To understand why an internal communications blog is important for your organization, let’s first discuss the significance of publishing blogs internally and externally.
Almost all organizations that provide a product or service to their customers keep a blog on their public website. Having a blog is a great way to connect with customers and potential customers. It helps in informing them of what is going on in your organization, such as new product or service releases.
In addition, a blog is a great tool to keep customers up-to-date on the latest industry trends that may affect them or your organization. In other words, a blog is a vital tool for communicating with your customers and potential customers. Most organizations would argue that you need a public blog if you want to be successful.
The same can be said for an internal communication blog. An internal blog is only seen by employees and generally accessed through your intranet. The various ways you can use an internal communication blog are endless, whether it be for executive blogging only or open for all employees to publish posts.
There are a number of reasons why your organization needs an internal blog. Continue reading to find out what they are.
Top 4 reasons you need an internal communications blog
1. Information & knowledge sharing
An internal communication blog is a powerful tool for company-wide information and knowledge sharing. Whenever a change occurs within your organization that everyone needs to be aware of, blogging about it is an excellent way to share the information.
To ensure users actually read it, you can set up Automated Emails. It notifies employees that a new blog post is up, or feeds the information to the intranet home page using an Application Feed Widget. Not only is this an effective way to share information, but it also ensures employees feel important and are up-to-date on the latest company and industry news.
Another excellent use for an internal communication blog is sharing knowledge. Each employee in your organization specializes in something. Whether it be someone from HR blogging about a new hiring process or IT blogging about the latest feature installed on your intranet. Having multiple authors contribute to your internal blog gives other employees a chance to learn about things that aren’t necessarily in their field but are still relevant to them.
2. Communicating company vision
After the hiring process is complete, it’s easy for employees to forget the company vision, goals, and core values. Not because they no longer care once they’ve been hired, but because it is no longer communicated to them outside of an employee handbook or new-hire package.
An internal communication blog allows you to continuously communicate your company vision and core values to employees through your internal communications platform. This ensures that employees know your organization’s vision and values and collectively work towards those vision and values. Having a strong vision and core values that employees can identify with also helps them feel more connected to your organization.
3. Increasing communication & involvement
An internal communication blog is a great addition to the plethora of communication tools already built-in to your intranet. Opening up your blog to allow all employees to post is a great way to start discussions. Employees can publish a blog post about a topic of interest and then enable Comments and Ratings to keep the discussion going well after publishing. This not only promotes open communication between employees but also helps engage employees by boosting involvement and intranet adoption.
Employees can use the internal blog to post about issues, concerns, questions, or interesting company news and invite colleagues to weigh in on the subject. This is especially useful for large organizations or organizations with multiple office locations that can’t openly discuss these topics in face-to-face meetings. If you are an organization able to hold face-to-face meetings, a blog helps keep the conversation going long even after the meeting.
4. Building company culture & community
Hosting an internal communication blog is a great way to foster company culture and build a sense of community. Employees can use the blog to promote upcoming events, increase awareness for volunteer causes, recognize colleagues for a job well done, or celebrate an important employee or organization milestone.
These are all important aspects to creating a workplace culture that your employees are happy to be a part of. An excellent example of one of our customers that does this with their internal blog is New Seasons Market. When an employee reaches a milestone or achievement, a blog is dedicated to that individual on their intranet. The blog features an interview with the employee, their photo, and additional information about them so that all employees can recognize and celebrate this person.
By including some blog posts that aren’t just the usual “all work, no play”, you contributes to a positive corporate culture and creates a community among your employees.
The power of an internal communications blog
Contributing to an internal communication blog is the best way for your organization to share information and knowledge, communicate company vision, increase communication, and boost company culture. The benefits of establishing an internal blog are as great as the benefits reaped from a public blog.
Does your organization have an internal communication blog? If so, what are some best practices you use to maintain your blog? Share with me by commenting below!
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