Archive for the ‘Best Practices’ Category
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
I am a Chris Brogan fan. If you are interested, check out his web site at www.chrisbrogan.com. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies. His blog is a goldmine of short, static bursts loaded with value-add.
Several months ago he wrote a blog post on “How to Grow Traffic to Your Blog”. While the ideas are not directly related to an intranet, the concepts can be put towards how you blog to employees.
The link to the original post is below, but here a few points to ponder next time you gear up to blog on your intranet, in Chris’ own words:
- Great Titles Help
“The first few seconds of someone’s attention are the hardest to pass. If you have a lame blog post title, no one is going to want to read the post. For whatever reason, we tend to react to ‘how to,’ and we react to ‘7 great,’ we react to all kinds of things.
Go to the grocery store, buy some ladies’ magazines like Cosmopolitan, and learn how THEY write headlines on the front page.”
- Graphics Don’t Hurt
“This entire series (and most of my blog posts) use graphics to catch your eye. It’s an easy way to get one’s attention. Screen captures help. Video helps.”
- Brevity Is the Game
“Now that we’ve got a decent title, decent graphics, let’s be quick about your content. People don’t have all day to read. If you can keep your posts between 250-500 words, that’s in alignment with most people’s attention spans.”
- Consistency
“This is one of those points where people disagree. I blog daily. Truth be told, I’m up to 2x a day most days. Why? Because the more I blog, the more people subscribe … That said, no matter which frequency you’ve chosen, stick to it”
- Market Your Blog
“Often times, we sit around inside the fishbowl of social media and hope people from outside will find us. Here’s a hint: the people you need are out there wondering what they can do to learn more about the thing you’re talking about”
Final Thoughts
“I’m a big fan of the basics: write about what they need, make sure they see that you wrote about it, make it easy to carry on the relationship, make it easy for them to promote you to others. Seems like a simple formula, and yet, we go through all kinds of hoops to come up with trickier methods. Try this one first. What do you say?”
How to Grow Traffic to Your Blog
Subscribe to Chris Brogan’s Blog
Tags: Blogs, internal communication, Intranet Success, Intranet tips
Posted in Best Practices | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
One question that everyone seemed to have in common at the 16th Intranet for Corporate Communications course was “how do I increase employee buy-in on my intranet.” Communicators today have learned that the old adage “if you build it, they will come” does not hold true for intranets.
Increasing Employee Engagement:
I think Robin Farr put it best when she stated that “an intranet should be a conversation; even better a dialogue; better than that, a community.” There are some simple tactics that you can implement to encourage employee engagement and build community on your site.
- Create ways for employees to provide feedback about the intranet. Remember that your site is only as good as the feedback you get
- Allow users to comment and rate site content. This gives users a voice and can help with content development and revision
- Make sure that you are responsive to the feedback you receive
- Push content out to end users by way of a weekly newsletter that summarizes the news from the week with links back to your site. Content can also be pushed to users through auto-generated alerts when new content is added to certain areas of the site
- Allow users to personalize their intranet experience through personal bookmarks and building their own homepage so they can access the information that is important to them quickly and efficiently
A lot of organizations are wary about enabling social tools on their intranet however applications such as blogs, discussion forums and suggestion boxes have the potential to drive organizational change. A social intranet is not just about the tools and technology you provide but about empowering users and creating communities
There was an abundance of great information that was shared by the presenters and by all the course attendees; however I think the point that all of the above tips and tricks boil down to is that any decisions you make about your intranet should benefit your employees and help to achieve your business goals.
What are some of the tips that you recommend for building a great intranet?
Previously: User-centric Design and Writing for the Intranet
Tags: best practices, Employee Communication, internal communication, intranet ROI, Intranet Success, Intranet tips, manager buy-in
Posted in Best Practices | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Building a successful intranet is not just about designing an effective information architecture for your site. Another recurring theme that stood out across the presentations and intranet examples that I saw at the Intranets for Corporate Communications Course was the importance of developing content specifically for the web.
