An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Tips to maximize the value of SharePoint

Content and Code's visual representation of the SharePoint Platform

Microsoft SharePoint enables important documents and business processes to be stored in a central
information hub. It can also be a powerful communication and collaboration tool. However, SharePoint is
a complex software application with many implementation and customization options. Misunderstandings
and unrealistic expectations can result in an expensive and functionally incomplete cause a SharePoint
implementation.
A SharePoint implementation can also have a disruptive and resource intensive impact on an organization
if it is not managed effectively. During times of recession, it is all the more important to find ways to
work smarter with less resource.

Follows these tips to maximize the value gained from your SharePoint implementation:

1. Manage complexity. Read more

2. Fill gaps in functionality. Read more
3. Take an iterative approach. Read more
4. Clarify governance. Read more
5. Manage Content. Read more
6. Provide good training and support. Read more
7. Drive adoption and usage. Read more
8. Allocate sufficient budget. Read more

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Manage Complexity
Think of SharePoint as a development platform not a product.

It is a common mistake for people to assume that SharePoint will give them what they want without
customization. As a sophisticated software application, SharePoint has many different features and plug-
ins which can be confusing. Deployments easily can go wrong if IT teams just turn on additional modules
without considering the business case, requirements, and training needed to make them part of an
ongoing business process.
The more comprehensive functionality available from SharePoint has to be built by an IT team (or a third
party vendor) using SharePoint’s .NET development tools. Hence it is more appropriate to view
SharePoint as a ‘development platform’ rather than an ‘out of the box’ product.
Representatives from various parts of the business will need to work together with the IT team from the
very start of the project. The project team needs to clarify the business requirements and all technical
and functional needs of the SharePoint implementation before starting the project.

Try these Snap tools

• Snap Staff Discussion Forum is a quick, easy, cost effective and secure way of enabling project teams
to share and capture ideas as they crop up prior to, and during, a SharePoint implementation. Snap
Forum is an ‘out of the box’ employee specific discussion forum channel that is simple to deploy,
secure, low cost and available on a short term license basis.

• Snap Staff Poll can deliver company wide surveys to assess what’s working and what’s not with the
existing Intranet and to gather information regarding the tools and resources people would like to
see included on the new SharePoint Intranet. Snap Poll is a push communications channel that is
quick to set up and simple to deliver company wide. It is pushed directly onto employee computer
screens so does not get buried in email in boxes. Built in reminders help drive participation which
can ensure that all views are represented in the research…including the important but often ‘silent
majority’ who perhaps do not have extreme views or agendas and would ordinarily be less motivated
to participate.
Snap Poll can also be targeted to specific groups of employees, for example, managers and heads of
departments. Such individuals can be asked questions such as “what specific business value does /
could your department derive from an effective Intranet?”, “How might this be quantified?” For
example, a sales manager may say it is the number of accurate proposals that sales people are able
to produce. This research will provide an important perspective to help you make the SharePoint
implementation effective and also help you quantify its value at a later stage.

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Take an iterative approach

Some of the most successful SharePoint implementations act like enhanced
shared drives.

Companies that get the SharePoint implementation right, often start simply, with many of the features
disabled. Break a SharePoint implementation up into stages and leave the ‘bells-and-whistles’ until last.
For example:
1. Start by simply replacing the existing Intranet.
2. Add document management
3. Add forms management.
4. Add business process and workflow management
5. Start sharing business intelligence dashboards and enterprise reports
6. And so on.
Keep in mind your short term and long term objectives and work with IT while they download
SharePoint. Clarify what is required of SharePoint now, what possible extras might be useful and what
may be required in the future.

Try these Snap tools

One of the keys to the successful implementation a new technology is to drive user adoption and
regularly gather feedback to evaluate progress.
• Snap Staff Poll and Snap Staff Discussion Forum provide effective ways to gather qualitative and
quantitative feedback from staff. Snap Poll’s unique format and push delivery ensures high survey
participation rates. Snap Forum provides secure, targeted, employee specific discussion forum
functionality at a low cost and without the need for extensive IT input.
Communicating the successive stages of an iterative SharePoint implementation needs to stay interesting
for staff, so adopting an engaging and innovative communications campaign is essential. The Snap
Internal Communications tools can promote your evolving SharePoint implementation through multiple
channels and monitor readership to make sure you’re hitting the mark.
• Snap Staff E-Mag is an innovative e-mag that is pushed to employees’ computer screens. It can
quickly and easily consolidate information into a visual, template format that’s dynamic and doesn’t
require an html editor. Short ‘news’ articles in Staff E-Mags can inform readers of new information
and the availability of new tools, as well as allowing readers to click directly through to specific
SharePoint pages.

