Effective internal communication strategies and campaigns are vital to the success of any organization. It ensures that employees are informed, engaged, and working together as one unit. All of that has a huge impact on productivity and morale!

SharePoint is the perfect Microsoft tool for enhancing communications by providing a robust platform for creating, managing, and distributing content within your organization. What more could you want? Combining SharePoint with other powerful tools like Viva Connections and Viva Amplify takes it to the next level. This winning combo ensures that messages are not only delivered but also resonate with audiences.

Key objectives for internal communicators

Let's simplify our approach to internal comms by focusing on two key objectives: reaching the audience and understanding content performance.

Reaching the audience

How do we get our message onto the devices of our audiences and, from there, into their heads? With SharePoint, of course.

SharePoint's robust content creation and publishing, coupled with rich authoring capabilities, make it a breeze for internal communicators to create and publish engaging content. The more seamless this process becomes, the more time you have for planning truly impactful content.

Additionally, when you combine SharePoint with Viva Connections or use its functionalities like the News web part, you can deliver personalized content to specific audience. That means the right message reaches the right people. For example, you can ensure that only updates that apply to certain parts of your organization get shown to them. This leads to higher engagement as people reading along know that every comms update is vital to them.

SharePoint's capabilities don't end there. SharePoint serves as the foundation for Viva Amplify, enabling you to create and distribute communication campaigns seamlessly across multiple Microsoft 365 services, including:

  • Microsoft Teams
  • SharePoint sites
  • Outlook
  • Viva Engage

All of this means one thing: maximum reach and impact.

Understanding content performance

You won't start sweating next time your boss calls you into the big office with the glass door and asks if your internal comms campaigns have been performing. That's because SharePoint provides instant insight into how content is performing through in-page analytics, helping you assess levels of engagement and effectiveness.

If you're hungry for more analytics, Viva Amplify takes it a step further. It offers detailed performance tracking, including sentiment analysis, at each individual post and overall campaign level, providing a comprehensive understanding of your content's impact across channels. This level of insight empowers you to make informed decisions about your content strategy.

Benefits of SharePoint for internal communications

SharePoint for internal communications offers a range of benefits, including efficient content management and cost-effective solutions that integrate smoothly and natively with your existing Microsoft 365 tools. Let's dive into some of the key advantages that make SharePoint a powerful asset for improving communication within your organization.

SharePoint as CMS

SharePoint is an example of a content management system (CMS), which means its capabilities go beyond communications. In addition to your internal comms needs, it can also address related scenarios such as handling document management (DMS) and serving as a learning management system (LMS). This level of versatility makes SharePoint a powerful tool for organizations, with more than 200,000 organizations and 190 million people using it for intranets, team sites, and content management (Microsoft, 2024).

With the right configurations in place, SharePoint can even function as your one-stop-shop intranet and cater to a massive range of digital workplace needs. When you have this type of centralized platform, you can:

  • streamline communications
  • increase collaboration
  • offer access to resources across the organization

Product recommendation

If you're looking for an intranet solution that's built for SharePoint and Microsoft 365, I recommend Fresh Intranet, an enterprise-class, AI-powered solution specifically designed for intranets in SharePoint.

Cost efficiency

Most of the organizations I speak to have existing Microsoft 365 licenses. Guess what? SharePoint is already included with Microsoft 365, even with the simplest and most affordable frontline licenses. This means your organization can maximize the value of those existing licenses by using it for internal comms without any extra costs.

Viva Amplify is part of the Microsoft Viva Suite and requires a Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities license, as it's not included in standard Microsoft 365 licenses. However, its value to internal communications strategies makes it a worthwhile investment—one that's well worth securing a spot in your budget breakdown.

Employee app for frontline workers

Your employee app becomes a critical communication channel if you're an organization with frontline workers. Ensuring these employees are informed and engaged while they go through their order of business is essential for maintaining high operational efficiency and maintaining morale.

Viva Connections, available through Microsoft Teams, can be used as an employee app and offer features such as:

  • announcements
  • news delivery
  • content targeting
  • advanced analytics

This setup allows organizations to reach frontline workers within their pre-existing Microsoft products.

What about third-party solutions? When you're deciding between Viva Connections and third-party employee app solutions, you have to consider factors such as:

  • Cost: This isn't just the cost of licensing but also the cost of additional training and slowing down operations while everyone wraps their heads around a new system. Remember, third-party employee apps aren't without cost!
  • Separate user and content management systems: The fact that all of this works as an add-on to the existing SharePoint CMS is a huge bonus. Built-for-purpose employee apps may come with their own CMS and a host of new programs to come to terms with.
  • Potential IT integration challenges: Whenever you combine two products that haven't been built by the same company, you risk teething problems. Have a chat with your IT team to find out how easy it would be to integrate any solution you consider. They likely have information that you aren't even aware of.

Since Viva Connections is already part of Microsoft 365, except for plans without Microsoft Teams, it provides a seamless and cost-effective option that natively integrates with your SharePoint and Viva Amplify content.

Conclusion

You can probably tell from this article that I have been impressed by everything Microsoft offers through SharePoint. It is an incredibly effective tool for enhancing your internal communications strategy and allows you to create, manage, and distribute content across your organization.

When combined with powerful tools like Viva Connections and Viva Amplify, SharePoint doesn't just deliver messages—it ensures they resonate with your audience, driving engagement and effectiveness.

Internal communications become more powerful and effective when leveraging tools like SharePoint, Viva Connections, and Viva Amplify. Whether it's combining SharePoint with Viva Connections to enhance message delivery or creating content in Viva Amplify and displaying it in SharePoint, these tools ensure your messages not only reach your audience but also resonate and drive engagement.

I want to encourage you to explore how these tools can enhance your communication strategies, streamline your processes, and ultimately contribute to the success of your organization. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your internal communications—start using SharePoint to its fullest capabilities today!

Want more info on Viva Amplify? Take a peek at how you can increase your comms reach with Microsoft Viva.

Thanks for reading,
Jarbas

Note

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