When your company invests in employee communication tools, it’s important that you utilize them actively and maximize their value, especially from a company operations standpoint.
That’s where a well-crafted content strategy comes in and plays a vital role in promoting platform engagement. We’ve talked to hundreds of internal communicators about their employee outreach and have developed a content strategy template to ensure successful adoption of employee communication tools.
As an internal communicator, you can use this template as a guide for defining starting points, briefing the organization, activating the platform, and monitoring its usage. By using this content strategy template, you can drive employee participation, improve communication, foster collaboration, and enhance knowledge-sharing within your company. This will ultimately unlock the full potential of your internal social network solution, leading to increased productivity and operational efficiency.
The 4 Crucial Steps in Your Content Strategy
Our content strategy template is built with these 4 steps in mind to help you better define your goals:
- Define starting points
- Brief the organization
- Activate
- Monitor
#1 Define starting points
Before you begin implementing your content strategy, it’s important to establish the starting points. This means understanding the purpose of your employee communication tool and identifying the key objectives that you want to achieve. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What specific goals do you want to accomplish with the tool? Example: Improving communication, fostering collaboration, and sharing knowledge.
- Who are the primary users or target audience for the tool? Example: Employees from different departments, or remote teams.
- What types of content and interactions are most relevant and valuable for your organization?
- Are there any existing communication channels or other tools that can be integrated within the tool itself?
By clearly defining these starting points, you can align your content strategy with the specific needs and objectives of your organization. Download the content strategy template, print it and simply fill it in.
#2 Brief the organization
Once you have a clear understanding of your starting points, the next step is to inform and involve the organization around the new employee communication tool. This step involves creating awareness and providing guidance to employees. Consider the following actions:
- Send out a company-wide email or announcement explaining the purpose and benefits of the tool.
- Provide clear instructions on how to access and use the tool, including any login credentials or setup requirements.
- Offer training sessions or workshops to demonstrate the features and functionalities of the employee communication tool.
- Create informative documentation or user guides to serve as references for employees.
By effectively briefing the organization, you can ensure that employees are aware of the communication tool and understand how to use it. More about this in our content strategy template.
#3 Activate
Activation is a crucial step in driving initial engagement and usage of the employee communication tool. Here are some strategies you can implement:
- Encourage employees to complete their profiles and provide relevant information about their roles and expertise.
- Seed the platform with compelling content to generate interest and demonstrate the value of the tool. Example: Share important company updates, industry news, or start thought-provoking discussions.
- Create dedicated discussion groups or channels based on relevant topics or departments to foster collaboration and engagement.
- Gamify the platform by introducing challenges, badges, or rewards for active participation, such as posting, commenting, or sharing content.
- Encourage leaders and managers to actively participate and set an example by engaging with employees and sharing valuable insights.
By focusing on activation strategies, you can generate initial momentum and encourage employees to actively use the employee communication tool. Don’t know where to start? Use our content strategy template – we’ve already done half the work for you!
#4 Monitor
By continuously monitoring the tool, you’re able to track the usage and effectiveness of the platform. This ongoing step involves analyzing data and gathering feedback to understand how well the employee communication tool is being utilized and to identify areas for improvement.
Practice the following activities:
- Track key metrics, such as the number of active users, posts, comments, and overall engagement levels.
- Conduct surveys or feedback sessions to gather insights and suggestions from employees regarding their experience with the tool.
- Identify power users or champions who are actively engaging with the tool and encourage them to share their best practices with others.
- Regularly review and update the content strategy and make adjustments based on the insights and feedback received.
By monitoring the usage and feedback, you’re able to continuously optimize the content strategy and ensure that the employee communication tool remains valuable and relevant for your organization.
Keep In Mind
An effective content strategy for an employee communication tool should be adaptable and evolve over time. Regularly assess its usage and user feedback to refine your strategy and maximize the value it brings to your company operations. To plan in your monitoring process, download our content strategy template and make it your own.
Once you have your content strategy set in place, it’s important to monitor activities, and go back to fine-tune the starting points. By analyzing your user engagement data as well as gathering feedback, you’re able to make informed decisions on adjusting and optimizing your strategy.
For instance, if the data reveals that a particular department shows high engagement while others are less active, you may need to refine the target audience and create tailored content for underrepresented groups. Similarly, if users express a desire for more video content, you can adapt the content types to include video posts. Also, if the initial objectives are not aligned with the observed usage patterns, you can modify or expand them accordingly. By continuously evaluating and refining the starting points based on concrete insights, you’re able to ensure that your content strategy is as effective and relevant as possible.
Grab the content strategy template that you can instantly use to communicate with your workforce.