West Virginia AFL-CIO

WV AFL CIO Color Image A federation of more than 575 affiliated unions, the West Virginia AFL-CIO serves its nearly 80,000 members through legislative action and community service. Founded in 1957, its size and history combine to make it a steady and familiar voice in West Virginia.

Company Story

In its search for professional website design, the organization contacted Jamie of Bricks Without Straw, and after listening to his pitch, knew it wanted what he had to offer. Secretary-Treasurer Joshua Sword says the West Virginia AFL-CIO was impressed with Jamie’s previous work, his reasonable price, and the ideas that Summers-Brown brought to the table.

Offering Options and Ideas

“Part of the problem that we had is that we were so website illiterate we weren’t even familiar with some of these things (that Jamie suggested). They may just be basic principles of a website, but we weren’t taking advantage of them.” Educating the group on the multitude of options available, Jamie guided the West Virginia AFL-CIO toward design ideas that would allow it to realize far greater benefits from its website and for its members. As Sword says, “(The website) is just another component of an opportunity for us to get our message out there and to be a voice for workers. It is a tool in the tool belt that helps us keep an active presence.”

Social Media Help

Since the website launch, Jamie has worked closely with Stacey Ruckle, Communications Consultant for the WV AFL-CIO, to take that message to social media. Ruckle stated, “I’ve been trying to boost our social media presence. . .Jamie is very attuned to what you can do on the web page and what can be adapted for social media; that’s been very helpful.”

Citing an example, Ruckle shared, “We have something that we post weekly on the website; I get the content to him and he immediately gets it on the website for me. Then he’s put it in a format, and it took a little time and back and forth to develop this, that can easily be posted on Facebook and put out on Twitter.”

The weekly updates have had a very good response, and so have other efforts to increase the group’s social media presence. According to Ruckle, “As far as Facebook goes, we started out with reaching between two hundred and three hundred people. Now, 15 weeks into this, we usually reach over a thousand people on Facebook. And Twitter -- we’re starting to build a following and get retweets.”

Ruckle added, “And he responds very quickly, which is refreshing. It’s been a very good relationship and I’ve been very pleased.”

Mobile Site

Another tool Jamie provided the AFL-CIO is a mobile adaptation of the website. Summers-Brown explains, “We developed a mobile version of the main AFL-CIO site that will render based on the user’s mobile device. Instead of seeing a web site made for a 20” screen, you see one that will work on a screen size as small as 4”.

The AFL-CIO knew that to better reach its members, a mobile-friendly site was a necessity. “It’s been known for some time and Jamie helped us get there,” Sword stated. The mobile site has improved communication with members “exponentially”, and has “helped tremendously” in sharing legislative issues and relaying details of upcoming events. “The greatest benefit has been the increased visibility!” Sword added. The group hopes to add the ability to register and pay for conferences and events to the mobile site, making it even easier for its members to participate.

Unbelievable Response Time

As Sword worked with Bricks Without Straw, he noticed Jamie’s exceptional attention to the needs of the large and influential organization. “The most impressive thing about Jamie is he is very quick to respond. As he was designing, he would ask questions along the way; we would answer them and he would take care of those immediately. When we started finding issues that we wanted to make adjustments to and notified him. . . he was literally contacting or making the change immediately after the request. His response time for requests or inquiries is unbelievable, actually.”

Happy with the end result, Sword commented on the contrast between the former site and the new. “It was an old, outdated site that in functionality just didn’t make sense. Jamie has helped bring that around and now I’d put our website up against anybody’s. We’re very pleased with his service.”

WHAT WE DO FOR YOU

Bricks Without Straw is a digital agency and design agency based in South Charleston, WV United States and Ota, Tokyo, Japan.

We offer a range of web design services including: web development, e-commerce services and email marketing. We also offer a range of graphic design services including logo design and exhibition stands.

We love working with clients of all sizes in a range of industry sectors, creating and implementing inspiring and hard working concepts and campaigns for business-business and business-consumer clients.

Valicia Leary

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Carol Fulks

Patti Hamliton

Bricks Without Straw is bringing our association into the 21st Century! He brings us ideas and innovation for our web site and other tools of technology that help us enhance our image and our message.

Rebecca McPhail

Bill Raney

Jamie is one of the most committed and energetic professionals we have ever worked with over the years. He seems to work all the time with full 24-7 accessibility and immediate response. Bricks Without Straw has raised our collective confidence for maximizing opportunities in today’s world. We simply could not have done it without them.

Jan Vineyard

The demands and responsibilities to our members mandate that the online presence of our associations and our internet capabilities are reliable and seamless. Add creativity to that mix and one gets the complete package with Jamie Summers-Brown and his staff at Bricks without Straw.