Unionlearn, the learning and skills organisation of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has recently launched a new careers area on their website called ‘Careerszone’. The aim is to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ with information and resources on careers. I’ve led on the development of this new facility, which uses official ‘big data’ sources to generate careers data alongside other resources. One of the key tools is a comprehensive careers directory, which has a detailed breakdown of almost 400 occupations as classified by the Office for National Statistics. This includes job descriptions, required

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

Every year, the TUC hosts an Annual Communication Awards ceremony to celebrate some of the great work being done by unions. I always take particular interest in the awards focused on using technology and digital communication. The awards were revamped a couple of years ago, with the new format having a ‘Best membership communication – digital’ category that replaced the previous two digital awards. However, this doesn’t stop technology based communications featuring in some of the other award categories. The winner of the ‘Best membership communication – digital’ award this year went to the

Every June, I update the league table of trade union websites. The 2018 edition can be seen below (Previous results can be seen for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 2012 ). It's important to note that the league table doesn't attempt to review and score the quality of each site directly. Rather, I use industry leading metrics to measure the influence of each site. These metrics look at how many back links a site has across the internet to judge how often the site is being mentioned. The more influential the linking website, the greater the perceived influence of the website. 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

A couple of years ago, I looked at the sizes of the websites of all the TUC affiliated unions, to see how they compared. I’ve found myself coming back to this analysis quite often. Various unions have wanted an idea of how large their website is compared to others, or have wanted to judge how their website has changed since a redesign. As a result, I thought it would be useful to update these metrics. For the sake of this comparison, only pages publically indexed in Google are included. It is impossible to include members’ only pages, so please be aware of this limitation. Also, some pages may

One of the latest frontiers in technology is voice controlled smart assistants. Systems like Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana have been bringing voice controlled commands to mobiles, tablets and desktops over the last few years. However, Amazon raised the stakes by launching the Amazon Echo, a standalone hub designed to allow you to manage your digital life through voice alone. Google have since launched their own voice controlled smart assistant, ‘Google Home’, and Apple have announced that their own offering, the Apple HomePod, will be launched later this year. These voice

It’s time again for the annual trade union website league table. So how have the metrics changed in the last 12 months? (Previous results can be seen at 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012 ). The league table doesn’t judge the quality of the website directly. Instead, it uses leading industry metrics to measure how many times the website is linked to and shared on other websites and social media. The more mentions and links a union’s website gets, the more influential it is considered to be. With a well search engine optimised site, this leads to higher placement in search engine results and more

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

I’ve recently taken on a new role in addition to running the Infobo digital consultancy. I’ve been appointed as the first virtual Chief Information Officer at the Trades Union Congress (TUC). It’s ‘virtual’ as it’s a part time role. I’ll be dedicating a handful of days a month to the role, but it comes at an interesting time, as changes in technology are having a huge impact on organisations. One of the biggest changes in recent years is the rise of the ‘cloud’ and cloud services. The ‘cloud’ may be a buzzword for describing internet hosted applications, but a significant implication of these