• For project ‘wins’ that you want to profile with more impact, try Snap Shots screensavers. The Snap
Shots tool is designed to raise awareness of key information by turning employee screensavers into
interactive bill boards. An image is worth a thousand words. For example, an image of a deck chair
on the beach with relevant text and a click through link is a powerful and engaging way to notify
staff that leave forms are now available via SharePoint.

• For messages that need high cut through, consider the Snap Desktop Alert or Scrolling News feed
channel.

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Fill gaps in functionality

As it tries to be all things to all people, SharePoint lacks functionality in
places.
By taking what comes bundled in SharePoint, companies can end up compromising on critical functions
compared with best-of-breed tools. Light-weight web 2.0 tools such as wikis and blogs appear to be late
addition ‘throw-ins’ with functionality that appears to be considerably less than you might expect.
SharePoint does not provide any ‘push communications’ channels. The closest it gets is ‘e-mail alerts’,
that are auto generated and can be easily become buried in inboxes, and RSS feeds, that require staff to
opt in. Often due to high work loads or a lack of interest, emails have low cut through and staff fail to
subscribe to RSS feeds meaning that important updates may never reach them.
Push Communications channels form an important part of an internal communications strategy. This is
particularly the case for urgent or important messages that need high cut through.

Try these Snap tools

Augment SharePoint with other functionality:
• The Snap Interactive tools are a range of ‘plug and play’ social media channels specifically built for
secure employee communications. Snap Interactive communications channels are low cost, easy to
use and require very little IT resource to deploy and absolutely no IT resource to customize and
implement. If required, the Snap Interactive channels can send automated desktop alerts to
moderators which will achieve significantly higher cut through (and faster response) than
SharePoint’s email alerts.

• Snap RSS allows administrators to push out existing RSS feed sources, via an on screen news ticker
(or news aggregator), to targeted staff groups. Hence for important RSS feeds you can remove the
step within SharePoint requiring users to opt in. Snap RSS also makes it easy to generate and push
out manual feeds simply by typing a headline, more comprehensive content if required, and
specifying destination SharePoint pages or files.

• Snap Desktop Alert provides a means to push out urgent or important communications to targeted
staff groups. This desktop alert format bypasses email and pushes content directly onto employee’s
computer screens with configurable persistence and recurrence options and helpful reporting
features.

• Snap Staff Poll and Snap Staff Quiz provides the means to push staff surveys and quizzes out onto
employee’s desktops (bypassing email) with configurable recurrence options for uncompleted surveys
and quizzes. As with all of the Snap channels, they are designed to be used by Internal
Communicators not web developers. The content management interface is easy to use and has
functionality specifically built for employee communications purposes (e.g. image voting and user
confidentiality options)

All of the Snap Internal Communications channels allow messages to be pre-scheduled and targeted to
specific staff groups based on existing network structures (or customized targeting groups).

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Clarify governance
A SharePoint implementation needs proper governance.

It is important to clarify the roles and responsibilities for managing a SharePoint site. For example; what
are the respective roles of Corporate Communications and IT? Who should ‘own’ the site? Who should
be empowered to manage the site?
A content management strategy should be developed by a team of representatives from key business
areas and cover areas such as:

• The metrics for content creation

• Policies regarding when to use, and when not to use, SharePoint
• The balance be between user generated content, and general ‘corporate’ content
• Who will manage what content? How?
• Levels of moderation for different parts of the site
• How will cross-functional content be managed and monitored?
• How much time should staff spend surfing and posting SharePoint content?

Try these Snap tools

Snap Staff Discussion Forum provides a quick and easy way to discuss and evolve the governance of
SharePoint. The Snap Interactive channels (employee blogs, staff discussion forums, interactive help
desks and Q&A spots) can be quickly and be easily set up without technical input. Features such as;
access rights, security, customizable levels of anonymity and moderation can easily set for specific
forums and groups of staff. Automated desktop alerts (that bypass email to achieve higher cut through)
can be set up to ensure nominated moderators provide timely responses where appropriate.

