July 28, 2008

Six ideas to rev up your intranet

When we talk with employees about communication, it’s one of the most common complaints we hear: Our intranet needs improvement. Employees have grown accustomed to sleek, structured, information-rich external Web sites and too often their company’s unorganized, wordy and unsearchable sites don’t measure up. Fortunately, there are ways to bring your intranet up to snuff. Here are some tips:

1. Make your content user-focused
Too often information on the intranet isn’t relevant to employees. Write content with your employees in mind.
• Create content that helps employees solve problems.
• Write articles that are timely and relevant.
• Be entertaining and compelling.


2. Ensure content is timely
Employees are used to external news sites that update constantly throughout the day.
• Update content daily.
• Leverage external news feeds, including live stock quotes or weather updates, to keep content fresh.


3. Cut copy and increase visuals
Corporate sites still use far too many words. As a rule, people don’t read online, they skim. Thus, long copy is only going to frustrate users.
• Keep headlines short and informative (under 12 words).
• Limit web articles to less than 500 words (300 is better).
• Use bullets, subheads and sidebars to make copy easy to scan.
• Better yet, use a chart, graph or photos to tell a story with even fewer words.


4. Increase interactivity
Employees like to get involved (consider that Facebook has more than 90 million users). Find ways for employees to interact with your intranet.
• Solicit employees’ feedback or questions.
• Post polls or allow users to rate content.
• Build online communities or wikis that allow employees to share best practices and connect with colleagues.


5. Give employees control
One of the best ways to engage employees in your intranet is to create a portal that allows for personalization and customization of content. Allow employees to:
• Prioritize how information appears on the page.
• Pull information from preferred vehicles or news sources.
• Set up shortcuts to easily get to the pages or sites they use the most.
• Customize color schemes.


6. Maximize your search function
Employees get frustrated when they can’t find what they’re looking for on the intranet. Google is the benchmark for all search engines.
• Talk with IT to find out how your intranet’s search engine works.
• Maximize the technology available to you.
• Use descriptive words in headers or keyword tags for your pages to facilitate effective searching.