SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE – CWU FACEBOOK GROUP#thecwu

SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE – CWU FACEBOOK GROUP
 

Dear colleagues,
Over the last six months, we have made significant strides in the CWUs presence on various social media platforms. We have made some excellent, high profile contacts as well as raising the unions’ profile.
In addition to this, we have held several online Q&A sessions, with the latest being viewed ‘live’ by over 7,000 CWU members. We are committed to continuing to better our online performance and more details on this will be shared in the coming months.
The purpose of this LTB is to inform Branches that we have decided to close the National CWU Facebook Group. Discussions on this have taken place across many months with presentations being made to the NEC, our Conference Fringe meeting and several regional and local forums.
This has not been a simple decision because clearly, the group has a significant following. On balance, though, it is, without doubt, the right thing to do for the following reasons;
The culture of the group does not reflect the values of our Trade Union. Several times, posts have been aggressive, contained foul language and led to complaints from members.

Employers have the opportunity to view online pages and members are putting themselves in a very dangerous position with some of the posts that have been made on the group.

The CWU cannot get any vital messages across in a sea of inappropriate posts, images and videos – this stops the union communicating with our members.

The group can also be viewed by media and the public – with this in mind, it is vital that we present a professional image.

This is in no way about shutting down debate. The new CWU Facebook page allows debate but it will be moderated, simply to remove foul and abusive language alongside any totally irrelevant, off topic posts.
The aim is to fully close the Facebook Group by September with the time between now and then being used to migrate members to the new page.
 
Branches are encouraged to share the following link to our new page with all members. https://www.facebook.com/ThecommunicationsUnion
Once we have all of our social media strands up and running then the debate can start about driving our key messages back to where they really matter – the workplace.
Any enquiries to this LTB should be directed to Marcia Murray mmurray@cwu.org
 
Kind regards
 
Chris Webb
Head of Communications, Engagement and Media
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 405-16 – Social Media Update – CWU Facebook Group