A Closer look at NYSNA: Communications

Communications Department Report

commuNIcatIoNs is an organizing tool . In the context of labor organizing, it is a tool to amplify the interests, concerns, and needs of working people . Communications is also a means of highlighting the gap between what employers say and what they do . NYSNA is proud to have a robust communications department which consists of a press secretary, communications manager, graphic designer, interim communications director and communications coordinator . each member of NYSNA’s Communications Department values the sacred responsibility they share in amplifying the voices of healthcare professionals . this past year, the team worked to advance: l Safe Staffing . l Better contracts . l Action on the climate crisis . l Racial justice . l A universal Healthcare System where healthcare is seen as a basic Human

Right . the team employed a host of tactics to further NYSNA’s work, including: l Developing and distributing press releases and press advisories . l publishing the New York Nurse magazine . l Creating logos for NYSNA campaigns and events, including the 2021

Convention . l Investing in paid advertising to detail what was at stake during contract fights . l Developing and deploying graphics, memes, and other content for social media . l organizing press conferences featuring NYSNA members . l Facilitating email and digital outreach .

For instance, in 2021, the department sent close to 1000 e-blasts, including messages to members (such as Weekly updates and the digital version of New

York Nurse), correspondence around legislative and political advocacy, practice alerts and facility updates . l earned media coverage . NYSNA’s communications team landed a series of frontpage stories or in-depth features in 2021 including a March 12 story in Gannett publications titled, “Montefiore expansion into Hudson Valley reinforced racial disparities, NY nurses claim,” a November 15 feature in the New York Daily News titled, “NYC nurses sound the alarm over ‘massive’ staffing shortages at hospitals amid CoVID pandemic, plan protests,” and a November 18 story in the poughkeepsie Journal that ran in Gannett publications across New York, “New York’s nurses have endured the unimaginable . Here’s how they’re still fighting CoVID . ”

Convention 2021 Logo

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NYSNA’s communications team also maintained a strong social media presence in 2021 . In the past year, NYSNA’s posts reached over 600,000 people on Facebook, where we gained over 1 .2k followers in 2021 . NYSNA’s twitter gained over 600 followers in 2021, bringing our total followers to 8,100 . During a series of safe staffing actions throughout New York, over 60 elected officials, candidates, and allied organizations tweeted in support of nurses and the hospital staffing bills . NYSNA’s Instagram page now has 8,089 followers (including 1 .6k new followers in 2021) . the best performing post of the year was NYSNA’s statement on the CDC’s change in quarantine guidelines . the post received more than 5k likes and was shared more than 9 .8k times via IG stories or person-to-person messages .