Bjørn Bergslien

Because your intranet sucks: 5 tips to building a better intranet

Let’s face it: Too many intranets lack focus and are difficult to use. They are counterproductive and a hindrance in the sense that they inhibit employees instead of making them more efficient. Here’s what you can do to improve your intranet.

Tip #1: Understand that it’s not about the technology
First you need to accept the fact that an intranet isn’t primarily about technology. Yes, there’s an installation on a server somewhere. But for the majority of your employees, the intranet is a place to store, manage, share and find information. It’s a communications and collaborative hub. Your employees are the main focus; it should be intuitive and user-friendly for them.

Tip #2: Build a user-centric information architecture
Navigational menus are often structured in the same ways your organization is structured. That might make sense to the human resources (HR) or the information department. But too often, there is no logic behind this, and it becomes confusing and frustrating to the end-user (your employees). Navigation and information architecture should be structured according to what is instinctive and intuitive – not necessarily according to internal organizational structure.

Tip #3: Make sure search works as it should
Surveys show that navigation and search are two of the most important aspects of an intranet in a larger corporation. People use search to find other employees, knowledge, blogs and documents. Search is a key component – so don’t stuff it up or make it difficult for your employees to find and use.

Tip #4: Focus on the top tasks
Do you know what your employees’ top tasks are when they visit the intranet? Why are they even on the intranet in the first place? You need to do research, ask, evaluate and find out what the top tasks are and focus your user interface and functionality around those tasks. Too many intranets are chock-full of fancy functions no one seems to care about.

Tip #5: Incorporate social software
There’s no doubt: The future is social and collaborative. As your employees start using services such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and other types of social media they will in turn start to expect similar platforms and technologies in a work environment. They expect to be able to communicate easily, share information, collaborate on projects online and comment on status updates. Enterprise social software will make its way into your business and your employees will love it.

You might be interested in reading:
Key trends in social computing for businesses 2010-2015
How social software drives organizational change

A summary of Socialnomics

I have just finished reading Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business by Erik Qualman. The book looks at several interesting aspects of social media, how it affects human behavior and how it changes business.

The first chapter talks about the rise of new media – more specifically about topics such as search engines, online news, new business models, micro revenue streams and viral marketing (See Dancing Matt – who has become a so-called “Internet celebrity”).

Chapters two and three look at how social media changes human behavior: On the one hand it makes us more reserved and careful, because everything is open and transparent (What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube). On the other hand, social media stimulates “braggadocian” behavior (bragging and empty boasting). It’s all about me and my brand.

Chapter four deals with Barack Obama’s use of social media in the presidential race. This is to illustrate just how powerful social media can be.

Chapter five is about social media as a “referral system”. According to Qualman, we care a lot about what people we know think about a product or a company. We listen to people and their recommendations rather than companies. This means businesses have to rethink their marketing strategies.

“Social schizophrenia” is another term used in this book. In chapter six, Qualman argues that we can no longer act as multiple people with multiple personalities. Facebook and other social networks expose us on a completely different level than only half a decade ago.

The last two chapters look at how companies need to change their approach to marketing if they are to stay in the race. Social media is everywhere – marketing, communications, politics, job recruitment, sports and so on. The lines between business and personal personas are diminishing. Therefore, Erik Qualman argues, we need to take social media seriously.

What do I think?
The book has been criticized for being poorly edited and unfounded – and I must say I do agree with this. Much effort hasn’t been put into editing and proofreading the book. And some of Qualman’s arguments are groundless. This said, the book can be read in a couple of days; it’s an easy read. And it still highlights several important aspects of new media.

Is the Internet basic infrastructure like roads, waste and water?

A BBC survey has found that almost four in five people think access to the internet should be a fundamental right. Some people argue it should be regarded as basic infrastructure – just like roads, waste and water.

Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News that we’ve entered a knowledge society and that everyone should have the ability to participate in online discussions.

Governments should strive to make the internet available and accessible to citizens – and not regulate it so that people in certain countries can’t participate.

