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Creating intranet content: a guide for everyone
I worked with Sam Marshall to write this guide for intranet contributors. It’s the sort of thing you’d share with your extended team / network.
The guide covers ten common challenges:
- Effective headlines: help people choose what to read
- Images: attracting interest and conveying meaning
- Links: how to link to pages and files
- Layout: how to structure articles for scanability
- How to help people search for, and find, your content
- Content: write for your audience, not for your boss
- Documents vs pages: when to use PDF, Word, etc.
- Engage: writing to start a conversation
- Channels: reach the right audiences
- Mobile content.
Each subject is concisely tackled over one or two pages, and we’ve included a checklist at the back, so be sure to download the full guide from the ClearBox website.
[cta button_text=”Get the content guide” button_url=”http://www.clearbox.co.uk/resources/intranet_content/” animation=”true” button_style=”transparent” button_color=”blue”]Download ‘Creating intranet content’ and share with your (internal) extended comms network[/cta]Content tactics – executing your strategy on the page
I literally toured Europe with this presentation during 2014 / 2015 :) Whether you’ll get enough from the SlideShare, I don’t know – but I’d be happy to present this in person to your team.
[cta button_text=”Get the SlideShare” button_url=”http://www.slideshare.net/WedgeBlack/content-tactics-interaction-2014/” animation=”true” button_style=”transparent” button_color=”purple”]Download or bookmark ‘Content tactics’ in SlideShare[/cta] [icon color=”orange” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] Read the Intranätverk write-up of my content tactics presentation, artfully written by Kristian Norling and Tobias Skarhall.Carousels and sliders
Quote marks
Perfectly practical articles
Below you’ll find links to specific guidance; for intranet and comms related websites, see my links page / blogroll.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] Connecting Office for iPad to SharePoint, by me, over at ClearBox.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] SharePoint migration paths, by me, over at Content Formula.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] Intranet metrics & KPIs – only measure what you mean to act upon, by me, over at Intranetizen – or see the Ragan version.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] A framework for intranet governance, by me, over at Content Formula.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] An equation for good comms
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] How to measure the success of enterprise social networks
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] Stop viewing your intranet as a single channel
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] ‘One hour’ intranet ideas to do right now, by me, over at Content Formula.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] Department intranet sites – you’ll need two of those, by me, over at ClearBox.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-doc”] Big bang intranet launches vs. drip-feed incremental improvements, by me, over at Content Formula.
Online tools – freakishly easy
If stakeholders pressure you to put a carousel / slider on your intranet’s home page, ‘just like on our website’ without at UX research, send them this infuriating arguement against such poor design choice: “Should I use a carousel?“
Smaller Pictures – Maybe your intranet automatically optimises photographs for faster display, but really, you should control the optimisation so that details are not lost from the photo. This incredibly simple web-app let’s you judge by eye and save your image at a smaller file-size.
Compressor – Online tool to smush the file-size of your images down for faster display. You get to see if the quality of yout photo has degraded :)
[onehalf]Small PDF – do everything with Office files and PDFs that you ever wanted. Online.FormSwift – create and sign documents. Online.
Zamzar – convert almost any file into any other file type.
Noun Project – icons.
Adobe Voice – Slideshows with voice-overs.
Adobe Slate – visual storytelling.
Citation machine – APA MLA references.
Readability score – how easy is your article to read?
Wordcounter – more than total words.[/onehalf] [onehalf last=”true”]Photoshop online – it’s Photoshop, free, and in your browser. Requires Flash.
Pixlr Editor – edit images in your browser. Wow. Requires Flash.
Vectr – create vector graphics in youe browser, or in the free app.
Canva – make ‘web posters’.
Jotform – online form design and processing.
Tip of my tongue – get that word you can’t think of.
Parts of a speech – will parse your sentences and try to identify nouns, verbs, and adjectives etc.
[/onehalf]Content discovery tools and online collaboration tools – curated master lists.
Destination sites and pages
Y’know, places to go on purpose – they pull you in with great ideas and guidance.
- [icon color=”orange” type=”icon-sort-amount-asc”] UX Checklist – 27 (currently) links to articles taking you through user-experience planning.
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”icon-sort-amount-asc”] UX Myths – 33 user-experience myths.
- [icon color=”green” type=”icon-qrcode”]Content Strategy for Website Projects – beautiful guide from Gather Content.
- [icon color=”purple” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
- [icon color=”red” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Institute of Internal Communications (IoIC)
- [icon color=”dark grey” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
- [icon color=”none” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Melcrum
- [icon color=”orange” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Institute of Digital Workplace Professionals (IDWP) to be launched by Jonathan Phillips.
- [icon color=”red” type=”icon-windows”] The Microsoft blog firehose.
- [icon color=”green” type=”icon-money”] Internal Comms Jobs, via Melcrum.
- [icon color=”blue” type=”icon-money”] Internal Comms Jobs, via Gatehouse.
- [icon color=”grey” type=”icon-list-ul”] Internal communication glossary, by Rachel Miller.
- [icon color=”red” type=”linecon-icon-outline-enlarge”] A content strategy definition, by Jonathon Coleman
- [icon color=”green” type=”icon-wechat”] When to use which comms system , by Chris Slemp, of Microsoft.
