Fenix Blog

We are often asked how to make the company intranet more useful and appealing for employees and with the use of social media tools there are plenty of possibilities out there for you.  We no longer live in a time where people accept being talked at – your employees want to see value and be heard. So we’ve put together a list of things to consider when building or re-building your intranet.

1. Consider existing communities
   Chance are your employees are on Facebook and sharing picture on Flickr already, take a look at these communities and incorporate some of those ideas into your company intranet. Some people have a hard time building in features that don’t directly drive home the company message but if you make your intranet a place that people want to log into everyday then odds are it’ll get used for work related things as well.
2. Find out what people enjoy
   At Fenix we like to eat so creating a space where we can share recipes and photos of dishes we’ve made over the weekend is a great place to start. This can be a small part of your intranet but what it says is that you listen to your employees and appreciate that there’s more to life than making sure their work is done on time.
3. Make your intranet flexible
   We are always coming up with new things we want to add to the intranet. Make it easy for someone to add information that would be useful to everyone. Wikis and similar collaboration tools can be very useful in this case.
4. Encourage collaboration and contributions
   Often organizations choose the CEO or president to write blog posts and as much as we all enjoy hearing from the President – that’s often not the person who can contribute to the community in a really meaningful way. Encourage employees to talk about what they are doing, learning, teaching and give them a voice on the company intranet. As the intranet administrator you can then choose to publish the valuable information to the public website.
5. Include external sources
   There are loads of widgets out there that will draw in data from other sources like news sites, weather, blogs etc … This can help make the intranet useful for users and allows you to take advantage of existing technologies.

Advantages to starting a conversation with employees

The fact is your employees are already part of online communities this is an opportunity for you take advantage of their existing comfort with this space and build an environment for employees collaborate, communicate and share.

Bridge the generation gap. If you’re looking to attract new talent having a dynamic and social intranet can play a role in the appeal of your organization. Knowing how different generations like to communicate can give you a leg up in the war on talent.

Bring together a global workforce. We live in a world where many people can be working on the same project but will never meet. Having an intranet that is customized to facilitate collaboration will not only make your employees jobs easier – it will also make them more productive.

Be part of the conversation. This is your opportunity to hear what your employees have to say and make your company better, more efficient and more appealing to new talent.

Fenix announces the launch of another Drupal initiative, this time for Gennum Corporation, a leading Burlington based semiconductor company. Designed, developed and executed in under two months, the Gennum site was a significant Drupal endeavor requiring 15+ templates, 1500+ pieces of content, faceted search feature powered by Acquia, an innovative context sensitive block module, and laid the foundation for the development of the accompanying secure extranet which we will begin developing in the next few days.

“With each Drupal implementation our team impresses me more,” says Fenix Founder Jennifer MacKinnon, “and this project was no exception. The speed and sophistication with which we can deploy an enterprise class environment, complete with a complex feature-set and numerous custom components is exciting and we are happy to be able to offer this level of service, quality and professional capability to our clients.”

“Gennum Corp is a great company and we have enjoyed working directly with their team to see Phase 1 of this initiative to completion. Our two teams worked hard, but more importantly worked well together, mutually ensuring the success of this project.”

Adds Leanne Labelle, co-Founder of Fenix Solutions “Open source solutions are being more and more widely accepted, particularly by large, and international, organizations. Companies seek us out because of our Drupal and open source experience, passion and capabilities. The benefits of open source solutions are compelling and we are seeing a noticeable shift in thinking, resulting in the demand for our kind of offering deployed on open source software. It’s exciting for us to be leading this charge.”

Think social media is a passing fad? Think again.

The2009 Social Media Brand Engagement Report explores the social media efforts of the Top 100 Global Brands, including Starbucks (#1 rank), Toyota (#21), Dell (#2) .

The article provides excellent insight for anyone still not conviced social media can create an impact, or for anyone who is convinced but isn’t quite sure how to do it.

The article has an in-depth look into 4 featured companies and gives the reader a peek behind the scene. For example, Starbucks has a staff of 6 people manning 11 social media channels and they explain how manage that and who internally is responsible for it.

The study shows that those organizations that adopted and properly used social media (i.e. engaged customers) saw an 18% increase in their revenue between July 2008-July 2009.

When used right social media can show significant returns and limitless potential. “Recently, we found that for every four people we interacted with…another three people are added virally…” explains Starbucks.

How can you find success using social media? Fenix offers a few suggestions.

