The International Brotherhood of electrical workers is the oldest electrical union in North America, and was formed 1891 by ten men dedicated to improving the lives of all electrical workers. From the start, its objective has been to build a strong and effective union by increasing unity among workers throughout the electrical and related industries. IBEW 254 is made up of ten union units located at various locations throughout the province of Alberta.
Overview
As a democratic organization, the IBEW’s continued effectiveness depends upon the active participation of its members. In order to capture the attention of its target audience, the IBEW needed to transition its website into an interactive resource center; it required a dynamic web presence that was user-friendly, interactive, and resourceful. The website needed to accurately portray the image of a professional organization and more specifically, the site needed to allow for communication between visitors to the site and the IBEW as well as accommodate and engage its various member demographics.
The Challenge
Evolving IBEW’s website into its primary point of communication required a balance between functional capabilities and information architecture. Because there was no existing web presence with a regular audience, JOI Media had to completely understand IBEW’s online objectives and to develop the necessary tools that the users would find helpful and informative. The website required pertinent, regularly updated content to attract users to the website repeatedly.
The Solution
After evaluating the project scope, JOI Media focused its efforts developing the most compatible information architecture structure to address the IBEW’s needs. Current news announcements and an upcoming meetings schedule were displayed prominently on the homepage for optimal visibility.
We utilized a number of applications to fully engage IBEW’s target audience including:
- A resource center that offers easy access to a number of important documents for IBEW’s members including The Employment Standards Code, The Labor Relations Code, as well a number of collective bargaining agreements, and job postings.
- A comprehensive photo gallery to foster a sense of community between IBEW members. The photo gallery allows the IBEW to upload photos and create/delete photo albums.
In order to measure the success of the new website, JOI Media installed a web traffic analytics solution that gives IBEW rich insights into its website traffic and typical navigation patterns by visitors to the website. We also utilized its knowledge in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to aid in increasing the visibility of the IBEW’s website and the services it has to offer.
Results
JOI Media created a website that is now the primary source for union information. The website is easy to navigate, reflects the IBEW’s brand, and is designed to allow for the expansion of the current scope of the website. The IBEW also entered a monthly contractual agreement with JOI Media to provide continual website design services for ongoing refreshment to the “look and feel” as well as further expansion of the site. JOI Media will work closely with IBEW employees assigned to maintain the development process with technical and content support as required.
Post-Launch Statistics
Within 30 days of launching IBEW’s new website, the organization added 100 new members to its steady 1,000 member base, an increase of ~10%.
Over this same period the website received:
- 1,400 website visitors, an increase of +250%
- 348 returning visitors, an increase of +325%
- An average daily traffic increase of +200%
- +7,300 webpage views
- An average viewing time of 5.2 minutes, an increase of +480%
- Direct traffic accounted for +19% of visitors
- Search engine queries accounted for +34% of visitors
- Referred website accounted for +28% of visitors
