Bridging the intranet adoption chasm

CONTENTS
1 AN INTRODUCTION TO INTRANET ENGAGEMENT THEORY 3.
REASONS TO LOG ON:
ENGAGING THE CONSERVATIVES AND SCEPTICS
13. 2
REASONS TO RETURN:
KEEPING THE PRAGMATISTS COMING BACK
19. 3
REASONS TO LEAD:
APPEALING TO THE ENTHUSIASTS & VISIONARIES
27. 4
REASONS TO SPONSOR:
GAINING WHOLEHEARTED SUPPORT FROM MANAGEMENT
43.6
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:
CREATING AND MAINTAINING THE BUZZ
35. 5
SMALLWORLDERS INTRANET ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK:
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
51. 7

1
AN INTRODUCTION
TO INTRANET
ENGAGEMENT THEORY

WHY SO MANY INTRANETS FAIL
You have just launched a brand new site.
All the bells and whistles are there. Every
feature you could possibly implement and
everything your research said anybody could
possibly want to do. Plus a few extra cool
things you once saw at a conference.
The first few days look good. Lots of people
are logging on. Usage statistics are great.
The stakeholders’ hopes are high that before
long, this site will be the buzzing information
and social hub of the company.
AN INTRODUCTION TO INTRANET ENGAGEMENT THEORY 04.
FIGURE: SLOW ADOPTION CURVE
But after a week or two the usage starts to
level off, and after a month it’s reduced to a
slow trickle. By your first bi-annual review
the usage remains low, and you are left
wondering where to go from here.
So, what just happened?

05.
To begin to unpack the behaviour of our usage curve, we start with Everett M Rogers’
1962 Technology Adoption Lifecycle. This theory postulates that any new technology
will follow a similar adoption pattern from Innovators through to Laggards.
In 1991, Geoffrey A Moore extended Rogers’ theory in the context of high-tech
products, and associated five personality groups with the five adoption groups. In
order of adoption speed, these personality groups are: Enthusiasts, Visionaries,
Pragmatists, Conservatives and finally, Sceptics.
FIGURE: TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION LIFECYCLE
AN INTRODUCTION TO INTRANET ENGAGEMENT THEORY

By applying these personality groups to our
failed intranet launch, we can start to explore
what happened.
During the first week or two after launch,
the Enthusiasts, Visionaries, Pragmatists
and perhaps even the Conservatives showed
a bit of interest. The Enthusiasts and the
Visionaries logged on, saw some cool
features they liked, set up their profile,
added all their colleagues to their contacts
list and started working out how this new site
would fit into their day-to-day jobs.
The Pragmatists logged on and saw a site
packed full of features, assumed their
intended use would become apparent over
time and then logged off, waiting for when
they would be required to log back on.
The Conservatives may have logged on,
seen a site full of stuff they see no point in
and immediately logged off again, hoping
nothing would interfere with their existing,
comfortable routines.
A week or two after launch and the only
people left using the site are the Enthusiasts
and the Visionaries.
Moore identified this pattern of behaviour
and called it the Adoption Chasm.
06.
FIGURE: ADOPTION CHASM

Let’s take for granted that the launch of any new intranet will be accompanied by an
initial spike in usage. Let us then focus on the usage pattern after this initial spike. If
usage remains nothing more than a slow trickle of Enthusiasts and Visionaries, you
have failed to engage the Pragmatists and Conservatives and have fallen foul of the
adoption chasm.
07.
FIGURE: UN-BRIDGED ADOPTION CHASM

So how can we stop this from happening? How can we turn our usage graph into this
instead?
To do this we must find ways to engage the Pragmatists, Conservatives and Sceptics.
08.
FIGURE: BRIDGED ADOPTION CHASM

UNDERSTANDING
HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
To bridge the adoption chasm, we must
first understand a bit more about why
people behave in the ways they do. With this
understanding we can begin to formulate
a plan to better engage the Pragmatists,
Conservatives and Sceptics.
To help us we turn to Abraham Maslow’s
1943 Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow states
we are all governed by a hierarchy of needs
which must be satisfied in order to achieve
personal fulfilment and wellbeing. Our most
basic needs are at the bottom and our more
aspirational needs sit at the top.
Maslow states that we cannot focus on a
particular stratum in the hierarchy unless
we have first satisfied all the supporting
strata.
In 2013, Aaron Kim, Head of the Digital Social
Collaboration Centre of Excellence at Royal
Bank of Canada, made a connection between
the hierarchy of needs and technology
adoption. He noticed that the five personality
groups in the technology adoption lifecycle
could be loosely identified with the five strata
in the hierarchy of needs:
09.
FIGURE: MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Overlaying the two theories highlights
motivations behind adoption behaviour.
The Sceptics and the Conservatives will
be motivated to use a site only when their
survival or wellbeing are at risk. In other
words, the site must offer functionality that is
essential for their day-to-day work. Anything
less and they are unlikely to log on beyond an
initial visit at launch.
The Pragmatists will use a site if it’s useful
and adds practical value to their day-to-day
work. The site should contain functionality
that makes their work lives easier or more
enjoyable.
You can appeal to the Visionaries and the
Enthusiasts by giving them opportunities
within the site for prestige and recognition.
You should then use all the tools at your
disposal to seed interest across the
organisation. This is done with a mixture of
traditional messages and a strategy to create
and maintain buzz around the intranet.
Finally, you must ground the entire intranet
project on wholehearted support from
management. You can do this by presenting
how the intranet will benefit the organisation,
in other words, demonstrating return on
investment (ROI). This will ensure proper
resources and funding are made available for
both the initial development as well as the
ongoing maintenance of the site.
10.AN INTRODUCTION TO INTRANET ENGAGEMENT THEORY

