There's one thing I've been hearing a lot more frequently from my communication peers: “I hate my Intranet.” “Why?” I’ll ask. “Our site is too limiting. And we can’t do any of the new social media stuff.” To be honest, I’ve had this conversation at least 5 times.
Same situation. Same frustration. Many, many different companies.
Here’s what I think: If you have publishing responsibilities, regardless of which content management tool your company is using, YOU DO HAVE the building blocks essential to making your Intranet engaging and interactive — and that’s got to be half the way there. After all, social media is a concept to be applied, not a technology to be installed. It just requires a modern way of thinking.
Here are the 6 essential Intranet building blocks I think you need…and I bet you most of them already:
1. Ability to determine your own text
2. Ability to create links
3. Ability to link to files
4. Ability to upload images (or maybe a video or two)
5. Access to a Shared File Server
6. Access to survey tool
With these 6 essentials, and the right attitude, you can do a lot.
I call it, "Fake Social Media."
Here's what I mean:
FAKE BLOGS
How to do it: Setup a page on your Intranet site and make it look like a blog as much as you can using graphics and style conventions like date, times, titles. Add a “comments” link after blog posts (which goes to a survey.) As users add "comments" within the survey, paste these back into to your Intranet page.
FAKE WIKIS
How to do it: On your Intranet, link to a page that sits on your Network. Use the Network Folder permissions to determine who can edit (everyone or just a few people). Be sure to type “Wiki” into the title of this page and have some instructions on the top about what a Wiki is and how it should be used.
FAKE RATINGS
How to do it: On intranet pages, let users “rate content” by providing a link to a survey. Be sure to label the survey link “Rate this content” or something similar. If you can, add a second link that says “Read Reviews.”
Sure, these tactics are manual and they may not be embedded within your pages, but it's still interactive.
I could go on and on with examples. But instead, I’ll ask you… have you ever done some Fake Social Media of your own? If so, tell me about it.
By sharing this with you, I am by no means suggesting that having the actual technology wouldn’t be better. Of course it would! But I am saying— no, I am preaching— that while you are waiting for your organization to bring in 2.0 tools, you don’t have to “hate your intranet.” Instead, you can use the tools you have right now. You just need to change your own thinking about how you are using them.