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Manage content
Before SharePoint there was chaos… now the chaos is more visible with
SharePoint

For a successful SharePoint implementation, good site administration and content management are
essential. A site administrator needs to manage content, carry out periodic evaluations and act as a
facilitator in sustaining participation. An administrator will also need to decommission parts of the site
that are no longer required.
SharePoint has relatively light-weight content management capability, additionally, collaboration tools
within SharePoint can add user generated content to the chaos. A proliferation of ‘team spaces’ can also
serve to create too many silos.
The search interface of SharePoint is also considered by some to be weak.

Try these Snap tools

Not all content needs to be delivered by SharePoint. This is particularly the case for content that may
have a short ‘shelf life’ due, for example, to it being associated with a specific campaign or project.
Prioritize content and think about its ‘shelf life’ and purpose. Does it really need to be on SharePoint or
will it simply add to the chaos?
By eliminating non essential content or content with a short shelf life, the search results from SharePoint
are more likely to return useful information.

• SnapMag – Is an excellent way to reduce email overload and

distribute short shelf life content (e.g. news and admin updates).
Users can search for old articles but they rarely do due to the
nature of the content.

• Snap Desktop Alerts and Snap News Tickers – provide message cut through for urgent business
updates.

One of the big advantages of the Snap Internal Communications channels is that content can be
scheduled to appear at a specified time and scheduled to expire at a specified time. This means that old,
out of date content does not clutter the SharePoint site up or dilute the effectiveness of search.

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Provide good training and support

Be prepared for a significant investment in training

Some internal communicators describe SharePoint as ‘clunky and not intuitive’. To ensure you maximize
the value derived from SharePoint, it is important to provide adequate training and support to staff.
Training for the IT team and administrators can be expensive and time consuming (probably at least a
one week ‘boot camp’). Selected ‘power user’ staff will also require 2 to 3 days of training. Even at the
departmental level it is useful to get a few people trained in how to use web parts.
Once SharePoint becomes available to the wider staff population, they will also need training on how to
use the various features that have been enabled on SharePoint.
Think twice about launching a site if you can't provide this sort of effort and resource in terms of training
and support.

Try these Snap tools

• Snap Helpdesk provides a quick and easy means for people to ask questions in an appropriate online
‘helpdesk’. Moderators can be nominated for each ‘helpdesk’ and receive desktop alert notifications
when new questions are posted (note that SharePoint content alerts are email based and have lower
cut through rates and associated response times). Moderators can answer questions directly or point
the person to information sources where an answer can be found. Each specific question is tagged
and searchable, meaning that past questions and answers can be easily located in an evolving
repository of knowledge.

• Snap Staff Quiz provides the means to run a SharePoint education program, or to reinforce other
types of training. The Snap Staff Quiz tool is an interactive quiz format that is pushed onto the
employee’s computer screen. Staff can elect to complete a quiz at a time that suits them, but, if
required, you can set up the quiz so that it keeps re-appearing on screen until it is completed.
Business and product focused quizzes can contain links to the Intranet allowing users to research
each question before they answer. This tool is a real asset if you are aiming to improve overall
knowledge, increase SharePoint usage, and help staff find the content they need on SharePoint.

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Drive adoption and usage

If you build it, they will come…or will they?

Employees don't typically seem to like using SharePoint. It's not intuitive and not particularly exciting.
SharePoint pages are often dull and boring. There are some options for making pages more exciting, but
pages tend to end up looking similar regardless of customization.
In addition, due to SharePoint’s sheer complexity, an implementation can seem to go on forever and
users can start to believe that glitches will never be ironed out.
Effective communication is key to acceptance, adoption and effective usage of SharePoint’s features by
staff. Changing how people work takes effort. Employees need to be engaged in order for them to use
SharePoint effectively.

Try these Snap tools

Liven up the perception of SharePoint by using a range of dynamic ways to promote the site and drive
participation:

• The Snap Shots screensaver tool can raise awareness of new information on SharePoint by turning
employee screensavers into dynamic interactive bill boards. An image is worth a thousand words.
For example, an image of a graduation cap with some relevant text and a click through link is a
powerful and engaging way to notify staff that online, self-paced training programs are now available
on the Intranet.

Click here for end of

year sales tips

• Snap Staff E-Mag pushes company news directly to employees’ computer screens and provides click
through links to relevant SharePoint pages or files. Staff no longer have to open up separate ‘All
Staff’ emails, or visit the Intranet to search for news. Instead these messages are aggregated and
delivered in a readable and engaging format which includes hyperlinks back to SharePoint content (or
other information resources). Staff can also easily submit their own news articles and updates.
Articles, once approved by the editor, are automatically included in the magazine.