To summarise:
1. PROVIDE REASONS TO LOG ON
For the Sceptics and Conservatives the
site needs to be essential for day-to-day
business.
2. PROVIDE REASONS TO RETURN
For the Pragmatists the site needs to be
worth returning to.
3. PROVIDE REASONS TO LEAD
For the Enthusiasts and Visionaries the
site should provide opportunities for
prestige and recognition.
These building blocks are the core 3
principles of intranet engagement.
You then need a communications strategy to
spread the word to the furthest reaches of
the organisation:
4. PROVIDE WAYS TO ADVOCATE
Propagate momentum throughout the
organisation by leveraging the Enthusiasts,
Visionaries and senior management as
well as traditional messaging techniques.
Finally, strong building blocks must be built
on solid foundations:
5. PROVIDE REASONS TO SPONSOR
Secure wholehearted support from
management.
SMALLWORLDERS’ INTRANET
ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The key to bridging the adoption chasm is one of momentum: staff will use the site if
they think that everybody else is using the site.
Capturing the natural buzz around a newly-launched site and turning it into ongoing
enthusiasm is the key difference between a highly engaged intranet and a digital
wasteland.
The SmallWorlders Intranet Engagement Framework represents a thorough,
360° approach to engaging all personality types within an organisation. If properly
executed it will keep the momentum and excitement high enough to turn the post-
launch usage spike into a healthy, increasing usage pattern for the future.
ENTHUSIASTS
PRAGMATISTS
VISIONARIES
CONSERVATIVES
SCEPTICS

REASONS TO LOG ON:
ENGAGING THE
CONSERVATIVES
AND SCEPTICS
2

INTRODUCTION
ENGAGING THE CONSERVATIVES
AND SCEPTICS
We saw in the previous chapter that bridging the adoption chasm requires an
intranet built around the needs and personalities of various groups within the
organisation.
As a quick reminder, the groups are: Enthusiasts, Visionaries, Pragmatists,
Conservatives and Sceptics. Each group is progressively more resistant to new
technologies. In this chapter I will discuss how to engage the most resistant of these
groups: the Conservatives and the Sceptics.
Conservatives and Sceptics are instinctively
resistant to change and won’t want to start
using a new site.

In order to persuade them to adopt the
new technology, provide functionalities
and features essential for their work which
cannot be accessed anywhere else.
If the intranet is the only place to perform
certain tasks, an opportunity is created to
expose these resistant adopters to new ways
of working.
14.
Business-essential functions provide
the bread and butter of any intranet’s
engagement potential.
In other words, give employees Reasons To
Log On.
REASONS TO LOG ON:

FINDING REASONS TO LOG ON
A few features providing reasons to log on:
• Employee directory: An effective and
simple to use person-finder makes an
essential organisational tool. The key is to
make sure it’s the only person finder tool
employees can use. If this is not possible
then it must be the most comprehensive,
accurate and easy-to-use person finder
tool in the organisation.
• Reference repository: Governance
documents, codes of practice and other
organisational reference material can be
placed exclusively on the intranet.
• Employee induction materials: From the
very outset, new employees can use the
intranet as their basis for orientation and
induction.
• Help & support: Technical support,
support from other departments (Finance,
HR) can be managed within the intranet
environment. If an employee has a
problem, “go to the intranet for help and
support” should be the default response.
• Transactional systems: Booking leave,
expense claims, meeting room booking,
event registration, form submissions, and
so on.
15.
FIND EMPLOYEE
John Do
Lorem IpsumCompany
REASONS TO LOG ON:

