Social intranet

A social intranet is a digital meeting and/or meeting place for your organization. What makes it social is the interaction: instead of just communicating top-down, all colleagues can post messages here and actively participate in the intranet.

With a social intranet, you create a place where you can stimulate employee engagement with your organization, increase awareness of the business strategy, promote knowledge sharing and collaboration, and disseminate work instructions. For example, a social intranet increases the connection of your colleagues with each other and the organization and contributes to transparent (er) internal communication.

A social intranet works as a central platform where many different types of content are mainly shared and managed. For example, there is automated content, which is content that is automatically generated by the system or retrieved from other software applications or links. Think of schedules, automatically generated to-do lists, and other automated information that helps your employees with their daily tasks.

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In addition, there is managed content. This content is usually placed by the organization, for example by the communication department or HR from the Content Management System. This may include company news, announcements, or new employee proposals. While anyone in the organization can comment, only selected employees can post, edit, or delete content.

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Finally, there is user-generated content. This is everything that is created and shared between employees. Think of images, messages, responses to each other's documents, and discussions. This content contributes to an interactive work environment where employees can exchange ideas and collaborate.

A good social intranet fulfills the wishes and needs of your organization and colleagues. That is why it is important to properly map them out and to align the purpose of your social intranet with it. You link KPIs (critical performance indicators) to this goal, so that you can measure and thus provide insight into how your intranet achieves this goal. In addition, it makes sense to get feedback from your colleagues, so that you also know how the intranet is experienced. Thanks to these results, you will know whether the social intranet also does what it should do and is therefore a good intranet.

A traditional intranet and a social intranet differ in their approach and functionalities within an organization. A traditional intranet focuses primarily on providing the information and tools employees need to do their jobs, such as company news, policy documents, and forms. User interaction on a traditional intranet is usually limited to reading information, with little room for active engagement or collaboration among employees.

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On the other hand, a social intranet offers much more than just providing information. It encourages active engagement through features such as social profiles, news feeds, group discussions, comment options, and likes. Users can easily exchange ideas, ask questions to colleagues, and collaborate on projects. A social intranet thus improves two-way communication and horizontal collaboration, resulting in a more interactive and engaged work environment within your organization. As a result, employees feel more connected and can work together more efficiently towards common goals. Another advantage: we can completely adapt your social intranet to your needs.

- Better Collaboration: The social intranet helps employees collaborate better by allowing them to easily share information, ask questions, share ideas, and collaborate on projects. This increases productivity, efficiency and stimulates innovation.

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- Excellent communication: It makes two-way communication within the organization easier. Staff can quickly share updates, provide feedback, and respond immediately to important announcements or events.

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- Accessibility: It provides a central location for all business information, documents, and assets. Employees can easily find and share information, improving the overall efficiency of knowledge sharing. This way, your employees can easily get answers to their questions without having to search for them for a long time.

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- Engagement: A social intranet increases employee engagement by providing a platform where they really feel heard and seen in business activities. This increases the satisfaction and loyalty of your employees.

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- Faster decision making: Thanks to the real-time communication and collaboration of the social intranet, decisions can be made more quickly. Teams can identify, discuss, and resolve issues without delays. Delays that often occur with traditional communication methods.

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- Open company culture: A social intranet helps your organization to be more open and transparent. Sharing achievements, successes, and important updates strengthens your company culture and employee sense of belonging.

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- Flexible: A social intranet offers a range of features and tools that can be adapted to an organization's needs. They can be integrated with other systems and technologies to create a seamless work environment.

When you choose a social intranet, there are many advantages. In this way, it improves cooperation, because employees can easily exchange ideas and collaborate on projects. It also encourages knowledge sharing and access to important information, which strengthens the overall knowledge base. In addition, it increases employee engagement and satisfaction by providing a voice and supporting rapid decision-making. A social intranet contributes to a culture of transparency and offers flexibility to meet an organization's specific needs. In short, it promotes efficiency, innovation and a positive company culture. Also check out the frequently asked question “what are the benefits of a social intranet” to find out what else a social intranet can bring to your organization.

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To set up an effective social intranet and create a modern digital workplace, it's important to gather input from experts and team members to build a solid foundation. Set up a knowledge base to share information in a structured way. Ensure a quick onboarding of new employees and make the intranet the central place for news, collaboration and questions within the organization. Provide employees with a digital workspace with control over their tasks, agenda, and communication, wherever they are. This way, you promote collaboration, knowledge sharing and a productive work environment. But don't worry, our Embrace experts are here to help you every step of the way.