It's hard to keep your intranet fresh when it takes days—or even weeks—to track down leads, draft articles and get approvals. The answer is to think out of the box and use social media, both to make your intranet more current and appealing, but also to reduce your workload.

How? Begin by thinking of communication as a collaborative process. Allowing employees to submit or post content online is a great way to generate new, compelling content that employees want. Here are three ways to get started:

	Ask people to submit event photos Instead of writing an article about an event, ask employees to submit their own photos, and you can create a slide show. All you have to do is upload the pictures, write an introduction or a few short captions and post.
	Start a discussion board The first place employees go to for information about their job is their peers. So move the dialogue to your intranet by creating an online discussion board where people can post their questions and get answers from their colleagues.
	Host a video contest Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like a good contest! Invite employees to create their own videos to support a theme or answer a specific question, such as, "What is your team doing to go green?" Then post the top winning videos on your intranet for everyone to see.