COMMUNICATIONS:
INTRANET VS EMAILS
Many organisations suffer from corporate
email overload. Possible reasons for this:
• Senior Management have a lot to
communicate
• Groups of employees are hard to segment,
so emails relevant for certain staff get sent
to everyone.
Key problems with communicating every
message via email:
• Employees start to ignore emails (email
“blindness”)
• Emails get lost in overfull inboxes, and
there is no guarantee that the contents are
read
• Communications managers spend all their
time composing and sending emails to
middle management, who then spend more
time emailing their teams
• Relevant communications aren’t easily
retrieved once buried in an inbox
Imagine if an organisation simply removed
email as an internal communications
channel. Instead, all messages and
announcements are delivered via a newsfeed
on the intranet homepage. This newsfeed
is personalised to each employee, based
on tags assigned to the news items by
the author. The most important items are
highlighted as banner content. Where
appropriate, commenting is made available.
New items link to older, related content to
provide context. Questions are asked and
answered publicly on the site so responses
only have to be provided once.
So now employees engage with corporate
communications by logging on to the
intranet. Furthermore, messages are
available to all levels within the organisation
simultaneously. It is now in the interest
of management to monitor the intranet
newsfeeds so that they remain as informed
as their staff.
An internal communications manager once
did just that: shut down all centre-out emails
and moved internal comms exclusively onto
the intranet. After a week, she had middle
management on the phone asking why all
their team members knew about things
before they did. After a month, all middle
management and employees regularly
logged onto the intranet to stay informed.
In addition to the obvious boost to the
intranet, she was able to spend more time
on her other responsibilities and less
time passing on communications from the
top down. What’s more, by allowing for
comments on articles she opened up a two-
way communications channel with staff.
16.
REASONS TO LOG ON:

REMOVING BARRIERS
Of all the different user groups, the Conservatives and the Sceptics will be the first
to give up if a task becomes difficult. To avoid this, special care must be taken with
Reasons To Log On functionalities to ensure visibility is high and access is as simple
as possible.
Put key functionality into high level menus or shortcuts from the homepage. And
use great UX to make it obvious how to use the functionality, rather than providing
detailed user instructions.
Do this and the Conservatives and Sceptics will be pleasantly surprised. Fail to do
this and their fears and worries about the intranet will be confirmed.
17.
REASONS TO LOG ON:

CONCLUSIONS
In order to establish a base level of intranet engagement, and win over the
Conservatives and the Sceptics, intranet planners should seek to include functions
and features that:
• Are essential for employees’ jobs (daily or otherwise)
• Can only be found on the intranet
• Are easy to access and easy to use
A case should be made to move other systems exclusively onto the intranet,
including transactional or communication functions.
Do this and you will be well on your way to a highly engaged intranet.
REASONS TO LOG ON:
ENGAGING THE CONSERVATIVES AND SCEPTICS 18.

REASONS TO RETURN:
KEEPING THE
PRAGMATISTS
COMING BACK
3

INTRODUCTION
Pragmatists are not actively resistant to new technologies, but neither do they
gravitate naturally towards them. They will go to the intranet if they see a need to
do so, but more importantly if they are given reasons to come back they will become
loyal and regular consumers of the technology.
For these users we need to ensure that the site satisfies three rules:
1. The site must be useful
2. The site must be interesting
3. The site must be likeable
20.
REASONS TO RETURN:

MAKING AN INTRANET USEFUL
This sounds like an obvious requirement
for an intranet, but “useful” can be very
subjective. It will mean different things to
different staff members. For an employee to
find functionality useful it must enhance their
own work life in some way.
Some “useful” functionalities may overlap
with Reasons To Log On, but in general these
are not essential for day-to-day business.
Think about personalising the site
structure for different types of users – not
just personalising content. Personalised
navigation and personalised homepage
features will help provide different users
with their own set of useful features.
If this degree of personalisation is not an
option then consider which features provide
the greatest direct benefit to the greatest
number of users.
Some examples include:
• Team rooms or private collaboration areas
• “Ask a question” areas
• Best practice libraries
• Corporate logos and basic design
guidelines
• News feeds
• Tools & toolkits
• Acronym busters
• Office how-to guides
• Registration for internal events
21.
REASONS TO RETURN:
TEAM ROOMS
BEST PRACTICE
LIBRARIES
ASK A QUESTION
TOOLS & TOOLKITS

MAKING AN INTRANET
INTERESTING
An “interesting” intranet is worth returning to regularly. There are three key aspects
to creating an interesting intranet:
• Turnover
• Relevancy
• Evolution
22.
REASONS TO RETURN:
REGULAR TURNOVER OF CONTENT
As a general rule, users should never see the
same homepage twice. Assuming a typical
user logs on to the intranet every day or two,
then the turnover of content should be just as
frequent.
This can be achieved in various ways:

