Because unions are democratic organisations, accountable to members and with a leadership elected by members, as organisations they face considerable challenges in messaging. Add to this the fact that many unions have a diverse membership covering distinct and structurally different industries. It’s no wonder that many unions struggle to develop strong, consistent messaging. The key to [...]
Activists, delegates and volunteers are the lifeblood of campaigning organisations like unions. Effective campaigning means keeping a track of your activists and delegates, and to do that, you need a proper database. There are myriad databases out there, some purpose built for membership organisations and others built for campaigns with beginnings and ends. Selecting the right [...]
In 2012, I spent over two and a half months working full-time as an Organizing Fellow with the Obama for America campaign. Based in Boston Massachusetts, the campaign’s focus was winning the next-door battleground state of New Hampshire. Working full-time on the campaign gave me an incredible opportunity to experience first-hand how the famed Obama [...]
Opinion polls in Australia, like in the USA and England, exercise a powerful influence upon our elected leaders and the media. The weekly and fortnightly polls shape the media landscape, as journalists breathlessly report on the horse-race: are they up this week or down? And there’s no doubt that consistently poor opinion polls have been [...]
Read any number of journalist or blogger commentaries over the last several years and you will have seen the infiltration of marketing terms like “brand”, “positioning”, public relations, image management and more. Obama is the most recognisable example of this “political brand” phenomenon, but we’ve seen it elsewhere: New Labour under Tony Blair (Gordon Brown [...]
Every decision we make is influenced by countless different external factors. But some of the most powerful influences on our decisions, attitudes and behaviours are internal. These influences can be major roadblocks for progressive organisations and causes, especially unions, as they can affect our judgements and actions in subtle and not so subtle ways. It’s important [...]
You’re a campaigner, or organiser. You know intuitively that some of your members or supporters are more active than others. They encourage other people to get involved, join, volunteer or sign up. They’re enthusiastic, loyal advocates of your organisation or union and sing your praises to their colleagues, friends and family. They’re promoters. Here’s the [...]
Here’s my article at The Guardian Environment, about what Australian climate groups face and what environment groups can learn from the “Say Yes” campaign and the “No KXL” / “No Tar Sands” campaign In Australia, decades of hard-fought conservation gains are at risk of being wiped out after 14 September. That’s when the incumbent Labor government [...]
Despite the (still) prevailing orthodoxy that election strategies are a matter of well-timed policy announcements, media management and “feeding the chooks”, and focus-grouped television ads, the fact is that personal contact is the most effective way to change someone’s voting intention. A while back, I had a discussion with someone who posited that political campaigns [...]
Mobilising and motivating your committed supporters is the key to winning campaigns. The upcoming Federal Election is focusing minds amongst unions and campaigning NGOs. The reality of an Abbott Government looks like an increasingly likely risk. Many hard-fought gains across a number of policy areas could be wiped out. The seductive trap for campaigners in [...]
This weekend, two Federal Ministers, Chris Evans and Nicola Roxon, announced their resignation from politics. While pundits will write hundreds of column inches about the significance of these resignations and what it means for an election over seven months away, there are some immediate consequences for campaigning organisations. In the US, when Hillary Clinton resigned [...]
An article I wrote for New Matilda has been published. It examines what lessons Labor could learn from the Obama 2012 campaign to win this year’s Federal election. You can read the article here, and I’ve reproduced it below. This month’s Newspoll boosted Labor’s hopes about the next election. The commentators and Twitterati who got [...]
With Australia experiencing one of its longest, hottest heatwaves in history, you’d have thought there would be a resurgence in stories in the mainstream media about climate change and global warming. Alas, no. A cursory Google News check reveals only one story linking climate change and the heatwaves (the same story, repeated in the ABC, [...]
We’re less than two weeks into 2013 and four of Australia’s ten hottest days in history have happened this year. On Monday, Australia’s average high temperature reached a scorching 40.33°C – our hottest day on record. Unreported in Australia, The Bureau of Meteorology said: “There’s little doubt that this is a very, very extreme heatwave event,” [...]
Guide to Online Campaigning for Unions is about how to use the power of the Internet to urge union members and supporters to become online activists, and to take that action off-line in the real world. The key to online action is that everything needs to be focused on having a real impact in the real world.
The book is filled with insights from the Obama 2012 campaign, as well as from non-profit marketing and of cutting edge union campaigning from Australia.
Guide to Online Campaigning for Unions is a blueprint for engaging activists and prompting action.
Social Media for Unions, Introduction to Email Campaigning for Unions and Online Campaigning for Unions
