Recent Discussions
Can IC work without SharePoint savvy?
I've seen a few posts on LI recently around the use of SharePoint in IC and associated frustrations. Full disclosure, I'm a diehard advocate of SharePoint but would be the first to admit what it does well - perhaps best - is information management. That said, SharePoint Online is a huge improvement on earlier iterations. To fully exploit the features of SharePoint you need to understand the nuances of audience targeting and Microsoft groups, metadata to increase your search capabilities and lifecycle retention so the Christmas Jumper competition circa 1997 doesn't surface in your feed. In-house SharePoint training has become a unicorn and online tutorials are rarely targeted at specific problems. So, just how technically savvy do communicators need to be to use their SharePoint based intranets effectively - and more importantly - is this something they see as part of their role? Should SharePoint (out of the box) provide more intuitive features or bells and whistles in the way third party "wrappers" do, or is there just a huge gap in training offerings? I'm writing an article for Reworked on this topic and would love to get the Microsoft and communications community perspective. 🤲Internal communications wrote with the help of Chat GPT
I'm conducting a survey these months via LinkedIn. The survey is for all the people in my network with a role as Internal Communicator and I'm asking how many of them already used AI for writing their internal communications. I would like to understand this information for our work as developers of new solutions for the digital workplace. Using AI for internal comm at this moment means using Chat GPT and sending outside the company all internal information and content. Without the possibility to start using Microsoft 365 Copilot (for companies that are using Microsoft collaboration technologies), there are very few companies out there that are giving AI tools for employees that can keep information internally, so people are using the free tool from Open AI. The results are amazing because the majority of people that answered already used Chat GPT for internal communications, with no fear (or understanding) about compliance and security issues of this action. What do you folks think about this?Learn Viva Amplify: 8 lesson walk through
Hey communicators. With the release of Viva Amplify I recorded a 1 hour walk through to help us all get started. Or help organisations considering using Amplify to see what it's like. Whether it's your full-time role or one of the functions of your position, Amplify provides a way for us to create, coordinate, publish and report on our communications across multiple channels. As first release, it's quite functional. It makes smart use of a team for your campaign, the Amplify app for creating and coauthoring publications. The distribution channels help us reach our audiences where they are. We can only publish to the places we have access to. Reporting gives us views and some information about how people have responded to, reacted to, or promoted the publication. If you have access to Amplify, what do you think of it? Share your first impressions. If you are interested in seeing the walk-through, you'll find a playlist with 8 lessons to step through in your own timing.
When, if ever, should we use the S word?
In many organisations “SharePoint” is a loaded word. It could mean a document library, often poorly managed, which people are required to use. It could be painfully out-of-date team sites, or multiple generations of failed intranets. With that in mind, I worry about using the word SharePoint when launching an intranet or hub of communication sites. I’ve noticed stakeholders like to use a product name in an engagement and launch process, and aren’t always aware that employees may have had negative experiences with that product. Do any of you have strong opinions or strategies for using the name SharePoint in public?HR-person: Are you busy doing HR-processes and/or you out there building relations with colleagues?
Hi friends, When talking to people working in HR I many times hear that they are under-staffed and are for the most part managing the day-to-day processes such as making sure salaries are paid in time, holidays are registered and in compliance, and don't have time to engage with people in the organization, and don't have time to engage in company strategy work. Check out my blog where I encourage HR leaders, and anyone working with HR (or how you name or organize the work "taking care of employees" in your organization). https://merethesharepointstave.com/2023/06/07/hr-leader-get-out-of-your-office/Corp Comms Community Discussion - Feb
Ever feel overloaded with communications? Remember a particular communication, but can't remember who sent it, if it was in email or someplace else or even how to get back to it? These are common issues that many people deal with on a daily basis. If this is you, please join the discussion as Laurel Dzneladze from LinkedIn leads to help people engage. February 28- 10 am Central/8 am PST Microsoft Teams Need help? Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 229 659 043 693 Passcode: hZuei6 Dial-in by phone +1 323-849-4874,,855711920# United States, Los Angeles Find a local number Phone conference ID: 855 711 920# Microsoft Teams Need help? Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 229 659 043 693 Passcode: hZuei6 Dial-in by phone +1 323-849-4874,,855711920# United States, Los Angeles Find a local number Phone conference ID: 855 711 920#Who leads your EEx? Or do you just have DEX+HCM?