• User activity: An easy way to achieve an
ever-changing homepage is to include an
activity feed. It needs no maintenance and
will constantly provide something new to
regular visitors.
• User generated content: Surface relevant
user generated content on the homepage.
• Editorialised content: Some intranets
have dedicated content producers creating
high-quality editorialised content. If you
are lucky enough to have this level of
resourcing, feature the content prominently
on the homepage. Regularly published,
good quality content is a great asset to
have. Flaunt it.
• News: If your intranet has a
communications aspect then make sure
there is a news feed, promotional feature
piece or carousel on the homepage. Use
eye-catching visuals.
To turn good intentions into real content
your intranet will need a content calendar.
And this calendar should sit within
your organisation’s broader internal
communications plan to ensure it is both
relevant and given due emphasis.
The schedule should show the expected
frequency of regular content (blogs, news
articles, editorialised content) as well as
anticipated content peaks throughout the
year (AGMs, awards ceremonies, strategic
plan submission deadlines). The calendar
should allow time for content creation
and upload, not just publishing dates. It’s
also advisable to add in dates for content
coercion - i.e. reminding and motivating
content creators! Adherence to the schedule
should be monitored closely by the intranet
manager. And of course the schedule should
be available on the intranet itself.
A good turnover of content will reinforce
the intranet as the source of the latest
information within the organisation.

PERSONALLY RELEVANT
Another way to make an intranet “interesting” is to make it personally relevant to
each user. As well as personalising the navigation and homepage layout, the content
itself can be personalised.
The degree of personalisation will often depend on your technology, but in general
content can be personalised according to:
• Geography
• Job role
• Interests
• Learned behaviour
23.
REASONS TO RETURN:

CONTINUOUS EVOLUTION
Not an option for every intranet, but the idea
of continuous evolution has become the
standard for websites in recent years. Think
of Google or Facebook. On an almost monthly
basis they make small incremental changes
to their sites, meaning the site interfaces
never feel outdated. In addition there is
rarely any opposition to new features and
designs because the differences between
each iteration are so small.
In the intranet context, continuous evolution
may mean adjustments to page layouts or
navigational structure based on learnings
from ongoing UX research. It can also
mean the inclusion of new features and the
removal of under-used features.
The removal of obsolete content is also
important; there’s no need to display five
versions of a policy document when only one
version is intended for use. Regular content
audits and content purges help prevent
sites becoming bloated with superceded
information.
One corporate intranet had a particularly
brutal approach to this problem: every 12
months they automatically deleted the
content across the entire site. The only
way to protect content from this purge was
for authors to re-validate their content in
advance.
This method may appear extreme but
it worked very well - only current and
important content was renewed and the
intranet was never encumbered with old,
out-of-date information.
Evolution of the Heinken BrandPortal
2008 - 2014
24.
REASONS TO RETURN:
2010
2014
2008
2012

MAKING AN INTRANET LIKEABLE
EASY TO USE
It’s all very well making an intranet packed full of useful features and interesting
content, but if the presentation is poor it will not appeal to the Pragmatists.
The intranet must have “likeability”.
Likeability boils down to two things. The intranet must be:
• Easy to use
• Fun to use
Employ usability tools and techniques to
make sure the site is simple and easy to
understand. Users expect functionality to
be straightforward and obvious. The site
structure and the page layouts should also
be clear and well thought out.
There are dedicated websites and books
which cover this topic in detail.
FUN TO USE
The site should be nicely designed, easy
on the eyes, slick and glossy. This will add
sparkle and fun to the user experience and
ensure that the site is well perceived. Your
staff will be familiar with well-designed
websites and apps they use outside of work,
and the intranet should be no different.
25.
REASONS TO RETURN:

CONCLUSIONS
A vital component to any intranet engagement strategy, the Reasons To Return are
designed to appeal to the Pragmatists within the organisation. If we give them a site
that satisfies the three standards of:
• Usefulness
• Interest
• Likeability
Then we are providing a site that not only supports, but enhances their daily
routines. Get it right, and we can be confident they will return to the site on a regular
basis. With the Pragmatists engaged we can look forward to watching usage levels
grow.
26.
REASONS TO RETURN:

REASONS TO LEAD:
APPEALING TO
THE ENTHUSIASTS
& VISIONARIES
4

INTRODUCTION
Visionaries and Enthusiasts need little encouragement to become engaged In the
first place, but if we provide them opportunities for recognition and prestige they
will easily become the site superusers - i.e. those responsible for much of the user-
generated content and visible activity.
So how do we appeal to these people beyond the measures outlined in the Reasons
To Log On and Reasons To Return?

