How to Keep Your SharePoint Intranet Site Engaging.

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Since its inception by Microsoft in 2001, SharePoint has revolutionised collaboration and document management for businesses across various industries. Today, it remains a top solution for enhancing communication and collaboration among employees. However, simply setting up a SharePoint intranet does not guarantee user adoption and engagement. To truly make your SharePoint intranet a valuable tool for your team, you must implement effective strategies to keep it engaging and relevant.

It is crucial to view your intranet as a dynamic and evolving part of your business that requires ongoing investment and attention to remain valuable. To avoid stagnation and ensure continued success, you must regularly review and develop your intranet objectives, ensuring they align with your business goals and overall direction.

As time goes on, you may face challenges such as declining stakeholder engagement or lack of buy-in from key representatives like HR or IT. To overcome these challenges, you need to work closely with your intranet partner and periodically revisit best practices throughout the lifecycle of your intranet.

In close collaboration with your intranet partner, consider the following tips and revisit them periodically throughout the lifecycle of your intranet.

“More than 200,000 organisations and 190 million people have SharePoint for intranets, team sites and content management” – Source.

Update Content Regularly:

Regularly updating content is one of the most important things you can do to keep your SharePoint Intranet engaging. This includes publishing new articles, blog posts, videos, and other content relevant to your employees. You can encourage employees to visit the Intranet on a regular basis by keeping the content fresh and interesting, making it a valuable tool for communication and collaboration.

Personalise the Experience:

Personalising the Intranet experience can help to increase employee participation. You can make the Intranet feel more relevant and valuable to individual employees by tailoring content to their roles, interests, and needs. Personalisation can also assist employees in quickly and easily finding the information they require, reducing frustration and increasing productivity.

Encourage Collaboration:

Another important factor in keeping your SharePoint Intranet interesting is to encourage collaboration. This means making areas for employees to share ideas, ask questions, and collaborate on projects. You can facilitate a sense of community and make employees feel more invested in the organisation’s success by facilitating collaboration.

Gamify the Experience:

Gamification is a powerful participation tool that can be used on your SharePoint Intranet as well. You can encourage employees to explore the Intranet and engage with its content by creating challenges, competitions, and other interactive experiences. This can make learning new skills and keeping up with company news more enjoyable and rewarding.

Provide Training and Support:

When using your Intranet, providing training and support can help employees feel more confident and competent. You can reduce employee frustration and encourage them to fully utilise the Intranet by providing resources such as video tutorials, user guides, and FAQs.

Leverage Media:

Making use of media such as images, videos, and infographics can help to make your SharePoint site more interesting and visually appealing. You can communicate information more effectively and create a more dynamic user experience by using media correctly.

Solicit Feedback and Suggestions:

Asking for employee feedback and suggestions can assist you in identifying areas where the Intranet can be improved. You can improve the user experience and increase participation by listening to your employees’ ideas and concerns.

Highlight Success Stories:

Highlighting success stories and employee accomplishments can aid in the development of a positive recognition culture within the organisation. You can inspire and motivate others to strive for excellence by sharing stories of employee success and highlighting their contributions.

Use Social Features:

The use of social features such as comments, likes, and shares can help to foster a sense of community within your SharePoint Intranet. Allowing employees to interact with one another and with the content can increase engagement and foster a collaborative culture.

Make it Mobile Friendly:

In today’s increasingly mobile workforce, making your Intranet mobile-friendly is critical. By making the Intranet mobile-friendly, you can make it easier for employees to access information and collaborate with one another from anywhere.

Make it Easy to Use:

Making your SharePoint Intranet user-friendly is critical for participation. You can reduce frustration and encourage employees to explore and use the Intranet’s full potential by ensuring that it is intuitive, user-friendly, and well-organised.

Use Visual Elements:

Long blocks of text can be broken up with visual elements such as icons, images, and diagrams to make information more digestible. You can create a more engaging and visually appealing user experience by using visuals to communicate information.

Encourage User-Generated Content:

Another effective way to keep your SharePoint Intranet interactive is to encourage user-generated content. You can foster a sense of ownership and investment in the Intranet by allowing employees to create and share their own content. This can also help to bring to light valuable insights, perspectives, and expertise that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Integrate with Other Tools:

Integrating your SharePoint site with other tools and systems used by employees can increase its value and convenience. Integrating the Intranet with email, calendars, and project management tools, for example, can assist employees in remaining organised and productive.

Celebrate Milestones:

Finally, celebrating anniversaries, employee birthdays, and project completions can help foster a sense of community and positivity within the organisation. You can foster an appreciation culture and motivate employees to strive for excellence by recognising and celebrating accomplishments.

Summary

Maintaining an engaging SharePoint intranet site is crucial for driving collaboration and fostering a positive company culture. It necessitates a multifaceted approach that takes into account the site’s users’ needs and preferences.

There are many strategies that can help to keep users engaged and coming back for more, from ensuring an intuitive and visually appealing user interface to providing personalised content and utilising social features. It is critical to assess user needs on a regular basis, analyse engagement metrics, and adapt the site to better meet these needs.

Finally, an engaging SharePoint intranet site can aid in the development of a sense of community, the streamlining of communication, and the acceleration of productivity within your organisation.

If you are struggling to maintain your SharePoint site or exploring the possibility of introducing an intranet to your organisation, speak to a member of our team today.

Our goal is to provide you with a tailored intranet solution that addresses your current and future needs that delivers measurable results.