11/27/2007

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Don't you hate seeing a good intranet go to waste? You sweat and toil away to build and maintain a system only to see it ignored by the users. Sure, you might have a core group of regular users, but it's going to be tough to justify the system's continued existence for only a handful of readers. You can also forget about future expansion too, because there's no way management will invest more money on what they're going to perceive as a sinking ship.

But you don't have to take it lying down. There are many ways to drive more traffic to your intranet. And by "traffic" I'm referring to actual usage, not simple hits -- a word the Web community has appropriately dubbed "How Idiots Track Success."

Here are 10 ways to increase intranet traffic and turn casual users into power users:

1. Minimize or eliminate hard copies

How much paper is floating around your organization? You have employee reference manuals; company policies; security, intellectual property handling, and privacy guidelines; corporate newsletters and announcements; project and contract details. All these can, and should, be ported to your intranet. But it shouldn't be done overnight. Instead, wean users off of the hard copies by gradually reducing the print run. Eventually, users will get used to referring to their intranet for this type of information, and then you'll be able to eliminate the hard copies altogether.

2. Implement social media tools

Is it any surprise that Web 2.0 sites -- MySpace and Facebook (social networking), YouTube and Flickr (video and photo sharing), del.icio.us and Digg (social bookmarking), Wikipedia (wiki-based encyclopedia) -- get as much traffic as they do? Social media tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, and social bookmarking, can also be implemented on an intranet to drive more regular users to the system. One of the great selling points of these types of tools is that it has the potential to turn users from spectators into participants. And once users become more active on the intranet, they're more likely to encourage others to get involved.

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3. Invest in a real search engine or appliance

It drives me batty when I search a Web site and its search feature doesn't know that "organisation" and "organization" are actually the same thing or when I can't find something I know exists because the search engine isn't "smart" enough to figure out the context of my search words. Web sites with finicky search engines create low-quality search engine results pages, that will either contain too many irrelevant results or none at all.

4. Extend access via an extranet and kiosks

A great way to increase intranet traffic is to create equal access across the board to all potential users in all possible situations. An extranet will allow employees from satellite locations and employees who need to work from home or on the road to access the intranet from outside the company walls. And internal kiosks will give employees who don't have their own computer at work such as factory and plant workers equal access the intranet.

5. Post useful tidbits

Content such as internal job opportunities, holiday schedules, special company events, scheduled service interruptions, cafeteria menu, weather, stock quotes can be posted to drive more users to an intranet. And while there, they can run across a slew of other useful information they might not know exists on the system. This leads us to the next tip.

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