To appeal to the Enthusiasts and the Visionaries, we should provide opportunities
for:
• Contribution
• Visibility
• Leadership
28.
REASONS TO LEAD:

CONTRIBUTION
Opportunities to contribute are key to offering the prestige that Enthusiasts and
Visionaries are looking for. Contribution helps establish them as a visible presence
on the site (see next the section, Visibility).
There is a spectrum of opportunities to contribute on a platform such as an intranet.
The Visionaries will be quite happy with basic social features such as:
• Commenting
• Liking
• Rating/voting
The Enthusiasts may be tempted to engage in more high-level contribution features
such as:
• Posting articles
• Discussion forums
29.
KELLY MARTINS
JOHN PHILIPS
has commented on Annual Report 2015
has uploaded a new article Sustainability
Report 2015
Jan 01
Dec 15
13
11
5
Dec 15
REASONS TO LEAD:

VISIBILITY
To appeal to the Visionaries and Enthusiasts,
include the contributor’s profile picture
wherever possible. Visionaries and
Enthusiasts enjoy the recognition gained by
their visual presence on news and activity
feeds.
Opportunities to show the user’s picture
include:
• Comments
• Article authorship
• Lists of most active users
• Lists of latest posts
We work with an innovation community
where a monthly email newsletter is sent
to all members. In each issue we include
a section called “Innovator of the Month”,
where a prominent contributor is named
and publicly thanked for their efforts and
dedication.
30.
VANESSA MICHAELS
PROJECT MANAGER
Vanessa has been a part of the ABC company for
25 years as a project manager for international
clients.
Send Message Add to Contacts
Articles
19 31
Comments
12
Followers
15
Following
This kind of visibility and recognition is
extremely well received by the featured
users, and they often go on to become even
more prolific as a result of their special
mention.
We also do something similar for a global
marketing agency where an office is featured
in “Office of the Month”. Besides helping the
agency get to know their own network, the
initiative encourages competition between
the offices to ensure their office profiles,
staff profiles, content and case studies are
up-to-date, useful and entertaining.
REASONS TO LEAD:

LEADERSHIP
LEADING CONVERSATIONS
Enthusiasts will demonstrate leadership
through offering skills, opinions or
knowledge to other users on the site.
There are three main types of leadership
opportunities:
• Leading conversations
• Supporting other users
• Being an ambassador
A chance to lead a conversation holds great
appeal for Enthusiasts.
To generate such chances, offer ways to
create self-service teams or groups around
particular topics. The group creator can then
manage their members and facilitate the
conversations.
Blogs provide another opportunity to lead
conversations. Give a knowledgeable user
a blog and they will have a channel to start
conversations and promote their areas of
interest.
A community manager from Bosch offered
blogs to staff who had an interesting
proposal for a blog topic and were able to
commit a small amount of their time.
The blogs were limited in number so it was
considered something of a distinction to have
one.
Every month the community manager would
encourage some of the senior management
to read the blog posts and leave comments.
The bloggers were suitably delighted with the
comments from senior staff on their posts.
And the managers enjoyed the opportunity
to have conversations with highly engaged
individuals within their organisation.
31.
REASONS TO LEAD:

32.
REASONS TO LEAD:

SUPPORTING OTHERS AMBASSADORIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Enthusiasts with particular skills or
knowledge will be happy to share their
expertise with others, so opportunities to
answer questions or post to forums will
appeal.
As discussed previously, one reason to
return for Pragmatists is the opportunity to
ask questions, or view questions others had
asked. The other half of this feature is right
here with the Enthusiasts - answering the
questions raised.
Our Enthusiast superusers are the perfect
target group for ambassador networks. This
will be discussed in Chapter 5: Creating and
Maintaining the Buzz - Ways to Advocate.
33.
REASONS TO LEAD:

CONCLUSIONS
The features described in this chapter will
appeal predominantly to Enthusiasts and
Visionaries. So while they might make up
some of the more interesting aspects of your
intranet, they cannot be relied upon for site-
wide engagement.
A few years back when social features first
became fashionable for intranets, I worked
on a site where the focus of the homepage
was a large activity feed. All sorts of social
activities were encouraged: commenting,
liking, rating, sharing, posting etc. The site
launched with great fanfare and very quickly
the homepage feed filled up with a constant
stream of activity. However, despite the
appearance of bustling activity, the visitor
numbers were low. The actual visitors were
an active but very small group of individuals.
We had successfully engaged the Enthusiasts
and Visionaries with fun social features
and forgotten about the Pragmatists,
Conservatives and Sceptics. A redesign of the
homepage gave much more focus to Reasons
To Log On and Reasons To Return, and after
the relaunch we established a much more
sustainable userbase.
When social features are used to enhance
(but not define) a site, they are an
effective way of fulfilling the Enthusiasts
and Visionaries without dismissing the
Pragmatists, Conservatives and Sceptics.
However, get the balance of social features
wrong and you could be left staring into the
adoption chasm.
34.
REASONS TO LEAD:

CREATING AND
MAINTAINING THE
BUZZ
5
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

INTRODUCTION
I have discussed how to engage the
Pragmatists, Conservatives and Sceptics.
However, we still need some extra help
spreading the word to these users in the
first place. This is where the next element of
intranet engagement comes in: the Ways To
Advocate.
The launch of a new site always creates a
certain amount of buzz, primarily amongst
the Enthusiasts and Visionaries. With an
advocation strategy we aim to spread the
word beyond these groups to ensure that the
maximum number of people are encouraged
to visit the site and see what all the fuss is
about.
There are 3 parts to a good advocation
strategy:
• Traditional communications
• Ambassador network (YES! team)
• Senior management involvement
36.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:
There has been a lot written on the subject
of traditional communications, so I will not
discuss this channel here. Instead I will
focus on the other two channels.
Two points to note:
• The results of an advocation strategy
should appear spontaneous and user-
driven, even though they have been
centrally choreographed
• Eventually the advocation strategy must
evolve from creating momentum to
maintaining it.

