In November every year, I carry out an analysis of the influence of twitter accounts for all the TUC-affiliated unions. I compile the results into a league table, so unions can measure their progress over the last 12 months. This is the eighth year I’ve been doing this analysis, and previous results can be found on this blog (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018), As with last year, I’ve used Kred, a service that attempts to measure social influence of Twitter accounts by analysing data such as Retweets, Replies, Mentions and Followers. The influence score is scored on a scale of 1,000

Every November, I compile metrics to see which union are the most influential on Twitter. This is the seventh year I’ve been doing this analysis, and previous results can be found on this blog (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017). For the last few years, I’ve been using a tool called Klout to collect the metrics, but Klout has been taken over and now shut down by a company called Lithium, who acquired Klout in order to obtain their AI and machine learning technologies. However, another tool I've used in the past called Kred is still going strong and has improved, so this year I’ve used

Towards the end of every year I take a look at which of the TUC-affiliated unions are the most influential on Twitter. I’ve been doing this for six years, with all previous results available on my blog (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016). To measure the influence, I use a tool called Klout, and independent analytics service that monitors the reputation of social media accounts. It looks at things like the number of followers as well as interactions such as likes, retweets, etc. It also takes into account the influence of those interacting with the Twitter account. The latest results can be seen

Every November I look at how influential the TUC-affiliated unions are on Twitter (see results for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015). I've been asked to look at Facebook as well, and may well do this soon. I've been testing out some tools for this already. For my annual Twitter analysis, I've used a tool called Klout. Klout considers factors such as the number of followers, tweets, retweets and interactions when calculating the score. The latest results are displayed in the table below: Union Username Klout (out of 100) Notes 1 (1) Unite @unitetheunion 84 2 (2) Equity @EquityUK 70 3 (3) PFA @pfa 69 4

Every November I look at how influential the TUC-affiliated unions are in social media (see results for 2012, 2013 and 2014). Specifically, I look at Twitter, which due to its open nature is the only social media platform that can be fully analysed. It's arguably the most important social media channel for unions as well. One big change this year is that I've used Klout on its own. Klout is a social media analytics tool. Previously I've also used Kred, but that platform can no longer be used to analyse all Twitter accounts. I considered using Topsy instead, but its 'sentiment score' is too

With the UK general election campaign in full swing, what effect will social media have on the outcome? While traditional media battle grounds are still important, the influence of posters, television and especially newspapers have diminished with the rise of the online world. Social media in particular is seen as critical for this election, but just how much sway will it have? The 2008 presidential election in the USA is often cited as the first social media election, but social media has grown exponentially since then. There were 1.8 million tweets in total on the day Barack Obama won in

Since 2012, I’ve carried out annual research to find out which TUC-affiliated unions are the most influential on social media. It’s been a year since the last review, and so I’ve updated the metrics to see what’s changed. This provides unions with an opportunity to monitor their progress over the last 12 months (see the results for 2012 and 2013). I’ve used Twitter for the analysis, as it’s the arguably the key social media platform for unions, and also the most open for analysis. The two main services for measuring the influence of a Twitter account are Kred and Klout. They both have a

Have you ever wanted to get a message across loudly on Twitter or Facebook? Thunderclap is an online tool aimed at activists that can help do just that. It pitches itself as a ‘crowdspeaking’ platform, in a similar vein to ‘crowdfunding’ websites like Kickstarter. Successful campaigns result in the same message being broadcast at the same time across the multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts of the campaign subscribers. It’s being used by a range of people, from activists to companies and even the White House. Unions are starting to use it as well. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has

In 2012 I carried out some research to see which TUC affiliated unions are the most influential in social media. I published the results on my website in a league table. It’s been a year since that first survey, so I've updated the results to see how things have changed, enabling unions to measure their progress over the past year. It’s difficult to measure social media influence. Twitter is arguably the key social media platform for unions, and also the most open for analysis, so this research is based on Twitter alone. There are two main services for measuring the influence of a Twitter

I ran a workshop on digital organising at the recent Prospect Connect Sector Conference and I asked the delegates - union reps in the technology sector - to form into groups and score the online tools we were discussing for effectiveness. I’ve taken the results from the workshop and averaged the scores given by the groups. The highest rated tool was email, with an average score of 8.25 out of 10 amongst the delegates. This was not a surprise, as although email is a comparatively ‘old’ technology, it has some great advantages. In contrast to Facebook and Twitter, almost everyone has an email