Stay focused: don’t try to do everything at once. Start small. Choose one or two channels/tools and dedicate time to using them properly. Be sure to benchmark where you are at  and  monitor your activities to see the impact of your efforts. Build a following, get the format right, and then adopt new tools/channels. This approach is designed to help you see success early on, so you don’t abandon your efforts. This approach is recommended for those of you just starting out. Determining what to start with can be tricky, we can help.

Stay on schedule: be sure to set aside time devoted to conducting social media, and social media monitoring, activities. Unless it is your full time job, you have to balance this with your other duties. Once you figure out the format for tweeting, blogging or whatever channel you choose, and corresponding monitoring, you will get into a groove. As with all initiatives, don’t abandon your channel. If you choose Twitter, then be sure you have the ability to keep the tweets up to date. Never abandon.

Don’t push: don’t use your chosen channels to solely sell your products or services. The key to social media is engagement and conversation. So while it’s okay to talk about your products and services, it’s better to find out who is talking about you and communicate with them. Encourage participation in your social media channel, thank users for their time/comments/feedback, answer questions, provide information, spark dialogue, encourage users to talk amongst each other.

Monitor: you must monitor not only how effective your social media efforts are, meaning the activities you do  online, but to monitor the web in general to determine what is being said about your organization. Twitscoop, Facebook Lexicon, Technorati, Google Insights, are all [free] tools you can use to search for your organization and see what people are saying. Tools such as Google Alerts and TweetBeep will send you email notifications when your brand has been mentioned online or on Twitter respectively.

Use tools like Google Analytics to see how your own social media efforts are driving users to your website (if that is the objective) for example. Monitoring is the only way to find out if your efforts are working and the only way for you to stay on top of your brand chatter. Use this information to make decisions about your organization and your marketing/social media initiatives.

Get Viral: use your followers to spread the word and encourage additional followers of your brand. Word of mouth has always been a tried and true method of awareness building and the Internet offers a global opportunity.

Be wise: a protocol is beginning to form online with respect to social media usage and best practices. Be aware of this protocol and follow it wisely. If someone follows you, take the time to find out whether you should follow them back. If someone leaves a comment on your blog, be sure to review it and respond if required. If someone has promoted you, your brand, your product online, be sure to acknowledge that coverage. You get the idea.

Have fun: really. Social media is fun. It’s immediate, done in real-time involving real-people. It’s brevity makes it manageable, so go ahead and enjoy it. You just might like it.

As a web designer I know, sometimes the creativity well begins to run dry. For these instances I have had to compile together a few tricks when a little outside inspiration is needed in order to start the juices flowing again.

First of all, don’t try to force anything. Sometimes it is important to take a step back from whatever you are creating and re-assess. Oftentimes I get very caught up in what I am doing, which is a dangerous leeway into frustration. I find it helps to switch tasks for a while, or even leave the computer and take a walk; when you come back to your design you can see it again with a fresh pair of eyes.

We are not all creative geniuses, it is impossible to come up with new, interesting ideas consistently. I do not recommend plagiarism, but taking a look online at websites similar to the style you are trying to achieve may provide new inspiration for your own works. A great resource for this is http://visionwidget.com/showcase/graphics/84-get-design-inspiration-online.html, it features 50 beautiful websites full of unique styles and layouts.

Get a second opinion. People generally know what they like and it is important to remember that your design isn’t going to just be viewed by other designers, so have some friends or colleagues critique your work.

Try some fresh colours. Oftentimes it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why a design isn’t working, so in order to jumpstart what may feel like a flat idea, try completely re-vamping your current colour scheme. This is a quick and simple way to overhaul the look of a piece, modernize something classic, or change an overall mood you are trying to portray. I like using the Colour Schemer Gallery, http://www.colorschemer.com/schemes/ for ideas on which shades work well together. This website is based off the colour schemes of various websites, which you can go and preview.

Finally, remember that design is supposed to be fun! Don’t make it just about work; create some personal artwork in your own time. Developing your personal style should be enjoyable!

A few more great resources:

http://www.gomediazine.com/category/freebies/

For some vector freebies

http://blog.uprinting.com/10-fab-flyer-design-ideas/

Beautiful flyer designs

http://www.texturelovers.com/

A great resource for textures

With Twitter getting more popular every day, people are increasingly asking: “How do I use this tool effectively”?

Below is a link to a comprehensive list for all things Twitter; from getting started to mobile clients and Twitter stats. Enjoy!

http://traffikd.com/resources/101-twitter-resources/