YES! TEAM
A YES! Team is a network of ambassadors or
champions for your site, and a vital tool for
the ongoing management of communities,
especially within large organisations.
37.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

IDENTIFICATION & RECRUITMENT
Members of your YES! Team are recruited
largely from the Enthusiasts and Visionaries,
but could be from any of the personality
groups. In fact, sometimes the greatest
ambassadors are former Sceptics who have
had the benefits of the site successfully
demonstrated and subsequently turned into
powerful advocates.
As a general rule, start your team with
engaged users who regularly leave
comments or contribute to the site. Users
who have provided site feedback - good or
bad - are also excellent targets.
38.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM?
Offer your team access to exclusive content, particularly around advocation and their
ambassadorial role.
Provide them rights to do more on the site - for example approve user generated
content or moderate forums.
Give them access to a private community where they can communicate with other
ambassadors. This community could be gameified - reward their ambassadorial
activities with badges, points or ambassador levels. Set challenges around certain
activities, for example “answer 3 questions in the support forums”.
Give ambassadors access to beta versions of new features and areas of the site
ahead of a full company launch.
Finally, offer them exclusive opportunities to influence the direction of the intranet
e.g. participate in card sorting for navigation updates, make comments on site re-
designs and even run usability tests within their teams.
After identifying a potential ambassador,
connect with them offering them the
opportunity to join the YES! Team.
Membership of the YES! Team should
be optional, and it is important to allow
ambassadors to leave if they no longer wish
to participate. To this end, membership could
be reviewed annually.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
AMPLIFICATION INSIGHTS
SUPPORT EVENTS
The main purpose of an ambassador
network is to spread the word about the site
throughout the organisation. Task them with
this. Reward this. Activities could include:
• Casual interactions with colleagues
• Proactive involvement in on-site
communities
• Blogs
• Guest articles in offline publications
Ambassador networks are an invaluable
source of feedback about the site and its
users. Set up an exclusive feedback loop
between you and your ambassadors. Not only
are they best placed to represent and relay
the general feelings of users, but they should
know that their feedback influences decision-
making.
In a large organisation it is a time-consuming
challenge to stay on top of communications
with individual users. Ambassadors are well
placed to take on this responsibility. They
can be tasked and rewarded for answering
questions in support forums, or they could
even be a named contact for certain topics of
user questions and queries.
Encourage and support ambassadors with
events, such as training or localised events
supported by the site. Support them with
funding, materials or other resources.
39.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

40.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

SENIOR MANAGEMENT
INVOLVEMENT
There are two ways in which senior management can assist advocation:
• Public Backing: They can publicly back the intranet in interviews, articles or
newsletters.
• Site Contributions: If senior management contribute to the site, it can generate
additional buzz and inspire others to contribute. As a general rule, management
blogs or other time-heavy managerial contributions often lose momentum and
become counterproductive. Instead, try and encourage senior management
to make the occasional comment or status update (what they achieved today,
thanking individuals, etc.). The overhead on this is much lower, and they will likely
enjoy the direct feedback and comments from employees.
Bear in mind that as busy people they might want to post a comment on the go, so
make sure this functionality is available from a mobile or tablet interface.
41.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

CONCLUSIONS
An advocation strategy is an important component of a successful site and without it,
we may fail to bridge the adoption chasm and reach the Pragmatists, Conservatives
and Sceptics. Many of the activities outlined in this chapter can be choreographed
centrally, particularly the early involvement of senior management and the YES!
Team.
The key is to give the impression of a well-patronised and lively site, right from the
outset.
I know a community manager who literally went from room to room after launch and
stood over people’s shoulders, suggesting comments to post. This seeding of activity
encouraged further interest, and it wasn’t long before users started commenting
and posting content on their own.
Unlike the Reasons To Log On, Reasons To Return and Reasons To Lead, which
typically require the most consideration during the intranet planning stages, the
Ways To Advocate is a constant, ongoing concern.
42.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE:

GAINING
SUPPORT FROM
MANAGEMENT
6
REASONS TO SPONSOR:

INTRODUCTION
As previously discussed, in order to bridge
the adoption chasm we must plan our
intranet around the needs and personalities
of the different groups within the
organisation.
However, the long-term success of any
intranet depends not just on the initial
outlay to plan and build the site, but ongoing
investment in maintaining it.
Launch day is often mistakenly viewed as
the end of the intranet project; in reality the
launch is the real beginning of the intranet’s
lifecycle.
44.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:
GAINING SUPPORT FOR MANAGEMENT
To secure ongoing financial commitment
from senior management we need to
demonstrate and quantify the benefits that
the intranet provides to the organisation.

