A social intranet serves a variety of purposes, but its main goal is to boost employee engagement and collaboration within enterprises.
First, let’s define an intranet. It can be summed up as an internal website that facilitates employee productivity.
Within a company, an intranet serves as a website, a medium for communication, and a platform for teamwork. Every employee, not just a select few, may participate easily thanks to good intranet software. The most effective intranets foster improved teamwork by fusing adaptable content management systems, strong search capabilities, and fun collaboration tools.
Check out our complete blog post, “What is an intranet,” where we go into more detail on intranets and compare them to extranets and the internet.
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Next, what is social?
In the 21st century, “social” has become a term that we think of in relation to social networking or social media. When asked to define “social” the average businessperson would likely struggle, resorting to references of Facebook or Twitter. The term “social” simply refers to people interacting, whereas “social networking” describes the practice of establishing relationships. While the concept of social networking has been around for years, online communications channels—like social software and social media in the workplace—have come a long way and have rapidly increased the rate at which people are connecting and sharing information.
Social intranets marry these concepts to help employees interact and build relationships in the workplace.
A social intranet: what is it?
The authorship of traditional intranet software is limited to a small group of users with official “editor” permissions. Since most content is anonymous, it is challenging to draw a social context or link between individual pages and particular users.
A social intranet, by contrast, is designed with people in mind. By allowing all employees to create rich material, it promotes widespread engagement and interaction. Social intranets facilitate interpersonal connections by linking every item of information to a real, breathing individual. The site’s “people layer” pervades every page and gives them a more human touch.
To make an intranet sociable, you need two things:
Authorship: Anyone with the ability to generate material is an author.
Connections: The capacity to interact with and understand the people behind the information
engaging meaningfully with them
Thus, a social intranet may be thought of as an internal-facing website where staff members can readily share knowledge and communicate with one another to improve productivity.
The hybrid office and social intranet software
The transition by many businesses to a digital and hybrid workplace is changing how employees communicate and share information. Staff members can connect and collaborate outside of their actual office space thanks to the digital workplace. Anything from email, instant messaging, and HR systems to document management software and, of course, social intranets can support this virtual work environment. The digital workplace is built on a social intranet, which is essential for fostering meaningful connections and chances for real-time collaboration.
Social intranets offer powerful, mobile-friendly capabilities that can aid in the transition to a workforce that is more digitally oriented. They integrate adaptable content management systems, strong search capabilities, and fun collaboration tools to improve productivity, knowledge sharing, and community development. They are more than just a tool for putting out material.
The following are some typical features of social intranets:
Newsfeeds and homepages that are customized
document repositories
Movement streams
Recognition devices
team pages
profiles of employees
Mobile compatibility
Check out our post on The Perfect Intranet Checklist for a comprehensive list of desirable intranet features.
Social intranets assist in breaking down obstacles that frequently prevent open, meaningful connections, such as distance, language, or employment level, by giving people a voice. Additionally, personalized content fosters a sense of ownership among staff members. Positive benefits on employee experience and engagement, two frequently crucial business aims, result from this.
Social intranet platforms: More than just specialized tech
By concentrating on functionality, too many firms define “social intranet” While features are vital, obsessing over them can be restrictive since it tends to take attention away from the underlying purpose of a social intranet—combining the advantages of social networks (connection and interaction) with the primary function of traditional intranet software (content repository).
It doesn’t always mean that your intranet fails the social test if it lacks a blog or an RSS feed. The goal of a social intranet is to improve internal communication inside an organization and enhance the digital workplace by bridging geographical gaps, bringing together scattered teams, and streamlining how individuals complete tasks.
The center of the digital office is a social intranet solution
The subject of “What is a social intranet?” has come up again. The wide range of tools and activities in today’s digitally driven workplace are orchestrated through this vibrant internal communications channel, which helps people operate more effectively. Social intranets, which harness the power of networks, can enhance collaboration, communication, the digital employee experience, and information-sharing within enterprises. They are essential to modernizing the workplace and giving people more authority.
You’re prepared to increase the social aspect of your intranet. In this article, “15 ways to engage users in Building a new social intranet,” we offer suggestions on how to foster a feeling of shared ownership and community while igniting interest in the intranet.