In my experience, most Enterprises have or are trying to run these programs: "Digital Employee Experience"(DEX) led by IT. (1) Manage performance and reliability with devices and programs. (2) Mobile work-related tools and work-from-anywhere policies. (3) Effective collaboration with team members. "Employee Experience"(EEx) led by ?????? (1) Nurture a positive work environment that fosters employee satisfaction, learning, engagement, productivity, and advocacy. (2) This is not just about making employees happy but creating an empathetic culture where staff thrive and contribute to success. "Human Capital Management" (HCM) led by HR. (1) Architect traditional HR into opportunities that lead to increased efficiency. (2) Spans workforce planning, compensation planning, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding, etc. It appears the grey area is (2). IC supports business strategy, crisis, and change management news and strategies. HR exists to lead people and HR policies. Neither is focused on digital assessment or improvements. The objective is to improve productivity and company culture - unless you are lucky enough to have a Digital Comms Department - or similar. "Bringing the outside in" is disregarded and neglected, with barely anyone providing support functions with assessment, guidance on what tool, when, why, and keeping a keen eye on the future that truly understands the business strategy and cloud technology. IT buys tech licenses, often not fully appreciating what they have, and doesn't inform the business of performance benefits. When the company does not have a good partnership with IT, they turn to shadow IT like WhatsApp, which contravenes most HR Policies as it captures PII to create groups. Or use the same old products or features that are old-fashioned in how they collaborate and communicate outside of work daily with friends and family. (Note: When did you last arrange an event with email, e.g., a party? We use networking apps like Facebook or WhatsApp. Email is still needed for formal comms like buying a house or financial management). Please share your insights if you have overcome the above and have a great employee experience culture. Where do the roles sit in the business? Thank you.Corp Comms + Viva related episode of The Intrazone podcast
:new_button: #TheIntrazone episode, "Viva Connections adoption best practices" - We talk with LizSundet and Luis Enrique Torres about the common patterns when assessing, planning, and deploying your 'gateway to the overall employee experience' - aka: Adoption excellence. Blog + audio :page_with_curl::studio_microphone:️ https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sharepoint-blog/viva-connections-adoption-best-practices-the-intrazone-podcast/ba-p/3903883What is "intranet" for you these days?
Hi friends, What comes to mind when we talk about "intranet"? Traditionally it would be a website with static information, such as policies and procedures, etc. I see intranet as a wider concept where "intranet" is the ecosystem of e.g. Teams, Engage and SharePoint together. Check out my blogs about what to think about and how to plan for a "new" intranet and where to communicate and collaborate: https://merethesharepointstave.com/2021/12/02/hows-your-intranet-doing-these-days/ https://merethesharepointstave.com/2023/03/05/files-files-and-files-lost-in-space-or-is-there-a-way/SharePoint for frontline workers?
Is anyone out there really pushing SharePoint as a tool for non-office workers (I'm thinking corporate sales staff, customer service, distribution or manufacturing)? Is the mobile SharePoint app good enough to bring news to the right people, or to bring people to the right documents?Comms videos - Process. Tools. Skills. Let’s talk.
