Solidarity Sunday: The Love/Hate Relationship with Organizing
The New Year brings out love/hate. We love the opportunity the new year brings, but we hate to see the holiday season go. We love to get back to it, but we hate to see work that piled up over the break.
As we look forward to our organizing strategy in the new year, it's important to remember this:
People love being entertained.
But they hate being annoyed.
People love being engaged.
But they hate being interrupted.
People love to be educated.
But they hate being manipulated.
People love taking action.
But they hate being pushed.
If we're going to have conversations with people who ultimately end up as dues-paying members of our local, we're going to have to pay attention to what people love, and what they hate. We can then develop a messaging strategy that takes advantage of this.
In a polarized low-trust environment, walking onto a jobsite and interrupting their workflow while disturbing the employees can be annoying. When we confront others, their natural defenses are up. So let's take advantage and build a strategy that brings them to us, by catering to what we know they already love:
Entertain them - Capture their attention in a meaningful way before they need you. We use video and audio for our local union clients to do this. Utilize media where they naturally spend a lot of time. If we can entertain them, make them smile, make them laugh, we create the opportunity for a deeper conversation down the line.
Engage them - Telling isn't selling. Get them to see themselves in what your local union does and what your local stands for. What authentic stories can we tell that will allow others to see themselves in our story? Instead of telling them what we do, show them who we are in a way that they can see themselves in what we do. Your members have great stories…find them, capture them, publish them, share them.
Educate them - Provide the details necessary to validate their decision as transparently as possible. On your website, on your social media channels, in your literature, be as simple and straight-forward as possible. We all have an internal BS meter and if we're anything but completely transparent, we will disrupt any trust we've built.
Activate them - Make it easy to get and stay in touch with you. Show them the path of least resistance. How can we make it easier for them to join our ranks? Provide multiple pathways through QR codes, active links, contact forms. Follow up immediately on questions, comments, phone calls, voicemails. At the point when they've finally decided to make a change in their life and reach out to you, someone needs to be there.
The goal is to develop a marketing system that allows your local to self-select who best fits your culture rather than taking anyone just to fill a job call. If this seems overwhelming, don't worry, we can help you think it through and put together a plan for you. Contact us.