Social intranet: the elegant com­mu­ni­ca­tion solution for companies

The exchange of in­for­ma­tion plays an important role in every company. The more employees know about current events, de­vel­op­ments, and plans, the more likely they are to feel part of the company. On the other hand, employees who are not suf­fi­cient­ly informed about important events or are informed ret­ro­spec­tive­ly will often feel ignored, which can have a negative effect on their sat­is­fac­tion in the long term. Companies whose employees are spread over several locations, or travel often, have to coun­ter­act this situation with ap­pro­pri­ate measures. Classic intranets have been regarded as the perfect solution for years, but now more advanced social intranets are becoming more popular.

The first intranets started to be created as soon as computers began to make their way into everyday life. These are internal company networks, which are char­ac­ter­ized by the fact that they are not public, but are only ac­ces­si­ble to au­tho­rized users – in this case, the employees of the re­spec­tive company. In addition to ad­min­is­tra­tive ad­van­tages, such as being able to regulate internet access and maximum control over the security of the network, the main advantage of such intranets is that all employees can be reached better and faster. For this reason, man­age­ment has a practical tool in the form of company networks, which is still used today to exchange and dis­sem­i­nate internal company in­for­ma­tion – usually in the form of editorial con­tri­bu­tions.

However, since chat platforms and social networks have fun­da­men­tal­ly rev­o­lu­tion­ized digital com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the tra­di­tion­al intranet model with its rather static, hi­er­ar­chi­cal structure has lost much of its ac­cep­tance. The new ways of com­mu­ni­cat­ing in­ter­ac­tive­ly and in real-time with each other are con­se­quent­ly fixed com­po­nents of modern intranets, which are still geared toward business use, but function very similarly to social networks. This is why they are also known as social intranets.

Social Intranets lay the foun­da­tion for an open company culture. With optimal struc­tur­ing, every employee should receive relevant in­for­ma­tion as early as possible. Fur­ther­more, a basic idea of social net­work­ing is that all employees par­tic­i­pate and provide input. In this way, man­age­ment not only receives valuable feedback, but is also relieved of some of its man­age­ment work: Thanks to social intranets taking ini­tia­tive, the various teams can organize them­selves. At the same time, the practical network platforms can also provide access to necessary work materials.

Even though the in­di­vid­ual solutions are strongly tailored to the re­quire­ments of the re­spec­tive company and are therefore often different, there are still some elements that can be found with almost every social intranet. The most important are:

• Newsfeed: Newsfeeds, often referred to as activity streams, are often the central component of a social intranet. They ensure that all employees are provided with up-to-date in­for­ma­tion about the company and its de­part­ments. The articles in the newsfeeds are sorted by date and the messaging history can be retrieved at any time. Activity streams are often realized in the form of a blog, although there is no need for a fixed editorial team to be re­spon­si­ble for writing articles. Unlike tra­di­tion­al intranets, employees can react directly to new messages e.g. through the comment function.
   
• User profiles and groups: One component that is best known from social networks is the ability to create and manage user profiles. These help to assign con­tri­bu­tions and comments and make it easier for in­di­vid­ual employees to find the right contact person for the re­spec­tive issue. The profiles also allow users to be added to specific groups, such as a certain de­part­ment or project. In a small circle, it’s easier to discuss topics and announce news that would be ir­rel­e­vant for other employees. Groups often have their own newsfeed in addition to the company’s main feed.
   
• Messenger: In addition to messaging platforms for the company and in­di­vid­ual teams, social intranets usually also offer their own chat messaging system, which is primarily intended to act as a dynamic al­ter­na­tive to tra­di­tion­al e-mail traffic by enabling com­mu­ni­ca­tion in real-time. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how many contacts take part in a con­ver­sa­tion. As with the struc­tur­ing of the intranet in general, it is common to set up different chats such as a general chat and different group chats.
   
• Calendar: Despite all com­mu­ni­ca­tion channels offered by a good corporate social network, a simple, classic calendar function should always be included. Calendars help you to keep track of all important ap­point­ments – whether it’s a team meeting, a business lunch, or a deadline. Thanks to the company’s net­work­ing, you can also keep track of col­leagues’ calendars if they’ve given you access to them.
   