HOW DOES AN INTRANET
BENEFIT THE ORGANISATION?
All too often intranets are left to stagnate
without any interest from management in
ongoing investment.
If the benefits of a fully-operational intranet
could be demonstrated, they might be
more willing to invest time, money, staff or
all three into its maintenance and future
development. Furthermore, management
support is a key aspect of the Ways To
Advocate (see the previous chapter).
There are many other resources which
attempt to put a literal value on an
intranet, so here I will consider how a
poor-performing intranet can hinder an
organisation.
45.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:
If you can demonstrate that a poorly
maintained intranet is losing the
organisation money and time, then you
can start to build a business case for more
budget, time and resources. Put simply, you
need a measurement strategy.
There are two metrics that are particularly
useful when it comes to measuring the
performance of an intranet:
• Intranet engagement
• Key task completion times

MEASURING INTRANET
ENGAGEMENT
Measuring the success of an intranet is an old problem. Typically organisations will
use various analytics such as the percentage of employees visiting the site, number
of page views and so on to try and inform their managers of progress.
There are three problems with this approach:
1. The Completeness Problem
Metrics are chosen for real-world reasons - often they are the easiest ones to
extract from the data. The metrics are therefore arbitrary and do not cover all
aspects of an intranet’s performance.
2. The Overview Problem
Metrics are unrelated and must be considered in isolation from each other. An
overall view must be interpolated from separate graphs and tables.
3. The Comparison Problem
Metrics only make sense within the context of individual organisations. Attempts
to “compare notes” between organisations lack meaning.
Thankfully there is a method that combats all three of these problems: the
SmallWorlders Intranet Engagement Model.
With this model we can generate a single number that uniquely and objectively
describes an intranet’s performance. The model can be applied equally and
consistently to intranets large and small, allowing the resulting Engagement Score
to be compared between any two intranets.
46.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:

PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING
The model also allows us to solve another
common problem - assessing how an
intranet is really performing.
A benchmark of intranet engagement data
has been collected using the SmallWorlders
Intranet Engagement Model. By comparing
the engagement score of a specific intranet
against this benchmark we can easily see if
an intranet is performing well or not.
47.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:
MAKING THE CASE
If the intranet is positioned badly against
the engagement benchmark, then there is
a good chance it is underperforming. The
features and functionalities designed to
make the organisation more efficient are
not being used effectively. Therefore budget,
time and resources are required to turn the
situation around.
The Engagement Score will help monitor the
improvement of that performance and is an
ideal metric on which to base KPIs.

MEASURING TASK COMPLETION
TIMES
IDENTIFYING KEY TASKS
Top Task Analysis is a technique pioneered by Gerry McGovern in the mid 00s. There
are two main components to this technique:
• Identifying key tasks for which the intranet is used
• Measuring the success/failure rate and the completion times for those tasks
“The Stranger’s Long Neck” by Gerry McGovern covers this subject in detail, so I will
just provide an overview here.
Show users a list of tasks and ask them to
pick the 5 most important ones for doing
their job on a day to day basis. The votes are
aggregated to create a list of top tasks for
that particular organisation.
Focus on the 5-10 most popular tasks and
measure their success/failure rates and
completion times.
48.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:
SUCCESS RATES & COMPLETION TIMES
Ask a sample of users to try and complete
the top tasks identified previously. Watch
their screens as they attempt to complete
the tasks.
Record each task outcome as a success or
a failure, and record how long they took to
reach this outcome.
Search
15s

MAKING THE CASE
For each of the tested tasks, now measure the completion time for a competent user
familiar with that task. This is the expected completion time for that task.
Compare the average completion times with the expected completion times. Every
minute longer than expected that a task took to complete is a wasted minute. So if
the average completion times for the top 10 tasks were 2 minutes over the expected
times, that equates to 20 wasted minutes per employee per day.
This data can then be used to make the case that the intranet needs investment in
UX and possibly design and development.
49.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:

CONCLUSIONS
We have seen that the key to a successfully engaged intranet is more than just fancy
features and a cool name. It requires time and resources to research Reasons To
Log On, the Reasons To Return and the Reasons To Lead, and then it takes more
time and resources to develop those findings into an intranet capable of appealing to
all of the personality groups within the organisation.
It then needs ongoing resources in order to maintain the buzz around the intranet,
as well as to ensure regular turnover of content and continuous improvement of the
site.
This is a considerable investment, and in order to secure this commitment,
wholehearted support from management must be sought. Gain it and the freedom to
develop, deliver and maintain a highly successful intranet is there. Fail to gain it and
the intranet adoption chasm starts to look very wide indeed.
50.
REASONS TO SPONSOR:

