Using SharePoint for Internal Communications

Mark Jones, Founder of Collaboris, SharePoint-Community.Net and SP24

1: Discussion Board

Discuss Topics in the office

Embed discussions list on any page

Can be used for Q and A

Easy to use

Functionality maybe too limited

2: Wiki Site

Quick and easy way to create pages

Easy to link pages

Good for knowledge bases

Good for documentation

3: Announcements List

Easily create a company announcement

Set expiry dates

Searchable

Embed onto high traffic pages

4: SharePoint Survey

Excellent for getting Feedback

Export Results to Excel for analysis

Not very intuitive for the end-user

DocSurvey extends it to add quiz features

5: Yammer

“Facebook for the Enterprise”

Activity Feed to see the latest news

Groups to discuss certain topics

It can replace the SharePoint Newsfeed

Single sign-on with SharePoint / O365

6: DocRead for SharePoint (add-on)

Assign ‘Required Reading’ to staff

Reading List can be embedded on Any page

E.g Mysite, Home Page, Department Page

Staff must agree to your terms

Staff must also pass a quiz (optional)

Use Reports to track progress

7: Content Tagging

Allows users to tag content + add notes

Tags can be shown as a ‘Tag Cloud’

Tags allow content to be better organized

Tags offer a better way to find content of interest

8: SharePoint Alerts

Get an email when content : Is changed

Is deleted

Is added

Choose the frequency

Saves constantly having to check for updates

9: SharePoint Community Site Template

OOTB SharePoint Site Template

Have gamification features to : Encourage participation

Give members a smile

Yammer groups maybe better

10: Use Video

Videos are now supported OOTB

Videos from Youtube can be added

Great way for users to understand

Video really engages more than text

11: SharePoint Blog

Allows staff to blog

Each post is searchable

Supports comments and categories

Features are lacking