• Central file storage: For digital col­lab­o­ra­tion to work in a company, it is not only important to have a good exchange of in­for­ma­tion; good document man­age­ment is just as important. A central file storage is therefore an integral part of many social intranets and is ac­ces­si­ble to all employees. Documents can be stored or retrieved here. Version man­age­ment ensures that the selected file is up-to-date.
   
• Search functions: By de­f­i­n­i­tion, a social intranet is intended to promote com­mu­ni­ca­tion and co­op­er­a­tion between network par­tic­i­pants. Even though these network com­po­nents form the best possible basis for this, it is not always easy to keep track of things, es­pe­cial­ly in large companies: extensive contact lists, seemingly endless news stories, and a huge range of documents make the search for certain in­for­ma­tion a tedious task. Search functions for various features should therefore be a standard part of the social intranet structure. This means that certain content or contacts can be found at any time by simply entering a keyword.

Ap­pro­pri­ate software is required to implement the various com­po­nents of a social intranet. To do this, in­di­vid­ual programs can be purchased for the various purposes and be co­or­di­nat­ed with each other, or complete solutions such as Jive-n can be used, which integrate a complete social platform into the business structure. In both cases, it is important to decide whether the new net­work­ing structure will be in­tro­duced in a single step or whether it will be in­tro­duced gradually. The former option means that the intranet can be used by all employees straight­away, but of course it requires some effort. The step-by-step variant takes several days or weeks, depending on the planning, but has the advantage that day-to-day business is guar­an­teed at all times (with minimal re­stric­tions).

Setting up a social intranet can pay off for a company for a variety of reasons: first and foremost, it is a matter of op­ti­miz­ing and speeding up internal and external processes, which is guar­an­teed in par­tic­u­lar by the tailored com­mu­ni­ca­tion options – as a result, e-mail com­mu­ni­ca­tion and the duration of meetings are sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced. By being able to organize processes and bundling all relevant tools together, this au­to­mat­i­cal­ly increases pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of in­di­vid­ual employees. It doesn’t matter whether they are in the company, at home on the PC, or at an ap­point­ment elsewhere. In addition to increased ef­fi­cien­cy, improved col­lab­o­ra­tion (internal and across teams) ensures that costs can be reduced sus­tain­ably.

Fur­ther­more, another advantage of a social intranet is that it can shape a company and drive its de­vel­op­ments de­ci­sive­ly forward. The pos­si­bil­i­ty of a joint dialogue, es­pe­cial­ly with man­age­ment, strength­ens the sense of community and has a positive influence on the mo­ti­va­tion and ini­tia­tive of employees. Praise, criticism, and creative ideas are expressed quickly and easily, meaning the company or team leaders can act ac­cord­ing­ly. In companies without a social intranet, employees are often reluctant to come forward with their ideas, which means that many promising and important points never get mentioned. Work networks also help to archive the knowledge and expertise ac­cu­mu­lat­ed within the company.

Companies differ not only in terms of their phi­los­o­phy, but also in terms of structure and size. When it comes to de­vel­op­ing the optimal solution for employee digital net­work­ing, the ap­proach­es should all lead to success. While a com­pre­hen­sive social intranet model is primarily prof­itable for large companies and cor­po­ra­tions, small companies can often improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion struc­tures with in­di­vid­ual elements. How much a social intranet can benefit your company, however, cannot simply be de­ter­mined by the number of employees.

Which com­po­nents you need depends on the demands you make on the social corporate network. The crucial question is therefore: which goals are pursued when you introduce a social intranet? In many cases, basic struc­tures have already been created and only need some fine tuning. This could mean that a messenger service is not necessary at all because a cor­re­spond­ing software is already being used. It depends on which of the possible social elements offers employees added value. An important argument for in­tro­duc­ing the social intranet could be how helpful it is to train and integrate new employees.

Here are some possible mo­ti­va­tions and sit­u­a­tions in favor of im­ple­ment­ing a social intranet in your company:

• The internal e-mail dispatch is too high
• Meetings and decisions are taking too long
• Some of the workforce isn’t being suf­fi­cient­ly informed about current sit­u­a­tions and future company de­vel­op­ments
• Employees lack pos­si­bil­i­ties to express criticism and wishes or to share their own ideas
• Know-how in certain subject areas is too strongly tied to a par­tic­u­lar person(s)
• Employees work at different locations or from home or while traveling
• It is too com­pli­cat­ed to find the right contact person for a certain problem or to establish contact with them
• Sharing, editing, and managing documents is becoming com­pli­cat­ed