Large companies with thousands of employees depend on their intranets as a critical internal communications medium. As intranet design continues to evolve, companies are also applying internal marketing to better engage employees and promote intranet usage. For example:
- More employee involvement in improving intranet design and usage via research and beta testing.
- More social networking to better connect work groups and encourage individual employee participation in shared discussions and contributing content. Also CEO and executive blogs are being positioned to make senior management more approachable and encourage more employee dialog with them.
- Better introduction and promotion of redesigned intranets to increase employee usage via cafeteria demos and road shows, IT expos, beta testers as site ambassadors, and internal commercials featuring employee users.
Source: Ten Best Intranets of 2010 by Jakob Nielsen. (Special shout-out to Bob Johnson’s Higher Education Marketing Newsletter where I found this intranet article.)