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 different approach, so I’ve taken an average score weighted equally between these two services. Both services look at indicators such as the growth in followers, retweets and the amount of ‘favourited’ tweets, etc.
| Union | Username | Klout (out of 100) | Kred influence (out of 1000) | Average (out of 100) | Notes | |
| 1 (1) | Unite | @unitetheunion | 84 | 953 | 89.65 | |
| 2 (2) | UNISON | @unisontweets | 66 | 932 | 79.6 | |
| 3 (3) | PCS | @pcs_union | 65 | 924 | 78.7 | |
| 4 (4) | PFA | @pfa | 62 | 925 | 77.25 | |
| 5 (5) | Equity | @EquityUK | 66 | 859 | 75.95 | |
| 6 (7) | FBU | @fbunational | 65 | Privacy settings do not allow Kred access | – | Estimated position based on Klout score |
| 7 (7) | NUT | @NUTonline | 62 | Privacy settings do not allow Kred access | – | Estimated position based on Klout score |
| 8 (6) | UCU | @ucu | 61 | 869 | 73.95 | |
| 9 (13) | Chartered Society of Physiotherapy | @thecsp | 61 | 842 | 72.6 | |
| 10 (10) | NUJ | @NUJofficial | 61 | 827 | 71.85 | |
| 11 (15) | RMT | @RMTunion | 57 | 848 | 70.9 | |
| 12 (17) | BECTU | @bectu | 60 | 799 | 69.95 | |
| 13 (16) | BDA | @BrDieteticAssoc | 59 | 798 | 69.4 | |
| 14 (12) | Musicians’ Union | @WeAreTheMU | 58 | 798 | 68.9 | |
| 15 (18) | ATL | @ATLUnion | 60 | 777 | 68.85 | |
| 16 (10) | NASUWT | @NASUWT | 55 | 799 | 67.45 | |
| 17 (14) | The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain | @TheWritersGuild | 55 | 783 | 66.65 | Tied for 17th place. |
| 17 (20) | BALPA | @BALPApilots | 59 | 743 | 66.65 | Tied for 17th place. |
| 19 (30) | Society of Radiographers | @SCoRMembers | 56 | 771 | 66.55 | |
| 20 (19) | BFAWU | @IanBFAWU | 54 | 786 | 66.3 | |
| 21 (9) | CWU | @CWUnews | 53 | 792 | 66.1 | |
| 22 (31) | USDAW | @UsdawUnion | 55 | 768 | 65.9 | |
| 23 (21) | GMB | @GMB_union | 53 | 783 | 65.65 | Tied for 23rd place. |
| 23 (25) | TSSA | @TSSAunion | 53 | 783 | 65.65 | Tied for 23rd place. |
| 25 (-) | NAHT | @NAHTnews | 53 | 756 | 64.3 | |
| 26 (23) | Prospect | @ProspectUnion | 51 | 770 | 64 | |
| 27 (22) | Community | @CommunityUnion | 51 | 765 | 63.75 | |
| 28 (26) | AFA CWA | @afa_cwa | 54 | 728 | 63.4 | |
| 29 (24) | ASLEF | @ASLEFunion | 50 | 757 | 62.85 | |
| 30 (27) | NAPO | @Napo_News | 48 | 765 | 62.25 | |
| 31 (30) | Nautilus Intl | @nautilusint | 50 | 732 | 61.6 | |
| 32 (40) | UCATT | @UCATTunion | 50 | 726 | 61.3 | |
| 33 (28) | EIS | @EISUnion | 47 | 749 | 60.95 | |
| 34 (32) | Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists | @SCP_PodiatryUK | 47 | 694 | 58.2 | |
| 35 (34) | FDA | @FDA_union | 46 | 684 | 57.2 | |
| 36 (33) | Accord | @GedNichols | 43 | 694 | 56.2 | Closest to an official account. |
| 37 (35) | UCAC | @AthrawonCymru | 43 | 669 | 54.95 | |
| 38 (36) | AEP | @katefallonaep | 38 | 615 | 49.75 | Closest to an official account. |
| 39 (37) | BIOS | @BIOS59799033 | 35 | 641 | 49.55 | |
| 40 (38) | Unity | @UnityUnion | 24 | 618 | 42.9 | |
| 41 (39) | NACO | @NACOtradeunion | 28 | 558 | 41.9 | |
| 42 (43) | NGSU | @TimPoil | 22 | 350 | 28.5 | Closest to an official account. |
| 43 (42) | NASS | @NASSnewsinfo | 15 | 387 | 26.85 | |
| 44 (-) | Aegis | @aegisunionlearn | 17 | 311 | 24.05 | Closest to an official account. |
| 45 (-) | URTU | @URTUonline | 0 (Not used recently enough to score) | 449 | 22.45 | |
| – | Advance | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | BACM-TEAM | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | BSU | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | HCSA | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | NACODS | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | NUM | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | POA | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | SURGE | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | OURS | No Twitter account | ||||
| – | YISA | No Twitter account |
Sources: Klout.com & Kred.com, November 5th 2014.
There hasn’t been much change at the top, with all of the top 5 still holding the same positions as last year. Unite score the highest again, followed by UNISON, PCS, PFA and Equity.
The FBU, NUT, UCU, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and NUJ make up the rest of the ten most influential unions on Twitter.
Biggest risers
| Union | Positions moved up |
| Society of Radiographers | 11 |
| USDAW | 9 |
| UCATT | 8 |
| BECTU | 5 |
| Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, RMT | 4 |
The biggest risers this year are the Society of Radiographers, moving up 11 places to 19th. USDAW moved up 9 places to 22nd while UCATT went up 8 places to 32nd.
The CWU suffers the largest fall, going down 12 places to 21st. The NASUWT fall 6 places to 16th and ASLEF, Community and EIS each fall 5 places.
The NAHT are a new entry in the list, having recently become TUC-affiliated, and they come in at 25th.
Biggest falls
| Union | Positions moved down |
| CWU | 12 |
| NASUWT | 6 |
| ASLEF, Community, EIS | 5 |
Last year there was a general increase in the metrics all-round. This seems less obvious this time. Also, no new accounts have been opened up in the last 12 months. This would suggest the way unions are using Twitter is maturing, with most accounts now being updated frequently.
Unions are often criticised for not using technology well, but in general these metrics are impressive. Maybe it’s because of the nature of the technology, but Twitter is something unions do actually do very well. Unite’s score in particular is impressive.
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