Every good chef will tell you that he have some special ingredient that he's using to make your dish so incredibly tasty. Sometimes that ingredient is love (yes, it's a cliche, we know), sometimes it is patience, secret sauce or some other imaginary thing, but every once in awhile you will hear that the special ingredient is actually some spice.
The same analogy stands for successful businesses - they all have a "special ingredient" of their own. One of the spices of a successful business is good internal communication that you can build with one simple tool - internal blog. It's stress-free, it's not a distraction, it's cool enough for everyone to love it, and it's quite handy.
We're presenting you 10 ways to use an internal blog for improving your business so that you can learn how to cook with this secret spice.
1. Explain company vision directly to the team
The company vision is one of those things that you need to have in writing. Yes, you can talk about it for hours, but if you can't put it on a piece of paper and make it clear that it's not sufficient.
An internal blog is a perfect place to explain your company vision and present it to the team. They will be able to participate in fine tuning process and help you get the final shape that you can share with your customers. If the team took a small part in defining the core concept of your business, they would be able to identify themselves with it and accept it as their own.
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2. Build original company culture
It's never too soon to start building your organizational culture. So, no matter if you have only two team members, or you have two hundred of them, you need to define some core values that you want to promote. Company culture can be described as "a way we do things", and it's a good start to look around and see what you're doing and how you do it. Then you can write it all down in your internal blog and invite your team to work with you. In a short while, you will have a great foundation to your original corporate culture.
3. Develop quality relationship with your team
The internal blog gives you an opportunity to show a different side of the company. The one that is not business oriented, but people oriented. With company's internal blog, you are able to build an honest and loyal relationship with your team. A blog is an ideal place for you to make discussions directly to your team members, giving them a voice and an opportunity to share their opinion and ideas on a place where they will be valued. Answer all the questions and encourage people to use such an instrument to express themselves.
4. Show your people that you care
Say "Happy Birthday!", share accomplishments and success of an individual in the internal blog, where everyone can see it. Show people that you care by paying attention to these little things. They are vital, and they are demonstrating that you do want them around. Such activities will not take much of your time, and they can gain a lot of merits, especially if you're a small business or a startup which is trying to keep and attract as many talents as possible.
5. Share information with the team
There is one main rule of blogging - keep your content relevant, interesting and up-to-date. The same rule applies to internal blogging, as well. Content must be newsworthy, and it must provide some value to the reader. Whether it is further analysis of the situation or some new information, your team deserve exclusivity and timely information. After all, they are the ones who will be here to work it through with you.
6. An internal blog is an excellent place for company Q&A
A company blog is also an outstanding way to answer common questions about the product, about organization rules and policies, and to address all the other important issues. It’s a clever way to reduce concerns and potential rumors. Simply be honest, answer every question there is and ask for some more. In particular, pay attention to issues which have come up a few times - they are the blog post material, for sure.
Another benefit from having transparent company Q&A is the fact that it will be here to stay. When you hire new team members, they will be able to check it and get some information so you won't have to answer the same question all over again.
7. Internal blog as a knowledge base
We have just mentioned above that Q&A posts will be here to stay. Well, all other content placed on the internal blog will have the same destiny - it will be in here forever. It will be an excellent knowledge base for your entire team. They can search and browse through it, reading old posts and comments all over.
There are many different platforms and apps which can help you create your internal blog and knowledge base. One of them is BlogIn. BlogIn is outstanding because it helps your company integrate knowledge and information, and also provides a platform where you can easily share ideas, post comments, present new ideas, etc.
8. Use procedures in non-demanding manner
Growing companies need procedures because they are helping them optimize the work and stay on the right track. A perfect place where you can share procedures with the team is the internal blog. It's a bit informal environment where you talk about all sorts of things, business included, so why not add a simple "to-do list in a particular case" and make procedures available all across the team in one simple step.
9. Welcome new team members
When someone new joins the team, you should organize a lovely welcome and show them around. For everything else, they can use internal company blog. Your vision, company culture, Q&A, knowledge base, procedures and all sort of formal and casual info are already there :)
10. Use internal blog to organize after-hours activities that everyone will love
Bowling or Darts, the question is now? Don't even try to guess - ask the team directly and let them choose what they want to do after hours. An internal blog is an ideal place for such a poll and discussion, and everyone can take part.
Are you convinced yet? Give an internal blog a try and see for yourself how it can help you improve your business and team communication in no time.