PUTTING IT
ALL TOGETHER
7
THE SMALLWORLDERS ENGAGEMENT
INTRANET FRAMEWORK:

SUMMARY
We have seen over the previous 6 chapters that the key to bridging the intranet
adoption chasm is to appeal to each of the personality groups within the organisation
on their own terms. These are the 3 core principles of intranet engagement. We
also have a strategy to create momentum throughout the organisation, and I have
discussed how to gain the support required to apply these principles.
This chapter will put together all the elements from the SmallWorlders Intranet
Engagement Framework into a checklist of items to consider throughout the lifetime
of an intranet, from conception through to delivery and beyond.
The checklist can be categorised in two ways:
According to the Framework:
• Reasons To Log On
• Reasons To Return
• Reasons To Lead
• Ways To Advocate
• Reasons To Sponsor
According to their execution:
• Technology
• Design
• Communications / Launch
• Ongoing
Both provide useful ways of visualising the SmallWorlders Intranet Engagement
Framework.
52.

INTRANET ENGAGEMENT
FRAMEWORK – CHECKLIST
REASONS TO LOG ON
• Essential functionalities (essential,
exclusive, easy)
REASONS TO RETURN
• Useful functionalities
• Regular turnover of content
• Personalisation
• Continuous improvement plan
• Good UX/Usability
• Slick/Fun design
REASONS TO LEAD
• Social Features
• User profile pictures
• Self-service groups/team rooms
• User Blogs
Here is a summary of the considerations that should be made over the lifetime of
an intranet. By organising them around the SmallWorlders Intranet Engagement
Framework, we can easily see how each feature is designed to complement the
other features in its category.
53.
REASONS TO SPONSOR
• Realistic KPIs (based on engagement
score)
• Measuring tools in place to gather data.
WAYS TO ADVOCATE
• YES! Team strategy
• Traditional communications plan
• Management involvement plan
• Good mobile interface

PLANNING A SUCCESSFUL
INTRANET - CHECKLIST
By rearranging items according to their execution, we arrive at the following
checklist. This arrangement indicates how each consideration might fit into planning
a new intranet. (This is a distilled checklist and it should not be used out of context
or as a standalone representation of the SmallWorlders Intranet Engagement
Framework.)
Note: The colour categories indicate the items’ original context within the
Framework.
TECHNOLOGY
• Essential functionalities (essential,
exclusive, easy)
• Useful functionalities
• Personalisation
• Social Features
• Self-service groups/team rooms
• User Blogs
• Good mobile interface
• Measuring tools in place to gather data.
DESIGN
• Good UX/Usability
• Slick/Fun design
• User profile pictures wherever possible
54.
COMMUNICATIONS / LAUNCH
• YES! Team strategy
• Traditional communications plan
• Management involvement plan
ONGOING
• Regular turnover of content
• Continuous improvement plan
• Realistic KPIs (based on engagement
score)
SMALLWORLDERS’ INTRANET ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK:
KEY:
Reasons To Log On
Reasons To Return
Reasons To Lead
Reasons To Sponsor
Ways To Advocate

CONCLUSIONS
A successfully engaged intranet requires
consideration from conception through to
delivery and beyond.
The SmallWorlders Intranet Engagement
Framework can support and maintain a
thriving intranet throughout its lifetime.
It allows intranet planners and managers
to understand their userbase in terms of
their personalities, needs and requirements
and then to specifically appeal to them in a
targeted way.
It gives us a reference point for planning
the intranet, and after decisions are made it
allows us to validate the success or failure of
those decisions.
Most importantly it gives us a clear strategy
to avoid the common pitfalls of failed
intranets and to engage the whole spectrum
of personality groups within the organisation.
That is how to successfully bridge the
intranet adoption chasm.
55.
SMALLWORLDERS’ INTRANET ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK:

At SmallWorlders, we’re privileged to work with some of the world’s top brands,
building some of the smartest intranet platforms around. In every case, the
communicators we work with are passionate agents of change, eager to adopt new
technologies to create a more collaborative, more productive – and more fun –
workplace.
We adhere to one of the core guiding principles of internal communications:
people first, technology second. No matter what cool new tools are available, the
most important thing is getting people together to work smarter, better and more
enjoyably.
Whether you choose to leverage your existing intranet technology or re-platform on
SmallWorlders Sandbox we can build you an internal communications platform your
whole organisation will love. Visit www.smallworlders.com and take a look at what
we have done for organisations like Heineken, De Beers and the NHS.
Copyright © 2015 SmallWorlders

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