In general, we still prefer to use
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:52 am
Finally, the time has come. You are going to start setting up a social intranet. You have already completed all the previous steps: you have determined the goals, you have mapped out the target groups, the supplier/software has been chosen and the project team has been put together. How do you now deal with that enormous amount of content from the old intranet?
And most importantly: where do you start? In this article I will delve deeper into the design and setup of a social intranet , with a focus on the content and team composition. That is fundamentally different from the design and setup of a traditional intranet. Time for action!
Different types of content on a social intranet
On a social intranet you have to deal with different types of content. Generally you can divide the content into three types.
1. Managed content
This is often corporate content that a department such as Communications or HR manages from a Content Management System (CMS), such as organizational news, process information or facility information. Employees can respond to this content, but cannot place, change or delete the content themselves. Compared to a traditional intranet, the amount of managed content on a social intranet will be a lot lower.
2. User generated content
This concerns content that originates from dialogues and publications of employees themselves, such as microblogs and interactive blog pages. Employees can place, change and delete this content themselves.
3. Automated content
Automated content comes from external applications. Think of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that show how a team or organization is performing, schedules and task lists (from, for example, case systems).
It is good to investigate where combinations of content types are possible and where they enrich each other. The most obvious example is the possibility to respond to news items and to 'like' them, but you can also think of the possibility to ask questions under manuals or protocols.
Top-down and bottom-up
There are several ways to determine the content structure for a social intranet. The choices you make here are important, because you largely determine which part of the intranet is created top-down and which part is created bottom-up. Furthermore, a social intranet offers you the possibility to create content in teams. For example, the ICT department can make manuals or instructions available to the organization by sharing them in their own team.
a traditional navigation structure to some extent, in order to unlock content in particular, where it is important for employees to be certain that they are looking at 'the absolute truth'. Think of HR information or information about protocols and work instructions, for example.
Tags
Because information can become somewhat scattered in this way, it can austria mobile phone number list be smart to use tags as an additional search and navigation tool. With the help of tags, you can categorize content. If you want to use tagging as a navigation structure, it is important to think in advance about a good thesaurus (general word list) that is leading when tagging content. In practice, this means that employees cannot create tags themselves, but that they have to select tags from a predetermined list.
Products and services catalogue
Within many organizations we see that facility information is bundled under one central product and service catalog using tags. In this way, the end user does not have to figure out under which department he should look for which regulation.
Sample Products and Services Catalog
Sample Products and Services Catalog – click for larger view.
Documents
The goal of your new social intranet is for it to become the place for employees to share information, often in the form of documents, with each other. Often one of the goals is to have the intranet replace the existing X, Y or Z drive. In addition to these network drives, there are often more systems and locations where documents are stored. Think of a Microsoft SharePoint environment.
And most importantly: where do you start? In this article I will delve deeper into the design and setup of a social intranet , with a focus on the content and team composition. That is fundamentally different from the design and setup of a traditional intranet. Time for action!
Different types of content on a social intranet
On a social intranet you have to deal with different types of content. Generally you can divide the content into three types.
1. Managed content
This is often corporate content that a department such as Communications or HR manages from a Content Management System (CMS), such as organizational news, process information or facility information. Employees can respond to this content, but cannot place, change or delete the content themselves. Compared to a traditional intranet, the amount of managed content on a social intranet will be a lot lower.
2. User generated content
This concerns content that originates from dialogues and publications of employees themselves, such as microblogs and interactive blog pages. Employees can place, change and delete this content themselves.
3. Automated content
Automated content comes from external applications. Think of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that show how a team or organization is performing, schedules and task lists (from, for example, case systems).
It is good to investigate where combinations of content types are possible and where they enrich each other. The most obvious example is the possibility to respond to news items and to 'like' them, but you can also think of the possibility to ask questions under manuals or protocols.
Top-down and bottom-up
There are several ways to determine the content structure for a social intranet. The choices you make here are important, because you largely determine which part of the intranet is created top-down and which part is created bottom-up. Furthermore, a social intranet offers you the possibility to create content in teams. For example, the ICT department can make manuals or instructions available to the organization by sharing them in their own team.
a traditional navigation structure to some extent, in order to unlock content in particular, where it is important for employees to be certain that they are looking at 'the absolute truth'. Think of HR information or information about protocols and work instructions, for example.
Tags
Because information can become somewhat scattered in this way, it can austria mobile phone number list be smart to use tags as an additional search and navigation tool. With the help of tags, you can categorize content. If you want to use tagging as a navigation structure, it is important to think in advance about a good thesaurus (general word list) that is leading when tagging content. In practice, this means that employees cannot create tags themselves, but that they have to select tags from a predetermined list.
Products and services catalogue
Within many organizations we see that facility information is bundled under one central product and service catalog using tags. In this way, the end user does not have to figure out under which department he should look for which regulation.
Sample Products and Services Catalog
Sample Products and Services Catalog – click for larger view.
Documents
The goal of your new social intranet is for it to become the place for employees to share information, often in the form of documents, with each other. Often one of the goals is to have the intranet replace the existing X, Y or Z drive. In addition to these network drives, there are often more systems and locations where documents are stored. Think of a Microsoft SharePoint environment.