This week, we had an interesting conversation with the HR director of a large company that recently defeated a union organizing drive. When we asked her about the use of social media and technology in the counter-organizing campaign, she laughed and described how her efforts were trounced by the union. Their internal email systems were constantly taken over by those working on behalf of the union, text messages and voice mails were left on employees cell phones at two o’clock in the morning, and web sites and social media pages in support of the union effort flourished. She had to adopt a strategy of simply conceding the social media/technology effort to the union, and apologizing to the employees for the unauthorized messaging they were receiving through supposedly protected, internal channels. In just the last week we have run two related stories: one involving the NLRB’s categorization of Facebook conversations as “protected concerted activity”, and another about the successful use of social media strategy against Dr. Pepper Snapple. In the latter article we pointed to the November convention of the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), which will feature a special panel on “Winning Campaigns with Social Media.” We encourage you to seriously evaluate your social media strategy. A proper evaluation should include such questions as: 1. Am I familiar with all or most of the potential venues that could be used in a campaign against my company? 2. Do I have people on staff that understand how to navigate in these venues? If not, have I identified resources who can help fill that gap? 3. Have we developed a proactive strategy to engage our workforce using social media? 4. Have we considered a defensive strategy for social media used against us? LRI is offering a FREE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY CALL for those wishing some expert help assessing their preparedness for social media campaigns. Phil Wilson, president of LRI, will conduct a 30-minute conference call to help you answer questions like these. More important, Phil provides pointers on how to respond to social media attacks during an organizing campaign and even offers some surprising “old school” tactics that are very effective counter-attacks. Phil will take the mystery out of this new communications venue for you and your team. Call Tammy now at 800-888-9115 to schedule your 30-minute call.
