The destruction of home page news

“I no longer support the idea of home page news and features,” says Shel Holtz, Principal, Holtz Communications + Technology. “My opinion has changed 180 degrees in the past two years. Activity streams is where we are moving.”

Pitney Bowes Intranet home page using Yammer activity stream to

promote home page news and community items.

At Pitney Bowes, Corporate Communications was able to increase readership to intranet news articles by 300% by promoting individual articles in Yammer newsfeeds. Although, news articles still appear on the Pitney Bowes intranet home page, social media activity streams via Yammer are driving users to the news.

Pitney Bowes Intranet home page using Yammer integration

Pitney Bowes Intranet home page using Yammer activity stream to promote home page news and community items

“Email is no longer an efficient channel for communications,” says Holtz. “Social software is becoming more efficient than the traditional tools such as email. Email, like the intranet, and so many tools, was introduced with a focus on deployment, not adoption.”

“We need to deploy channels that employees care about and then pull them in. Organizations need to rethink their policies and what their intranet is as mobile becomes the primary means of access for most employees. If we don’t think about it, employees will think of ways themselves (citing examples of employees using whatsApp and Instagram).”

Although few organizations are rushing to do-away with home page intranet news, intranet social media represents a revolutionary shift in corporate communications and collaboration, and an opportunity for organizations to increase employee engagement by raising emotional capital.

Written by Toby Ward

The founder and CEO of Prescient Digital Media, and Social Business interactive, Toby is an internationally recognized and acclaimed expert in the areas of intranets, enterprise technology, intranets, and social media. Among his many clients are Harvard, HSBC, Mastercard, Nintendo, Pepsico, Sony, and many others.