The client instructed Minutiae to conduct extensive market research across diverse sectors in the UK to develop a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and key pain points facing trade unions’ use of mainstream social media, print, and distribution for member communications, organisation, and engagement.

Our research was crucial for understanding how unions interact with their members, identifying limitations, and uncovering vulnerabilities in existing digital solutions.

Based on the results, we were tasked with developing a strategic branding plan and a comprehensive proposal for platform design and development. This included conducting a cost vs ROI analysis to ensure the solution would deliver tangible benefits to unions and their members, as well as outlining a marketing strategy to promote the platform’s adoption.

The goal was to create a platform that would not only address unions’ current needs but also future-proof their operations in the rapidly changing digital space.

In response to the client’s vision and brief, Minutiae proposed the development of an intuitive, robust, and secure social media platform exclusively for trade unions.

Designed to be a one-stop, all-in-one solution, the platform would streamline union activities and facilitate seamless communication, collaboration, and engagement among members at all levels. We proposed the inclusion of a range of features to support the client’s objectives, including hierarchical groups and forums, user profiles with role-based permissions, instant messaging, video conferencing, analytical polls and surveys, and digitised document archives. The platform would be highly customisable, allowing each union to tailor the system to their unique needs and branding.

We prioritised safeguarding and privacy by implementing strict security measures, including end-to-end encryption for all communications and access control through unique login credentials provided by each union’s membership department. No public registration or access, advertisements, or data sharing would be allowed, ensuring the platform’s total privacy and exclusivity for union activities.

Our proposal was designed to eliminate the need for unions to use multiple social media networks and materially reduce the time and cost impacts associated with traditional print and distribution methods, enabling unions to focus more resources on supporting their members.

The final product exceeded our client’s vision and expectations, delivering a secure, intuitive, and highly functional digital platform for trade unions. Available across all digital devices, the platform combines a user-friendly interface with secure, exclusive access via union-controlled login credentials, ensuring private organisation and engagement. Offered as a white-label solution, the platform can be integrated directly into a union’s existing app, further enhancing accessibility and usability.

With customisable settings and styling options, each union can tailor the platform to reflect its unique branding and specific needs. The platform supports unlimited use of all features, is optimised for speed and high performance, and is fully scalable to accommodate high traffic demand. Powerful user analytics provide union committees with insights to evaluate engagement, optimise performance, and improve collective action.

Unions and members can create unlimited hierarchical groups and forums to organise locally, regionally, nationally, by workplace, topic, interest, or socially. Privacy settings ensure that discussions reach the right audience, with video conferencing available by default in every group. Instant messaging, whether in-platform, via email, or by push notification, ensures constant, immediate contact. The platform also includes instant notification of event scheduling and streamlined dissemination of union information.

Centralising digitised union materials in the platform’s archive feature allows unions to reduce or eliminate the costs associated with printed materials, letters, research, campaign resources, journals and magazines, ensuring members always have access to essential information.

Despite its extensive functionality, the platform is priced affordably to allow unions to include it as a member subscription benefit. With a monthly subscription model designed to deliver substantial cost savings, the platform allows unions to invest more in member support, campaigns and collective bargaining. For comparison, our client’s closest competitor charges over 3,000% more, despite offering a significantly reduced feature set.

The result is a powerful, cost-effective, private, and secure platform that is set to transform trade union renewal in the digital age.