It’s tempting to put everything and anything in your intranet. After all, if it doesn’t belong on the website, there’s only one place it could go, right?
Wrong. An intranet, like your external website, has a very specific audience and purpose. But it’s easy to fall into the trap of having your intranet be an online filing cabinet, where every department stores every bit of information.
To make sure your intranet stays valuable, here are a few tips to guide you when building or redesigning your intranet.
- Analyze the value of your content: Is the content on your intranet easy to find? Are you keeping decades old meeting minutes on your intranet? Think about the ROT approach to auditing your content. Is it redundant, outdated or trivial? If it’s one or more of those things, it’s time to find a home elsewhere than your intranet.
- Question what might be missing: You might throw out a lot of pages when doing a content audit, but you might also find content gaps. How are your employees using the intranet today? Common answers might be training, emergency preparedness, policy updates, and more. Are these items clearly labeled on your intranet, and is the information useful?
- Ask your audience: When thinking about how to organize your content assets, talking to your employees, executives and administrative teams is a great place to start. How are different groups using the intranet today, and what content matters most to them? Gathering input from your internal stakeholders with online surveys or face-to-face interviews is a great way to get this information.
- Write better, more engaging content: Great content is definitely important for your external website but you also need to ensure your employees are engaged with your intranet by making sure the content speaks to them. The same rules apply: Break up long text, consider bulleted lists to get points across, and if there’s an action to be taken, make sure it’s clear on the page.
- Integrate images and multimedia: To boost engagement on your intranet, consider adding images and videos of your organization and employees on relevant pages. Whether it’s a page about a wellness initiative, or information about patient care, images, videos and media can help strengthen the page purpose and message.
Of course, making your intranet responsive for all devices is always a plus, too. With more than 60% of American adults owning smart phones, it’s a great chance to ask your employees how a responsive intranet might help them when they’re working remotely or on the go.
To ensure you’re keeping track of your intranet’s use, add Google Analytics tracking code if possible. You’ll be able to track device usage, duration, events and engagement. Understanding how your employees are using the intranet gives you great insights as you plan improvements for the future.
If you’re thinking about taking your intranet to the next level, Geonetric can help. From content strategy to design, you’ll have an expert team to help you create an intranet that’s both engaging and informative. Let’s talk about the future of your organization’s intranet.