- [icon color=”aqua” type=”icon-area-chart”] How to measure the success of your internal social network, by Dennis Agusi.
- [icon color=”red” type=”icon-database”] SharePoint 2016 – on-premises, in cloud, and with Office 365, by Microsoft.
- [icon color=”orange” type=”icon-database”] Office Success site, by Microsoft. Think Office 365, Yammer, SharePoint Online.
- [icon color=”red” type=”icon-yelp”] Responding to people on (external) social networks, social customer service by Helen Reynolds.
- [icon color=”grey” type=”icon-group”] The Big Yak – IC unconference.
- [icon color=”orange” type=”icon-group”] Intranet Now – my conference / unconference.
- [icon color=”blue” type=”icon-group”] SMiLE – Social Media in Large Enterprises conferences (be aware, the web address often changes.)
- [icon color=”dark grey” type=”icon-group”] Intranätverk – Danish / Swedish intranet conference.
- [icon color=”blue” type=”linecon-icon-users”] Digital Workplace LinkedIn Group
Incredibly practical resources from around the web
[icon color=”red” type=”icon-briefcase”] Ethnography, personas, journey mapping, interviews, by the Cabinet Office. [icon color=”orange” type=”icon-briefcase”] Interviewing humans, by Erika Hall. [icon color=”yellow” type=”icon-briefcase”] MoSCoW method 0f requirements rating – Must, Should, Could, Won’t. [icon color=”green” type=”icon-briefcase”] Seeding content across the social intranet / enterprise social network, by Sacha Greif. [icon color=”blue” type=”icon-briefcase”] Card sorting, by usability.gov. [icon color=”purple” type=”icon-briefcase”] Content migration alone is not an effective content strategy, via NNGroup. [icon color=”red” type=”icon-briefcase”] Innovation: explore; extract; exploit, by the 100% Open Toolkit. [icon color=”orange” type=”icon-briefcase”] How to change the name and address of a SharePoint Site, by Ellen van Aken. [icon color=”yellow” type=”icon-briefcase”] Embed Yammer into SharePoint (Video). [icon color=”green” type=”icon-briefcase”] First steps in information management – new tools from CILIP. [icon color=”blue” type=”icon-briefcase”] Search strategy A-Z [PDF; 400KB] – by Martin White, from his research notes page. [icon color=”purple” type=”icon-briefcase”] Intranet metrics – discovery, satisfaction, and impact [PDF; 800KB] – by Martin White, from his research notes page. [icon color=”red” type=”icon-briefcase”] Never ask what they want – three questions to ask in user intereviews – by Charles Liu. [icon color=”orange” type=”icon-briefcase”] Focusing on top tasks – by Gerry McGovern, of course. [icon color=”green” type=”icon-briefcase”] How to conduct a top task analysis – by Jeff Sauro. [icon color=”blue” type=”icon-briefcase”] Content strategy – by Ben Grose. [icon color=”purple” type=”icon-briefcase”] Measurement principles – for external comms, but relevant for anything. [icon color: “red” type=”icon-briefcase”] When to provide an intranet to your small organisation – by Kara Pernice of NNG. [icon color: “orange” type=”icon-briefcase”] Adobe Kickbox innovation toolkit. [icon color: “yellow” type=”icon-briefcase”] UNICEF Knowledge Exchange Toolbox.Annual awards
[onehalf]- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Digital Impact Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] FEIEA Grand Prix
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] IOIC Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-diamond”] Intranet Now Diamond Award
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] NNG’s 10 Best Intranets
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Step Two Intranet Innovation Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] IABC Gold Quill Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Digital Leaders 100
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] CIPR Excellence Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] CIPR Inside Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Melcrum Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Employee Engagement Awards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Comms 2.0 Unawards
- [icon color=”yellow” type=”linecon-icon-cup”] Public sector comms awards
Books
[onehalf]Design, web design, and UX books, via Five Simple StepsI’ve got ‘Designing for conversion’, ‘Practical responsive images’, and ‘The craft of words’ (parts 1 and 2).
Web design, via A Book Apart
I’ve got ‘The elements of content strategy’.
‘The intranet management handbook‘ and ‘Enterprise search‘ via Facet and O’Reilly.
[/onehalf] [onehalf last=”true”]Collaboration and intranet books, via IntranätverkI’ve got ‘Digital success or digital disaster?’ and ‘Collaborating in a social era’.
Intranet design, via Step Two Designs
I’ve got ‘Essential intranets’, ‘Designing intranets’, and ‘What every intranet team should know’.
Digital Workplace Trends 2015 – The Organization in the Digital Age by Jane McConnell
A massive research effort from Jane, providing insights and direction for enterprises of any size.
Small business intranet guide
I wrote this for Interact. A small intranet, perhaps cloud-based, can streamline processes and save time, frustration, and money.
Productivity is key to your bottom-line. This guide highlights 9 points to help you to increase your efficiency and effectiveness within your small business. These include:
- How to combat growing pains
- Reducing reliance on shared drives and email
- Streamlining productivity
- Using cloud to get up and running with minimal resource.
Social networks / social media marketing
- The always-up-to-date guide to social networks
- Measure your marketing ROI in six steps, by Troels Kjems.
- Social media ROI, by Kevan Lee.