A couple of IWDs ago I used my
Webwork column to look at the distressingly negative experiences many women
have online, including being flamed or otherwise harassed. And how those
experiences might negatively affect women’s receptiveness to their unions’ online
organizing efforts. In other words, I was looking at the gendered division of
the internet.
A recent article in The
Pacific Standard, “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet,” by Amanda
Hess, describes the “noxious online commentary” the journalist gets in response
to her columns. That article, along with a bunch more I was able to Google-up
(79,400,000, give or take), did have one slightly (but not counter-balancing)
positive aspect, though it’s one you have to work hard to find: email is best
when it comes to avoiding what you don’t want to see or read. Unlike most
social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, email gives the recipient a
measure of control over what she is exposed to. You may be forced to read the
subject line, but that’s all, giving you a lot more control over what you see
in comparison to what you’re forced to witness with Facebook and company. So,
yet another argument in support of email as the killer app for online
organizing. You can read the story here: http://tinyurl.com/l9joyfr.
MAIL CHIMP
Chances are that anyone who
manages online actions for their union already knows that email is the most
effective online communications tool available, and they likely use a service
like Mail Chimp or other software with similar features.
LabourStart tested one of the
newer features of Mail Chimp, called “A/B Testing,” and we’re now using it with
almost every mailing. The feature allows you to test different subject lines in
your messages and then compare the rates at which recipients open messages. In
one example, we did two mailings, each with a different subject-line message,
about Firefox OS for Activists, the latest book in LabourStart’s series
covering a mix of global solidarity topics and things techish. The subject
might have seemed arcane (an open source, free operating system for
smartphones) and the book has a somewhat nerdish title. Nonetheless, the email
with the subject line saying “Firefox OS for activists – now available in
Canada” had an open rate of 6.3 per cent within 60 minutes of the mailing. The
email with the heading “Smartphones, tablets and Canadian unions” was opened by
only 5.0 per cent of the target group. The difference between them was
significant. On a Canadian mailing list of more than 12,000, it meant
another 156 people opened the message. On our entire mailing list, it
meant almost 2,000 more people opened the message.
Being a mildly
obsessive-compulsive type, not to mention a beery Marxist, I look for
qualitative results from quantitative analyses. But, so far, no rules about
subject line content are appearing in my tea leaves (okay, beer bubbles).
Subject-line-response results are almost never predictable, which is why it’s
important to test them. But the difference you’ll see is substantial enough to
warrant using this feature, if you have it.
MAKING CHANGE AT WALMART
The good folks at Making Change
at Walmart, and OUR Walmart, in the U.S., have their work cut out for them in
taking on the world’s largest – well, largest everything. Their resources, even
with the backing of UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers), will never come
close to what Walmart can spend on crushing organizing efforts in its stores
and warehouses. Of course, that’s what is making the campaign grow, and what’s
having the most impact on the corporation are the strikes – by unorganized
workers, no less. (Think about that the next time you’re tempted to crow about
our Canadian labour laws.) And organizing those strikes, and other meatspace
actions, was made a lot easier for organizers by their judicious use of social
media.
They used “Causes” on Facebook
and created events there, too. They created websites to describe actions and
how to organize for them; how to safely, and legally, conduct the strikes.
Tweets were tweeted. Flickr was deployed on the day of a strike, as was
Instagram. The result? One thousand five hundred actions (think about that for
just a second) at 1,500 (think about it again, a little longer this time)
Walmart locations resulted. Simultaneously. On the biggest day of the year for
retail in the U.S.
If you’re not at least a bit
slack-jawed at this point, turn in your membership card.
It gets better. The strike
organizers did what too few unions would, or can, do: they created a mediated,
but pretty free-wheeling, online space where the workers themselves could speak
about their fears and needs, and why they were or were not participating in the
Black Friday actions. Even better, much of the online organizing in preparation
for the strikes was done by crowd-sourced online leadership that organically
defined the campaign. Typically, a number of workers would find a Making Change
website or Facebook page or group. They’d start to talk directly, rather than
through Making Change’s facilities. That talking became self-organizing, and
the self-organizing took control of the strike in a location. The pattern was
repeated, over and over.
I’ll spare you my crowing about
how the Walmart campaign was able to take people from cyberspace to meatspace
in order to take effective action. But what’s striking is how closely their
tactics parallel those of Leadnow.ca. It works.
Take a peek here at a nice
summary of what Making Change folks are prepared to make public:
http://tinyurl.com/pfd222h.
DON’T DISS THE BOSS ON
FACEBOOK
Just a reminder: Facebook ain’t
Vegas and what happens on Facebook doesn’t stay on Facebook. Not only can it
migrate out to meatspace, but it can bite you on the arse when it arrives. A
worker in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, took to Facebook after she was almost
killed or seriously injured by lax safety precautions at a paper mill, to
complain about how slow management was in responding to her complaint. Clearly
angered by her manager, she posted a rather heated opinion of him, and a few
others. A 13-year employee, she was fired, and her discharge was upheld at
arbitration. See the story here: http://tinyurl.com/m5xefum.
UNITED NURSES OF ALBERTA
Download the United Nurses of
Alberta (UNA) iPhone App and you’ll get breaking news, collective agreements,
leadership messages and a whole bunch more. UNA members can search collective
agreements for keywords, make notes, and highlight important sections for
future reference. Fab! See it here: http://tinyurl.com/kz6443l.
GOOGLE+
Much as I love and respect the
work Australian union online guru Alex White, sometimes his boundless online
energy just makes me feel like I want to take a nap. Or retire. Alex has an
insider’s take on the resources unions can spare for just about any activity or
campaign. So, until now, he’s been pushing email, Facebook and Twitter for all
our campaigning needs. But, recently, he came to the conclusion that we need to
add Google+ to the list.
I’ve had a Google+ account for a
few years now, but I only check it maybe once a month, and even then just to
connect with a Facebook-phobic friend.
(Is it a phobia when there’s good reason for the fear?) Alex’s take on
the change boils down to this: “Google is taking over the digital world and
integrating all its platforms such that, if you’re not active on its social
media platform, it will wreak revenge when someone looks for you using its
search engine.” Sigh. Unfortunately, this, like Alex, makes sense. Read it for
yourself, and then have a nice long nap: http://tinyurl.com/l9jevwe.
FACEBOOK NO LONGER COOL?
There’s a countervailing bit of
good news about the Bad Book (Facebook, I mean): its user demographics are
changing and there are indications Facebook is headed for a downward slide in
popularity, though it might take a while for the beast to die.
A study by a British social
scientist suggests that Facebook use is no longer cool, now that people like me
are signed up and posting news about our boring middle-aged lives. (See
http://tinyurl.com/ne7dh9y.) So, the young folks are spreading themselves
around a bit. They are staying on Facebook, for sure, in order to keep in touch
with older family members. But they are investing more of themselves in
platforms that the old folks haven’t yet discovered. Might explain why the
grandkids haven’t been in touch with me for the last little while. I’ll have to
remember to wig them out by dropping some references to my non-existent
Instagram account. . . .
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