All of the Snap tools can include click-through links and therefore act as promotional tools to stimulate
interest and drive the usage and value of SharePoint. News feeds, desktop alerts, interactive staff
quizzes and surveys can be engaging ways to drive traffic to SharePoint content.

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 An Internal Communicators Guide to SharePoint

Allocate sufficient budget

…and watch the hidden costs

Costs can easily expand with a SharePoint implementation so beware of what you are getting into. There
are three levels of SharePoint:
1. Basic version of SharePoint which comes free with Windows server, allowing organizations ‘try before
they buy’
2. Paid version (License fees vary depending on the type and size of an organization)
3. Premium version designed to deliver features such as search.

You may end up paying more than you initially anticipate due to confusion about what features reside
within the different SharePoint versions and license fee bands. Additionally you may need to buy
SharePoint add-ons which were not previously considered or budgeted for.
Other things that can blow out overall project pricing include:
• Implementation costs
• Customization costs
• Systems integration costs

Try these Snap tools

All of the Snap Internal Communications tools are quick and cost effective to implement. You can
augment SharePoint with inexpensive tools that do not require IT resource for them to be set up and
managed. This allows you to try concepts out, test uptake and evolve the approach without the need for
‘big project’ budget, resource or timeframes.

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Appendix A: The Snap Communications Channels

The Snap tools provide innovative channels to communication and interact with staff
• At times that suit their work flow / they are more receptive
• All tools have click-through link capability to drive social media participation
• All are able to be easily targeted to different groups of staff as appropriate
Snap is a cost effective, hosted, fully managed solution. In house versions are also available.

Snap Shots Screen savers – Digital Signage on the Screen saver

When we have staff suffering from information overload it can be a real challenge to communicate with
them. This is especially true if our messages are not considered urgent or immediately important to
staff. A great way to build awareness of key messages without being intrusive or adding to the email
burden is to use screensavers which can act as dynamic billboards around the business.
Snap Shots work just like standard screensavers do.....the difference is:
• They can be quickly and easily changed
• Target-able so different groups can receive different content
• Can communicate passively or solicit a response from staff
• Staff are able to upload one personal image as their own screensaver (optional)
• Delivers messages at a time when staff are often most receptive (i.e. not right in the middle of
their work flow)
• Can tempt staff to find out more via click through links
• Brighten up office areas making them more dynamic and engaging. Like changing bill boards
around the business.

Screen savers are a great way to build

awareness without being intrusive or causing
annoyance.
Options include:
• Sequencing images with text
• Countdown clocks
• Flash animated screensavers
• Html screensavers
It is also possible to upload power-point slides or
complete animated power-point sequences .
Most screensavers can typically be designed
internally in less than half an hour. Web sites like
www.bigstockphotos.com make it really easy to find appropriate images. You can also develop
templates, e.g. in Power Point, Photoshop or any other similar application for updates such as events,
invitations and breaking news which can be updated in a couple of minutes.

Snap Quiz – Staff Quiz Tool

In 30 days people typically forget 80% of what they have learnt if it is not
reinforced. This applies to key training and also to important messages.
One answer is to reinforce such information via a quiz. The Snap Quiz
tool was developed for this purpose and has the added bonus that it can
be fun for staff and build moral.
Snap Quiz is quick to set up, easy to target to specific groups and it’s

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really easy for people to answer. It ‘pops up’ on the employee’s computer and provides options to
complete now or defer until later. The Snap Administrator can specify how frequently and how often the
quiz reappears until completed. ‘Silent Quizzes’ that staff can opt into via a hyperlink can also be set up.
A ‘sixty second’ quiz can be short, punchy and really effective,
especially if there’s a prize incentive attached. When quizzes
are set up in this way, very high participation rates are easily
achieved.
Like all of the Snap tools, Snap Quiz is targetable to different
groups of employees. You can theme quizzes with a logo or
image and automated reminders can be set up, so it will
continue to reappear and remind staff to participate.
Reporting via the Snap Content Manager is automatic and
updated every minute, making it really easy to manage. Upon
submission of the answers, an optional personal pop up
display showing the employee’s individual score and the
correct answers can to help reinforce learning.

