Several years ago, one could already detect that their were two types of websites. The first type consisted of online brochures. People spoke about “online publishing” and the idea was that you could use the web as a replacement for things like newsletters. But there was also a second type of website that was interactive and allowed people reading the sites to contribute content to them.
In the last few years the second type of site has become dominant and the most successful websites in the world (even commercial ones like Amazon and eBay) are filled with content created by the site’s users.
Unions have been slow to add interactive features to their sites.
Some have discussion forums, but many are concerned that these would be difficult to manage and control. (The TUC’s Union Reps site is a great success story here.) A few have blogs, allowing members to comment on things others have posted. (Judy McKnight’s NapoLog comes to mind.) And that’s about it.
But one of the most popular features on the biggest websites (including the BBC‘s) is the online survey. People really do love to fill these things out and unions can profit by using them.
I have recently begun using a tool called SurveyMonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com) to do LabourStart’s online surveys. We’ve done two so far — the first asking people about their experience with Internet-based campaigns and the second asking about their views on our website, how they use it, and asking for their suggestions for improvement.
The number of people responding is staggeringly high. About 1,400 people took part in our first survey in May and after only 6 days online, more than 2,000 people — in the middle of the August holiday season — took part in our second. If 2,000 trade unionists take part in a survey launched by a small NGO running on a shoestring, how many people would be involved were some of Britain’s largest unions to do this? My guess is — tens of thousands.
You learn important things by asking your site visitors the right questions. For example, participants in our first survey told us that they wanted campaigns to be in different languages, and they specificed which languages they wanted. We listened to their advice and launched a recent campaign in six languages, including Indonesian.
Using tools like SurveyMonkey, setting up such surveys takes only a few minutes of filling in online forms. And if the survey is properly designed, offering mostly multiple-choice questions, reading the results is also not time consuming. It’s an entirely different experience from doing surveys the old fashioned way, collating thousands of paper responses or phoning up thousands of individuals.
The results of surveys can be kept private, or made public by turning a switch on or off. At LabourStart, we’ve decided to make our survey results public. They make for fascinating reading.
Every union can afford this — the basic price for using SurveyMonkey is around £10 per month.
I think that as more and more trade unionists experience participating in online surveys the pressure will grow on unions to use this powerful tool.
I’ve been a union member for many years, and have this comment to make about the ways unions can be more responsive to their membership. My union gets a “fair share” payment from every worker whether they have chosen to be a member or not. The union collects almost the same amount via fair share as they would from the full dues. The result is the emasculation of the union because the worker has no way to withdraw support from the union if the organization is not doing it’s job. The ONLY real control most union members have over their union is the ability to withold funding. With fair share, that is impossible. Hence, if my union is negotiating a pathetic 3 year of zero percent pay increases, I cannot put the finger on them to get to work by withdrawing my financial support. This system has been the death of labor unions in our country.