6 ways to add sizzle to internal comms

Engage your workforce with wikis, videos—even text messages

So much of the hullabaloo about social media is focused on the way brands engage with consumers that we often forget that these new Web technologies are great for internal communication, too. Having spent a good chunk of my career in employee communications, it’s an area that I know could benefit from a little more social sizzle.

Here are six ways to spice up an internal program:

1. Video. How many employees actually read those 1,500-word missives that the CEO sends out each week or month (even if they’re craftily ghost-written by a communicator)? Probably not too many. Try recording the message with a webcam instead. Execs will love it, because it takes less time than the back-and-forth editing of a written piece, and employees will connect more with a real person talking to them than stiffly written corporate updates. Embed the video on the company intranet and allow employees to rate or comment on it.