(Newswire.net — May 8, 2020) — An organization needs a plan to ensure that employees can access great content on the intranet. You need an effective content management plan for information architecture, strong intranet search and timely, effective and relevant content. Your intranet software solution can be useful when it offers good content. You cannot eliminate bad and stale content without proper content management.
With the advent and popularity of easy intranet software and social media, content creation has become easier. However, if your employees are unable to search and retrieve content, you need to redo your content management plan. This is not an intranet software problem. It is a content problem. Expect poor search results when your intranet is the home of thousands of poorly labeled pages with poor or dated content.
Intranet Content Management
Content management consists of means and methods for creating, storing, accessing and reusing content. It requires:
- Organizational processes and rules
- Appropriate technology solution for content process and workflow
- Engaged users
- Active and motivated content providers, writers and editors
Content Management Planning
This plan provides rules, guidelines and details for content creators, publishers and contributors. It ensures that intranet users can easily access and update content according to rules and standards. A content management plan is more important on social intranets allowing anyone to create content, discuss on forums and comment to blog posts or news stories. Define social intranet content types and roles and responsibilities.
There should be a well-defined set of rules and instructions for every aspect of the content management lifecycle. These aspects include:
- Assessment– Content and processes overview
- Creation– Content creation, editing and publishing
- Organization– Direction on documentation, workflow, metadata, taxonomy, wireframes and information architecture
- Management– Editing, renewing, reviewing, monitoring, maintaining and archiving content
- Maintenance– Storing, accessing, repurposing/reusing and deleting content
- Policies– Social media, email, and home page news and taxonomy
- Measurement– Measuring, tracking and analyzing content consumption and performance
Content Lifecycle
You can define and depict content management in different ways. Content management lifecycle has the following three key components:
- Create
- Publish
- Manage
Create
- Planning, writing and approving content
Publish
- Publishing content according to rules and guidelines
- Adding keywords, metadata and versions
Manage
- Allowing access to content
- Allowing content owners to review, control and eventually, delete and/or archive content
Not every piece of information remains relevant for a long period of time. You must have content renew deadlines and expiry dates for your content. At some point, you have to renew or refresh or delete content after a predetermined time.
Strategy and Governance
Intranet Strategy
Understanding the underlying strategy is important for the success of a plan. Proper content management planning aligns and supports the intranet strategic plan and strategic direction of the organization.
Mission Statement
You need a mission statement for the highest level of strategic direction. It provides intranet’s purpose and guidance to the intranet team.
Goals and Objectives
Goals are the directives that can be expanded according to the mission. The organization needs guidance for developing measurable goals. The objective of content management has to be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-sensitive. For example:
- Increase ROI
- Reduce email volume
- Reduce time spent on searches and navigation
- Increase employee engagement
Intranet Governance
Governance is about ownership and management. Intranet governance includes:
- Management team
- Decision making process
- Roles and responsibilities
- Governance model
- Policies and standards
The goal of governance is to establish rules, roles and responsibilities to support and direct content management initiatives.
Social Intranet
A lot of organizations think that social intranet can hurt the productivity of employees. There is always a fear of misuse. If you are investing in the right intranet software solution, you don’t have to worry about this problem. You can implement policies and monitor how your employees are using this powerful tool.