The BBC survey found:

• 87% of internet users felt internet access should be the “fundamental right of all people”.
• More than 70% of non-users felt that they should have access to the net.
• Overall, almost 79% of those questioned said they either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the description of the internet as a fundamental right – whether they currently had access or not.
• Countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Turkey most strongly support the idea of net access as a right, the survey found.
• South Korea – the most wired country on Earth – had the greatest majority of people (96%) who believed that net access was a fundamental right.

Why too much web content is a bad thing and what you should do about it

A website is much more than a beautiful design and a functioning CMS. The most important aspect of a website, some people argue, is the content. Here’s why you should care.

Writing for the web is not like writing a book or publishing articles for an online newspaper. Writing for the web is actually not so much about writing – it’s more about managing, organizing and evaluating the content.

Most corporate websites suffer from a disease: They have way too much content on them. You’d think that quantity is actually a higher priority than quality. Website managers are told to produce and publish, as often and as much as possible, to keep the site “up to date” and dynamic.

In reality, all this crap takes up space and prevents users from finding what they were actually looking for. The users will leave your site frustrated and disappointed, and they won’t come back anytime soon.

Here’s what you can do to prevent this from happening:

Tip #1: Get an overview of the situation
How many pages and how much content is on your website, really? How many pages are never visited? What are the prime pages? If you use a tool like Google Analytics, you will easily be able to determine which pages are never visited. Try to draw a map of topics and content: How does it all fit together?

Tip #2: Cut the news because no one cares
Remember that your corporate website isn’t an online newspaper. Few people, if any, are there to read your overly biased articles on the unique products and services you offer. It’s just not interesting and credible.

Far too many people let news take center stage on the front page. Directors and executives think it’s important and valuable. But it’s not. Your users, the customers, are on your site to complete a task or find information on a specific topic of choice. They’re not there to “browse” and “hang out” because it’s fun.

Tip #3: Hit the delete button
That’s right. Log in to your CMS and delete content. Delete all the pages no one has ever read, delete everything that exists only to please directors and executives or a product specialist. It needs to go in order for the important content stand out.

Tip #4: Prioritize and stay cool
Being a web editor in a larger enterprise is a difficult job. Everyone wants their stuff right there on the front page. Everyone wants their own sub-sites, pages and design. There are pressures from left, right and center.

A web editor is also a curator. You need to ask questions and challenge product directors. What is the point of this content? Why do we need it? Is it related to our overall strategy in this field? You need to prioritize and sometimes say “no”.

Tip #5: Constantly re-evaluate
The “publish and leave” principle is not good enough. As long as you have an overview of the situation, know the ins and outs of the website, know how to delete pages and prioritize new input, you can evaluate and assess the existing content. Go through the content on a regular basis. Review it, rewrite it, optimize it.

Getting attention on the web: The Content-Attention Paradox explained

Some people think that the web is all about producing and publishing content – as much and as often as possible. But in reality most websites are not online newspapers. Keep your content under control.

Gerry McGovern is one of the leading experts in the world on content management for the web. In the 2006 book Killer Web Content, he explains the nature of and relationship between web content and attention spans using this figure:

As you can see, most people prefer as little information as possible. More often than not they are on your site to complete a task, to find contact information or to read a little bit about a topic of interest. That’s why you need to focus on the tasks and keep your content as short and concise as possible.

This is what Gerry McGovern writes: “The Web is the land of attention deficit syndrome. You must deal with the content-attention paradox: you have so much to publish, yet people have so little attention to give”.

It’s not about getting attention
Gerry then moves on to explain that web marketing is quite different from traditional marketing. While traditional marketing is all about getting attention, the web is about giving attention. Giving attention is not publishing and pushing large amounts of useless information onto the visitor. Giving attention is guiding the user and facilitating quick and easy completion of specific tasks.

That’s why less is usually better. Refrain from writing long paragraphs that no one will ever read and refrain from jam-packing your website with useless functionality. Focus on the top tasks and keep the content simple and short. Take care of your visitors and give them the attention they deserve.