Writing for the Intranet:
The content that gets posted on your site can greatly affect users’ perceptions of the intranet and can also affect intranet buy-in. People consume information online differently than they do in print so it is important to keep the following points in mind when developing content for your intranet:
- Tone matters! Try a casual, light-hearted, conversational voice when writing content for your site
- Drop the corporate speak and use plain language in your intranet content. Employees will find it easier to quickly extract the information they need if you keep it simple
- Remember that people scan, rather than read, online. Put important information at the top of the page and at the start of sentences. Use the classic ‘F’ pattern to layout content on intranet pages
- Develop a regular publishing schedule for intranet content. Also make sure that content gets reviewed frequently so that information can be kept up to date and relevant
- Teach your content contributors how to develop content that is appropriate for the intranet. Educate them about publishing standards, guidelines and best practices
- Use narrative for your intranet content. Story-telling is a great way to draw people in
- Provide high-quality content that is free of errors (factual or grammatical)
Above all, include content on the site that employees are interested in. Highlighting employee achievements, featuring employee interviews and photos of coworkers or company events are all examples of content that will help draw readers to your intranet.
Up next: Increasing Employee Engagement
Previously: User-Centric Design
Tags: best practices, internal communication, intranet ROI, Intranet Success
Posted in Best Practices | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 5th, 2010
As I mentioned in my previous post, last week I attended the 16th Intranets for Corporate Communications Course held in Vancouver, BC. If you are responsible for the intranet within your organization, I highly recommend this course put on by Federated Press to help you understand how to build a better intranet, maximize the impact of your site and get buy-in from senior management for your intranet project.
There were a total of 10 presentations during the 2-day course and we saw many different examples of intranet sites. Although the topic of each presentation varied, I noticed a few recurring themes. If the intranet is your baby, follow this blog series over the next few days to learn tips and tricks to building a more effective intranet.
User-Centric Design:
A successful intranet will balance the needs of the organization with the needs of the employees. To design a successful intranet you need to consider the information the organization wants to convey to employees and think about how your intranet can help your employees achieve their daily tasks and job-based goals.
- Involve users in the design of your intranet. Conduct polls and focus groups to find out what the real needs vs. the wants are on your site
- Build a prototype for your intranet without any graphical elements. This lets you and your team focus on making the information architecture and navigation as clear as possible
- Use plain language for labels on your site so that employees can easily tell which areas of the site contains the information they’re looking for
- Allow users to test your site design before going live with a re-design. Select a group of employees and instruct them to find specific information on the site. Record the screen to see how they navigate around the site and gather feedback from them
Your intranet site does not have to look like a public website, but remember that employees bring their expectations from the internet onto the intranet. You need to take these expectations into consideration with it comes to designing your intranet.
Up next: Writing for the Intranet and Increasing Employee Engagement
If you’d like to check out the Twitter stream from the conference you can do so at: http://bit.ly/9mAsvu.
Tags: best practices, Intranet Design, intranet ROI, Intranet Success, Intranet tips
Posted in Best Practices | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
 Hey folks. Not all of you know me, but those that do often tag me as the company know-it-all. I like to call myself the Community Manager, but most of you know me as the Intranet. Like a lot of you, I have a few secrets to ensuring I am a successful and productive resource. While I appreciate whenever you throw money my way, in reality you can’t buy me happiness. So before you break open the corporate wallet, take note of my 3 triggers to good health and a happy intranet.
1. Stop the noise
Do you every find yourself wondering how did life get so complicated? Me too. Sometimes my head is so cluttered with redundant noise I can’t think straight. I am pulled this way and that. There is no cohesion or consistency anymore and I’m not performing very well. So please stop the noise and find a way to simplify so that I can do my job better.
2. Trim the fat
We all know diet pills don’t work. You can get me a whole new wardrobe, dress me up with new designs, but that is just a quick fix. I’ll feel good for a while, but then the bloat will creep up and I’ll be back to looking like a 300 pound gorilla. As far as I am concerned, good health means staying lean and trim. Portion control.
3. Make friends
I might be a work-horse and I try very hard to deliver, but sometimes I want to be funny and engaging too. I often think about what it takes to be a good friend. Similar interests, good conversation, showing I care about you and your needs. Then share the wealth. How good does it feel when you help a friend by introducing them to someone who can benefit them? I want to be that kind of friend and to be a bridge for my fellow employees to connect and learn about each other. I don’t need a lot of fancy tools; I just need my co-workers to get involved.
I know that not all intranets are alike, but these are my 3 triggers to a happy intranet. Figure out how to make it happen and I’ll work my butt off to show you it wasn’t a waste of time.
Yours truly,
The Intranet
Posted in Best Practices | 2 Comments »
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