not sure why this matters, you’re like most political commentators and pundits. There is a large amount of research about how voters (and readers in general) consume media. But, by and [...]
The Dragonfly Effect should be on the bookshelf of every union communications officer. It is a short primer on how to use social media to achieve positive social change written by Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturers Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. The “effect” is based on the four “wings” of the dragon-fly – an [...]
After setting up your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your MailChimp (or Campaign Advantage) account and your campaign website, what next? Knowing whether your online campaigning and social media efforts are succeeding is important for any organisation, no more so than unions, who need to ensure that scarce resources are put to best effect. (You’ve [...]
Clay Shirky, a Professor of New Media at New York University, has penned a fascinating article in the Foreign Affairs magazine about the political power of social media and its role in facilitating political change. This article is exceptionally interesting for anyone interested in the role of social media in the real world, and Prof. [...]
There’s been a lot written about the role that Facebook and Twitter has played in the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in Egypt – and also Ben Ali in Tunisia – so I thought I’d add my own thoughts. There are two main things I want to focus on: 1. The power of weak ties [...]
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Three “do’s” and “don’t's” of dealing with critical comments
How do you respond to a negative comment in an online community, on your union’s web page, or your union’s Facebook page, or sent to your union’s Twitter account? Should you shut them down? Delete them? Edit them? Ban the commenter? Fight them? Ignore them? There is no one-size fits all approach to dealing with [...]