→ Learn more about SMT’s digital campaign assessments
→ See all of SMT’s upcoming trainings
→ Get coaching and campaign support
→ Get reliable experienced social media staff support (contact info @ socialmovementtechnologies.org)
Office Hours
Have a quick question about something you’re working on? Want feedback about a campaign plan or new tool you’re using? Looking for guidance on tools to meet a specific need? Want to find out if there’s a training or help meet a need, or learn more about the range of SMT union support? Sign up for time during these free office hours (5-person max per hour). Staffed by a member of SMT’s labor movement support team with deep online/offline labor movement experience.
Combining Online and Offline Tactics to Maximize Pressure on Your Target
December 6, 2023. Whether it’s a local school board or a global corporation, we know that for a target to give workers what they need, we have to make it more painful for them not to. In this session we walk through the steps to power map your target to ramp up your campaign strategically where you have the most leverage. Then we use a real example of a union campaign to illustrate a range of online/offline tactics and how they can be used to create “surround sound” around targets and secondary targets so they just want to make it stop. Learn more and register
Storytelling that Moves Us: Make Your Union Irresistible
Starts January 23. People want to be part of something that’s bold, has momentum, and enables people like them to have a voice and get things done. It’s hard to resist jumping on that train. This session covers the key elements of narrative, storytelling and imagery that we must use in our union to build an irresistible labor movement. Lots of strong and weak examples will be discussed along with common pitfalls to avoid and a chance to practice and get individual feedback on your work. Learn more and register
When a Corporation is Our Target: Corporate Campaigning to Win in the Digital Age
Spring 2024. This intensive series is for NGO and union campaigners and organizers up against smaller, or larger national or global corporations. Campaigners from around the world will share examples of what has worked that incorporates a combination of online and offline organizing tactics. We’ll talk strategy, tactics – including interweaving online and offline tactics for maximum impact, useful tech stacks (tool combinations), research requirements, budgeting and lessons learned. We’ll also discuss examples of cross-border solidarity and action, and intersectional opportunities across movements. More info soon. Sign up for updates using the form below.
A.I. for Unions
March 11th. How to use A.I. for the messaging, framing and segmentation we need to build people power and win union campaigns. You’ll learn how to use prompt engineering to generate messages with the right tone, refine your framing techniques and more accurately target your audience. We’ll cover how specific A.I. tools can help us improve internal workflows and processes as unionists, and how to use image generation tools and create effective prompts.
Although A.I. tools are already proving useful in campaigning, we can’t ignore the significant ethical questions that come with using them, or the alarming ways A.I is already being used to manipulate public opinion on a mass scale. This session will predominantly focus on the practical use of these tools. We will briefly discuss the organizing underway to address these issues and to hold A.I. companies accountable for how this technology develops. Learn more and register
Digital Organizing Fundamentals for Unions
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 6 sessions March 19th – April 4th | Plus office hours on Fridays.
This series is for union staff and leaders who are at the beginning of using digital tools and tactics to build the union and engage members. We’ll take you step by step, with hands-on assignments and feedback, and office hours for more guidance. More info soon. Sign up for updates using the form below.
BIPOC Campaign Leadership Fellowship
April 2 – July 2, 2024. Are you a BIPOC organizer, social justice campaigner or staffer looking to deepen your leadership and responsibility in campaigns? This training is for organizers, campaigners, communications staff, unionists, and other staff involved in campaign work. This 3.5 month fellowship will enable participants to become next-level online/offline campaign staff combining time-tested organizing with the latest tools, tactics, and skills, including managerial skills. Learn more and apply
2024 Digital Campaigning Certificate Program – Join waitlist now
April 9 – June 6, 2024. Do you want to ramp up your use of online & offline tools on ambitious campaigns given limited time and resources? Want to make sure you’re not missing out on new developments in digital tools & tactics to support your work? Looking for a community of peers working through the same challenges and opportunities? Join the annual SMT Digital Campaigning Certificate Program.
500+ unions have sent people to SMT trainings or gotten campaign support from SMT.
SMT is rapidly ramping up support and training for unions around the world. Additional training is planned. If there’s anything that you don’t see here that you’d be interested in, contact heather @ socialmovementtechnologies.org.
Testimonials
Very thorough and helpful overview of tools and concepts for effective digital organizing.SMT is the only training I know of that speaks our language of activism and uses the tools we use everyday in the field. They are a go-to resource to help raise the bar for communications in the labor movement. Our local switched CRMs earlier this year and having SMT staff walk through the features and answer questions was extremely helpful, both in problem solving and in providing some ideas in how I can use our CRM as a better organizing tool for our local. If you have any questions about your CRM, it is worth it!A fast paced course that provides a lot of interesting and useful information in a short amount of time.
SMT’s coaching, strategy and implementation support has been invaluable to help us become more effective online. They understand the labor movement, speak organizing, and are cost-effective.We want to be able to be as smart and effective as we can with our limited resources...SMT is a no-brainer.All of SMT training is packed and powerful!I learned really useful tools that are coming in handy in my everyday job.SMT is an amazing resource for starting digital organizing and communications and maintaining a program that engages members and moves them to action. There are a bunch of free and super reasonably priced webinars available so you can jump right in and focus on what you need to improve.The webinars have just been stellar. I’ve learned so much, especially from the Top Tools and Tactics to bump up your organizing game. I used the templates and resources to set up an editorial calendar and to track stats for our new social media channels. It was very easy to take what was presented in the training and apply it to my union immediately.
A comprehensive look at must-have social media tools and techniques to build capacity and power for your union. We were able to effectively put together an action plan and deploy techniques like tweet storms almost as soon as we learned about them.SMT’s staff is friendly, flexible, competent, creative…Efficiently implemented cutting-edge strategies and designed great-looking materials to communicate our message to our members. I’ll come back to SMT in a heartbeat.The IAM's leadership is committed to expanding the union's effective use of social media and online tools in our organizing. As part of that, we're encouraging not only full-time organizers, but also local communicators to enroll in SMT's digital campaigning program.The class was great; a little advanced for me but I learned a lot.I found the Advanced CRM curriculum extremely helpful, in that it deepened my understanding of the capacity of the CRM we use. The practical examples were really helpful. We’ve begun to build some of the best practices from the Advanced CRM curriculum into our planning and internal workflows for 2019.[The Digital Campaigning Certificate Program] is a wonderful course with a great amount of information to get you started on understanding how digital can work for your own organization.SMT helped us build an integrated, strategic approach to a union contract campaign. SMT’s work is sophisticated and flexible–their support was invaluable.Great course, I have learned a lot.I loved this course. It gave me a sense of what's out there. Before this, I didn't know what I didn't know! The session on geofencing blew my mind. These tools are critical for our organizing.Love it!” (mobile optimization of TheStand.org)We hired SMT to lead a discussion about online strategy with some of our union’s staff. It rekindled my desire and commitment to using emerging technologies in my organizing!We’ve encouraged someone from every local to attend SMT’s program...Any successful campaign we have - organizing, bargaining or movement building - has to include social media as a key component.
