What do corporations get that unions don't?
That in the age of the Internet, you need to directly engage your stakeholders, that's what.
And that's why the largest industrial trade association, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), has a blog and unions and union leaders are barely on the map.
Imagine you're a worker and you send an e-mail to the AFL-CIO through the form on their site. Then you get this message back: "Although we cannot respond to every submission, we read and consider all comments." Yeah, right, you think.
Now imagine you go to NAM's site and post a question to their blog and get a response within a few hours.
These aren't scenarios I've made up. I've actually sent e-mails to the AFL-CIO and got the distinct impression they got sucked into a black hole, never to be answered. I have also posted a comment on NAM's blog and sure enough, Pat Cleary (supposedly), a Senior Vice President from NAM, posted a response.
Please, someone e-mail this story to someone at the AFL-CIO to let them...oh wait, nevermind.
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Interesting related article
Here's an interesting article about how corporations who sell banal consumer products even get the importance of the Internet and how to get the most from it: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/business/media/01adco.html? (user registration required to view the article.)
From the article: "Marketers say the Internet has also made interactive campaigns easier to conduct.
'This comes with the inherent declining power of traditional media advertising,' said Clive Chajet, chairman of Chajet Consultancy, a brand consulting firm in New York."