Web 27,000 hits a month and media strategy pays off

John Stevenson , Communications Officer

The Branch Website (Scotland's first Branch website) has become a very important tool in getting news quickly to members and as a resource for more detailed documents. I still manage the site entirely on my own and we need to move towards staff involvement. Check out 'UNISON Edinburgh' on Google and you will see how significant the site has become. The site has 500 pages and 27,000 hits a month. Many members use it to update their details and it has been well used to give views on the pay claim.

Email communication: We are trying hard to build a full email list to contact members directly and we are using email more and more to contact stewards. This still presents us with problems and, after initial promising signs, the actual cost of linking to the Council's intranet system remains prohibitive. Nevertheless, Branch Office staff are collating email addresses and progress is being made.

Branch Magazine: The goalposts changed so many times with Single Status that we concentrated on one-off bulletins in-house. I changed the design of the main magazine to full colour now that printing costs are less.

Media: Media strategy is about speaking up for members no matter how small the story is. The biggest issue this year was the Budget Cuts. It was hard to get media interest at first given the new political administration's honeymoon period.

I cannot stress enough the need to be available for the media and many late evening calls led to coverage we would not otherwise have got. Stepping outside the strict communications role, using a network of contacts was useful in getting talks with the political parties when that seemed a vain hope at first.

Planning for the strike and rally reaped great coverage in all the media outlets. We had to swing into full action when the 'Shared Services' job cuts were bounced on us and the Council tried to pull a fast one with the media.

We worked into the night to ensure UNISON's view was heard and got a TV slot only an hour or so after the news broke. We also got coverage on a range of other issues from the Contact Centre, to the Home Care campaign and the 'Christmas Chocolates for Residential Homes issue'.

To see how much coverage we get, go to the Evening News site and search for UNISON and you will get over 75 results for 2007 alone, by far the best coverage of any Branch in Scotland.