Video is a powerful communication medium. Now that creating and editing and publishing videos can all be done from our phones, it opens up the possibilities for authentic, engaging content in our orgs. I have seen some fantastic examples shared on Viva Engage. We have TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to thank for this. How are you approaching video in your organisations? Are you encouraging your people leaders to whip out their phone and record a quick thought in-situ? Some comms videos require a higher production standard, equipment, editing tools, scripts, lighting… How are you creating comms videos in your organisation? Do you have some go-to formats that have been effective at getting your message across? How do you plan your people-leader videos? How are you finding the new Stream as a video publishing platform, in combo with SharePoint? Or are you using a different combo of tools? A survey was shared earlier in this community that asked the same questions. But I thought it would be interesting to have a discussion about it too. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/corporate-communications/do-you-create-videos-or-screen-recordings-for-work/m-p/3933509/highlight/true#M76News page measurement
Hello Friends Has anyone found a Microsoft or third party solution for measuring news pages? I know I can see it in the page, and via the library - hovering on the page name. When creating monthly reports on views it is really quite the task to get the data. Managed to use Content Search in SharePoint classic to get the data. Any successes with data beyond the 90 day cycle? Also considering where a page has been translated, pulling the page view totals together?Meeting event coming up
Sept 20th will kick off the meeting events at 11am EST/8am PST. Come join the discussion IN PERSON! Ok, well as In Person as a Teams meeting can be! Click here to take a look at the upcoming meeting and reserve or add to your calendar: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/corporate-communications-events/corp-comms-community-meet-up/ev-p/3911920 These will be interactive discussions, not presentations. Come and be willing to share your thoughts and ideas with the group.The Increasing Vitality of Communications Leaders in Successful Business Transformation
Edelman's latest https://www.edelman.com/2023-future-of-corporate-comms is worth of reading for those of us who support corporate communications and internal communications. Our role is increasingly valued and interrogated all at once. https://www.edelman.com/insights/communications-leaders-successful-business-transformation And still, despite the increased call on communicators, against an increasingly complex backdrop of uncertainty, communicators are being asked to do more (with less), while the investment in the function has stalled. This is why investment in tools like Viva Amplify are so critical. And the role that Copilot will play is going to be increasingly important. How well are your teams keeping informed and engaged on AI? How can this community help each other in this era of AI?Tool for viewing quick links icons
Back in the summer, I got so fed up with the process of browsing for quick links icons, I ended up coding this page https://thompsonsimon.github.io/sp-quick-links-icons The font isn't quite the right one (if anyone can help with that, please let me know), but I wanted to be able to scroll through the options AND to be able to see the codes as that's often the biggest clue to finding the right one. I'd love to know if anyone finds it useful or, even, if there is something out there that does the job better.Perspectives on intranets
We have just published a https://www.swoopanalytics.com/sharepoint-bm-23 based on analysing how a group of nearly 100,000 employees from different organizations are consuming content on the intranet. One of the things we wanted to look at was the when is the best time to post a news item. The results was relatively clear. We found the most popular times for reading the intranet is 7am-9am or 11am-1pm on a weekday, with Thursday being the best day. However, news is being consumed any time during normal working hours of 8am–6pm. We also looked at the link between content quality and consumption, how much the intranet is accessed via mobile devices (hint = not a lot) and many other areas. We asked 8 industry experts we consider thought-leaders about their perspectives on the findings. We also wanted to know if the finding resonates with their own lived experiences and they largely did. I'd like to say a big thank you for your contributions to: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAFBEUoBWT1OBImmMTObCmFqJBjJCpyhG5g from https://www.linkedin.com/company/comcast/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAASCVkBx3xNBYQZeutsW8I2ViVRxW594ik and https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAABfx_kBycyvIdjFvE82ljAOk-99Hjkpnas from https://www.linkedin.com/company/step-two-designs/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAArsPhMB_0rChVC1eQFdul9ZfduUt3_I0mc from https://www.linkedin.com/company/cox-enterprises/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAAmPtcBQFDh3PxC7Qb4oy-k2-x0bavJ_eo from https://www.linkedin.com/company/next-level-ic/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAB-IUcBdybrHIyazzEe-qOtPevRwwRUEkQ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAAKplcBgSQ_KHiqkm5TEuMSdU9N9qHFfyc from https://www.linkedin.com/company/lithospartners/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAAAg44ByNZa0gKwl8rNYjiBkOGEDo0Evfg - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAXivZkB7_C5BuFqfy1h01wL_m2uheolzCY from https://www.linkedin.com/company/clearbox-consulting-ltd-/ If you don't already follow these amazing people, then I'd warmly recommend that. Finally - we're already planning for an update to the report in May 2024 and if you can recommend people that really inspire you then we'll see if we can get their perspectives added.
Recent Blogs
- How do you move from noise to insight when employee, leader, and external signals are coming at you from everywhere? Join us Friday, June 5th at 10 am PT, as we share how AI and Copilot are changi...May 06, 2026
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