Social Intranets: Definition and advantages

Intranet versus Social Intranet

An intranet is part of a company's in-house computer network; its data is contained within the corporate network and the networked computers on the company's network. The term Social Intranet describes a network of social information available to a group of people, often within a workplace, that can be accessed via a website or software program. In contrast to a business intranet, a social intranet is also useful for people who are outside the business. The idea of a Social Intranet was first coined in the early 1990s, initially by the United Kingdom-based group "Friends of Friends" (F4) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Connections program, which was the first implementation. Connections, based on the concept, was a social and educational information site managed by MIT. Today, social intranets have become a major part of the workplace. Social intranets can help to facilitate collaborative work. Social intranets are typically based on an open network model, where information is available to all members of a group. They differ from Intranets, which contain proprietary information for use by a group.

The main difference between social and traditional intranets

• In social intranets, information is distributed to users in a more flexible and direct way. The purpose of a social intranet is to provide information quickly and easily to a targeted audience with no regard to organizational boundaries.
• A social intranet does not use organization-specific technology. Typically, social intranets are websites with a company name as the domain. It provides the potential to share information amongst any organization's staff and users in a very interactive way.

Where Social Intranets help companies

With the internet becoming the primary source of communication, the need for Social Intranets has greatly increased. Social Intranets help you communicate more efficiently by providing information for your company's employees and clients in a centralized place, and by keeping company employees' contact information more readily available. In addition, Social Intranets provide an easy way for employees to quickly obtain information from all areas of the company. An Social Intranet consists of a central database, software, and network or internet connection that allows users to access a secure site from their desktop, laptop, or mobile device. The Social Intranet can provide you with access to a wealth of information for your company. They can be used for many purposes, but a large benefit is communication and teamwork. Social Intranets can be used to promote teamwork, provide employee training and education, provide information on special projects and events, and for secure communication and record keeping for internal business processes.

You can set up the Social Intranet to connect employees at all levels. A successful corporate intranet takes careful consideration and planning, and the cost may be greater than traditional web-based intranets. Many businesses, however, are finding that the benefits greatly outweigh the costs. Intranets also allow you to take advantage of new technology, such as digital audio and video, which were not previously available. This technology allows you to provide your employees with a more comfortable and more effective working environment.

In short, a social intranet creates a connected workplace. In an organization that is used to silo structures, limited communications with remote workers and frontline staff with information in disparate areas, this can be revolutionary.

But the success of a social intranet lies in it being used and managed correctly. If you're using it solely to find company information, store personal data and hold contact details, you're not using your intranet to its full potential. You have to do more than that.

If you are going to use asocial intranet as a tool, you must manage it appropriately. If not, you will just be another company that's just using a website.

The best way to use a social intranet as a tool is to use it as an extension to existing systems and for that reason, you need to understand the basics of how websites work.

Why an Intranet is important for your company?

You may not think an intranet is useful to you personally, but it's important to your organization and your employees. Here are some of the reasons why:

Internal Communications

Internal communications can mean many things in the organization. You can use the intranet to share important news and information with your company. This means you can create news items, updates and other information relevant to all staff. This also includes information such as:

Company procedures

The company news page on an intranet can also be used to notify staff members when a new company document is available to download, when staff leave the company or when new staff join.

This means you can notify your staff members of the new updates on your company. This also helps staff members to stay informed and helps them to feel like they are part of a community in which they are a part of the organization and can understand how it operates.

The advantages of creating an intranet are huge and if you've not considered using one, you should.

Company Culture

When you consider your company, you need to look at what it means to your business. A lot of companies have a company culture. This is the personality of your company. It is the ethos that you live by, the values you live by.

The intranet can act as a place where your company can develop a culture. This is an area of your company that you need to explore and find out what it is like.

It is this discovery that is crucial. It's what drives you to look to see where your business and your employees can improve and where they can achieve greatness.

You don't have to force people into doing things, but if you are an enthusiastic person who wants to improve your company's culture, there are resources that you can look at to understand how your business can go.

Your employee

As well as having a company culture, you need to look at the employees that work for you.

If you have team members that are part of a team, you need to understand what their roles are. This is their responsibility, as well as the team's, in order to ensure that you provide them with the support and services that they need. By providing team members with the information that they need to understand their responsibilities, you will increase the productivity of your team. You will make sure that they have all the tools and information they need to complete the task at hand.

If your team members know that you have provided the information that they need, they will take a better approach to tackling their work. They will ensure that they have everything that they need to know. They will work faster and achieve a higher level of success.

Support

As well as providing the tools, information and a supportive environment for your team members, you need to make sure that you have adequate support for them. You will need to provide them with the tools that they need, such as workstations, computers, and all the materials that they need in order to carry out their responsibilities.

You will need to look at providing your team members with all the information that they need, such as the documents that they need, all the templates that they need, and the processes that they need to carry out their responsibilities.

You will also have to ensure that you provide them with the environment that they need in order to be able to work. You will have to make sure that they have the space that they need in order for them to be able to carry out their responsibilities.