Snap Ticker – Scrolling News Tickers

With the growth of the internet and other technologies, there has been an explosion in the information
available to us. The challenge is to find the correct, most up to date information without having to spend
lots of time ‘wading through treacle’. Snap Ticker leverages the power of RSS, which you may be aware
of, but has additional flexibility and can be easily customised.
Staff can be working away, and along the bottom of the screen appears a scrolling new feed. If they are
deep in thought they may ignore it and it won’t interrupt their flow. If they are ready for an interruption
they’ll have a scan. Alternatively, when an appropriate break in the work flow comes they may click
through to find out more.
Snap Ticker allows
you to leverage
external information
sources as it can
push out information
updates from any
source that is RSS enabled (without requiring staff to opt in, although this is an option). This helps keep
to staff informed and be more effective in their roles.
However, the most powerful feature of Snap Ticker is that the Administrators can write their own feeds
and push them out to target staff groups. This means that you can quickly send out any news update
with a link to further information, simply by typing in a headline, inputting link details and setting the
target groups. This format is ideal for the call centre environment as it can keep people informed of the
latest updates without interrupting their workflow.
Snap Tickers are a great way to provide information updates and transport staff directly to the
information they need…..anything from a specific Intranet page, to a website to a document on the
shared network
Because communications are targetable, and you can have more than one Administrator, you can
nominate selected staff from different departments (e.g. the sales team or engineering department) to
manage the Snap Ticker for their audiences…..as an overall Administrator, you have complete visibility of
all messages
It is also possible to run standard RSS feeds through Snap Ticker, so if you have an RSS enabled
Intranet, you can run this in addition to customising other feeds.
Another feature is the option to set up the ticker to continue scrolling on-screen until clicked upon. This
means that you can guarantee that staff have viewed important content.

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Snap Poll – Staff Survey Tool

Involving staff is one of the key ways we can build engagement. It’s also really important to measure
communications effectiveness so we know what’s hitting the mark and identify which areas need to
improve. This also allows us to demonstrate business value to senior managers. A Snap Poll or Survey is
a tool which can be used to achieve these goals.
Snap Poll is different to other surveys in that it isn’t too
complicated and it’s pushed directly to the desktop (and not
delivered by email). It ‘pops up’ on the employee’s computer
and provides an option to complete now or defer until later.
The Snap Administrator can specify how frequently and how
often the pop up reappears until the survey is completed.
‘Silent Surveys’ that staff can opt into via a hyperlink can also
be set up.
Snap Poll is quick to set up and works best if it’s short and
punchy (no more than 10 questions – multi-choice if possible, although various other answer options are
also available). A prize incentive can help, so does the automated reminder meaning high response
rates.
It works best as a benchmarking tool, a temperature check, or as initial research prior to the launch of a
more comprehensive (and time consuming) survey.
Results can be grouped by unit – which means that you can measure effectiveness of managers in areas
such as information cascade, or engagement – since direct supervisors have such an influence on
engagement, this can be an important measure.
Polls can be set up to allow confidential responses, which can be valuable in times of change and
uncertainty.

Snap Alert – Desktop Alerts

When we have some breaking news – such as a security alert or important update, Snap Alert becomes a
really powerful tool. It is a targetable Desktop Alert that ‘pops up’ on the targeted employee’s computer
screen.
Snap Alert is persistent – the message will not go away until it has been viewed and acted upon (if
specified by administrator). ‘Read Now’ or ‘Read Later’ options are
available or immediate full display of the message can be specified by the
administrator. The size, position and prominence of the Desktop Alert
window can also be preset for each message. The user eventually has to
open or respond to the message to remove it from their screen (unless an
expiry date or maximum reoccurrence option has been specified)
Reporting options mean you can report on who has / has not opened the
full message and/or clicked links contained in the message. This can be
great for compliance applications.

Snap RSVP – RSVP Alert Tool

Snap RSVP is a meeting request or invite that behaves like a Desktop Alert. This tool is ideal for
maximising the impact of events such as change management briefing sessions or CEO road shows.
You can include explanatory text and ask employees to select which session or meeting they want to
attend. Once responded to, Snap RSVP will automatically populate the employee’s Outlook calendar with
the appointment.
Reporting tools in the content manager make it easy to see which staff are attending which sessions.
You can plan room sizes, catering etc. and close off specific time slots as rooms become filled.

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This is a great tool to use in times of change or crisis management. One of the key rules around
managing change is to ‘communicate, communicate, communicate’. It is really important to have face to
face time and provide opportunities for staff to ask questions and express their views. However, it can
be tricky to get everyone in a room at the same time as staff still have jobs to do and can be very busy.
Snap RSVP can help.

