Written by Tim Vaughan, Newsweaver
Email, video, enterprise social networks, town hall meetings – internal communicators have never had so many platforms at their disposal than they have today. And right up there is the intranet, still challenging email for the top spot in the armory of communications.
It continues to be one of the most widely used and measured IC channels despite the proliferation of other means of connecting with employees, such as video and ESNs like Yammer and Slack, as well as the recent entrant to the social sphere, Workplace by Facebook.
Newsweaver’s Inside IC: Internal Communications Global Survey 2016 of over 700 IC professionals showed that in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and North America, over 90% used intranets. In terms of channel measurement, the intranet is the single biggest channel measured, at a rate of almost 70% in EMEA and just over 50% in North America.
So, it’s more amazing that such a powerful, widely used and measured internal comms channel is either poorly utilized or under-utilized, usually due to the absence of anything approaching a proper strategy.
When intranet specialist Chris Tubb is asked by organizations what they should measure when it comes to their intranet, his response is to ask to see their intranet strategy.
But he finds that rarely do organizations have one that merits being called a proper strategy.
There is often a lack of understanding about what intranet strategy should look like or how to go about creating one. But, whatever the excuse, operating without a strategy is like accepting a date with failure, and for internal communicators that can be a very expensive date.
For those who would prefer to learn how to create an effective intranet strategy and set the essential foundation for success in their communications, Chris Tubb, in his How to Develop an Effective Strategy paper for Newsweaver, has some very practical advice:
- Assess, analyze and get to really understand your current intranet usage
- Discover how other users and stakeholders currently use the intranet
- Use this discovery process to provide insights into strengths and weaknesses, for future actions
- How to use data to get buy-in from senior leaders
Here’s a link to find out more about How to Develop an Effective Intranet Strategy.