Content is both in high demand and high supply online.
Everywhere you look, people on their phones, laptops, tablets search for content that helps them stay up-to-date and on-trend, and with a torrent of sources providing engaging, informative and entertaining content, it’s a need that's easily satisfied.
If only the same could be said for intranet content.
Up the Ante on Your Intranet Content
Generating content for your company intranet will never have the same level of competition as the wider web.
But considering the impact intranet content can have, you can't afford to ignore it. Posting intranet content regularly drives employee engagement and promotes communication, much like website content drives traffic and potential leads.
And considering improving internal comms is a primary reason a business will deploy an intranet, generating regular, engaging content should be at the top of the agenda.
If your employee intranet is struggling to get the recognition and uptake it deserves, it might be time to review your content strategy. Incorporate some of the tools used by marketing agencies and online content generators such as BuzzFeed into your content plan, and wait to see your user engagement increase as a result.
An overwhelming amount of tools are available to assist in content generation, and — true to form — a lot of content out there promises to help you write better content. Carefully choose a few tools rather than using everything at your disposal.
To help kick-start that process, here are some ideas for each area of your intranet content plan:
Ideas Generation
If you are suffering from a case of writer’s block, and need a gentle jolt to spark a few ideas, using an online content generator can be a quick and easy way of getting some inspiration.
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However, be warned: use these generators with a generous pinch of salt as they can return a few dubious results, but they work to get you out of a content rut, in addition to being addictively fun. A few tools to try:
- Portent Content Generator: A fun content generator on the comical side of the scale, it provides some unique ideas that you can interpret to suit your business needs
- HubSpot Blog Topic Generator: One of the most popular content generators out there, you provide three nouns that relate to your industry and get five ideas back in return
- Build Your Own Blog: A generic topic generator, simply click a button and the ideas appear in front of your eyes
Write Engaging Headlines
You’ve spent days working on a fantastic news article that you think the whole team will really love, you post it on your intranet ... and it gets zero views. What went wrong?
Sometimes a great article will be completely missed because the headline didn't entice people to click through and read. Studies have shown that headlines containing more “power” and “emotion” words will have a higher chance of being clicked and read by visitors.
Adopting this way of thinking can help you write better headlines, as it gives you a target to aim towards. Here are a few tools that can help:
- CoSchedule Headline Analyzer: CoSchedule’s headline analyzer tests headlines to see if they could be optimized for improved engagement rate
- CoSchedule Power Words: Another gem from CoSchedule, this tool provides over 180 words that invoke emotion and power — try using these when writing your headlines
- Advanced Marketing Institute Emotional Headline Analyser: This specialist tool assesses the scale of Emotional Marketing Value of your headline; the higher the score, the more likely it is to connect to readers on an emotional level
Involve the Whole Company
Of course, sometimes the best way to generate content ideas is to get the whole team involved. Not only is this a sure fire way to gain loads of ideas and different perspectives, it also gets the company working together as a team towards a common goal, which in itself will attract engagement and excitement about the company intranet.
Here are a couple of tools that help in this area:
- Brainwriting: Not as scary as it sounds, this is a group task where each team member writes down their thoughts and ideas about a topic and passes along. This tried and tested technique generates a lot more ideas than traditional brainstorming
- Starbursting: Starbursting aims to generate more questions than answers, sparking multiple layers of discussion which are perfect for creating blog ideas
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