Snap Video – Video Alert Tool

Snap Video is a Desktop Alert format that delivers video
to targeted employee desktops: So your CEO can’t be at
the meeting? No problem. Use Snap Video and staff can
see the commitment and intent in the CEO’s eyes and
hear the passion/empathy in their voice. Snap Video’s
targeting features mean that you can stagger delivery of
the video alert to different employee groups as required.

Snap Mag – Electronic Staff Magazine…with an important difference

Did you know that research show that the average office worker is interrupted 11 times per hour with
messages that have nothing to do with the task he or she is performing at that time? Each interrupt has
a cost. It takes time for the employee to refocus back into their work. Most emails, particularly those
that are targeted to ‘all staff’ contain generic information that does not have to be read there and then.
Snap Mag allows anyone in the business to input these generic information updates into a one stop
magazine format. An ‘editor’ can quickly approve articles prior to their publication into the magazine.
In addition to ‘user generated content’, Snap Mag isn’t delivered by email, it has much more visibility.
Each time Snap Mag is published, staff members will see a ticker-bar appear which scrolls three times at
the bottom of their screens. They can click-to-read there and then, or alternatively they can go to their
message history to read the latest publication of Snap Mag at a time that suits them better
Snap Mag is designed to be scan-able with ‘read more’ links allowing people to find out more on the
Intranet or find documents on the network. Snap can report on these links so
you can see just how popular a particular article was and include more of
these types of articles to ensure high readership
Embedded email links allow readers to respond / reply directly to the
author…..depending on response levels, the author can call a discussion
group, summarise comments in the next edition or maybe set up a Snap Blog
or Forum for further debate.
There is also an option to display the magazine as a logon screen which is
great because most people like to read something to warm into the day.
Readership rates increase significantly when this option is enabled.
It means that, instead of 11 interrupts per hour, our staff can focus on their
specific roles and then chose to read all of the ‘general news and updates’ in
a one-stop format at a time they choose. They are expecting these types of
messages and hence are more receptive.
SnapMag is targetable to different user groups so individual departments can
have their own version of the magazine.
Snap Mag is not only a way to cut down all staff emails. You can also use it
as a way to allow staff to communicate with each other and to build engagement. Because any member
of staff can participate in this magazine (assuming this option is enabled), it is a great way for staff to
become more involved, feel part of the community and hence build their engagement.
Your company culture and demographic may mean that tools like blogs and forums are simply not
appropriate or acceptable to senior managers. There may be fears around loss of control or the impact

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of disengaged staff. Under these circumstances, Snap Mag can be a great alternative. Snap Mag
enables you to distribute ‘safe discussion’ directly to the employee’s computer screen.

Snap Interactive –Blogs, Forums, Helpdesks and Q&A Spots

The Snap Interactive employee communications tools have the
following unique features:
• Specifically developed for employee communication
• Cost effective and easy to implement
• Secure, hosted solution authenticated to each employees
computer (or log on profile)
• Easy to use, ‘scan-able’ for busy people
• Tools to search for key information
• Promotional tools to drive usage and value
• Unique reporting tools to measure value and ROI

To Snap Interactive channels incorporate easy to use features such as; customizable access rights,
security settings, and levels of anonymity and moderation. Automated desktop alerts (that bypass email
and are delivered directly to computer screens) can be set up to ensure nominated moderators provide
timely responses where appropriate.
There is no IT involvement required to set these tools. The Snap Interactive tools are strategic
communications tools and specifically designed to be easily managed and operated by the
Communications team and not become an IT ‘project’ each time a new forum is to be set up or a change
needs to be made.
This permits you to quickly and easily try concepts out. For example, you want to implement a discussion
forum around the launch of a new product …but there is some debate around whether this will provide
value or whether people will participate….. These tools allow you to test uptake and evolve the use of
such tools without the need for ‘big project’ budget, business cases or resource.
Administrators can quickly and easily set up new forums or blogs and specify which employee groups
have authoring, commenting, and read rights.
The Snap Interactive tools are also user friendly. Automatic user authentication means that the network
is fully secure and does not require the use of user names and passwords.
Extensive reporting options such as the total time spent by individual staff, ‘rank this forum’ polls, and
user demographics as well as more traditional site traffic statistics mean that it is easy to measure value
and demonstrate ROI.

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