Most respondents (87%) said they visited the site mainly to get news updates. Salary scales and other information on terms and conditions of employment also scored highly at 56%.

Many users (59%) said they visited the site on a monthly basis, while 39% said they visited weekly. Comments from respondents suggest that the fortnightly e-bulletin, social media links and branch correspondence drive most  visits to the site, and that most visitors are specifically interested in their own sector of work.

Haddington Road information was also valued highly. Analysis of the traffic to the site suggests that the Haddington Road information is also popular beyond the union’s membership, with over 70,000 unique users seeking information on the HRA last year.

Some respondents suggested we include more sectoral stories, and stories about individual members. A few also suggested the inclusion of a discussion forum for members.

The website’s design also scored well, with 64% of respondents giving it the thumbs-up. The content of the site was rated highly by 74% of respondents. Navigation of the site was described as ‘easy’ by 60% of respondents, although 28% said some information was hard to find.

 Social media growth

Meanwhile, there has been significantly more activity around IMPACT’s social media presence – on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter – in the past year.

Recent disputes in Aer Lingus and South Dublin County Council prompted many messages of solidarity to members involved, with lots of material shared and ‘liked’ across all platforms.

Facebook’s measurement of ‘reach’ (the number of people who see IMPACT content in their Facebook timelines) shows many tens of thousands of people looking at IMPACT content during these disputes.

You can 'like' IMPACT on Facebook, follow on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel by following the links at the top right corner of this e-bulletin.