5 Tips for Creating a “Newsroom” to Engage and Inform Your Employees
Communication has changed dramatically with the advent of social media and the need for organizations to be open and transparent whether delivering good news or bad. Organizations are now approaching their corporate communications as a “newsroom” where they can organize stories, share them on different platforms, publish content relevant to their audience and engage in conversations that matter most.
A corporate newsroom is a centralized location for communications between the company and its employees, organized to make it easy for employees to find the information they need and to keep employees informed about what is happening within and across the enterprise–no matter how large or how small.
Creating a Newsroom to Engage Your Employees
The first step to creating a newsroom is to determine how and what to communicate internally: What messages resonate most with employees? What types of content should be created? How can we deliver urgent updates to employees when necessary? And who are the key influencers inside the company? Every employee-focused communications strategy should begin with these questions. When building your corporate newsroom, keep these 5 tips in mind:
- Make sure content is relevant. Newsroom content should be relevant and connected to employee interests, jobs and roles, the organization’s mission, project initiatives and successes. Create content that not only informs but follows the principles of good storytelling.
- Keep the tone informal and conversational. When creating content, keep the tone informal and conversational. This makes it easier for employees to digest. You can still be professional while keeping the style friendly, relaxed and inviting. Also choose the right type of content to distribute, such as announcements and employee recognition and awards. Lengthy policy changes for example, are not ideal for the newsroom; yet an announcement of those upcoming changes might be.
- Use video to communicate efficiently and effectively. Video is a highly efficient and effective way to communicate with employees. They have become the standard now and are also more engaging than text-based content—in fact, employees are 75% more likely to watch video than read text.
- Make sure information is easy to find and navigate. When creating content for your corporate newsroom, be sure to choose content delivery platforms and technologies that are easy to navigate, so information can be found quickly. Deploy technologies that support multiple content formats, such as dynamic text, video and animation. Then, you can choose to integrate social media feeds within the newsroom for even more content options.
- Update content regularly. One of the most important things to remember when creating content for a corporate newsroom is to update it regularly. Automatically archive content after a specific period of time, and add new stories as they become available. By doing this, employees will be more likely to visit the newsroom often for fresh announcements and happenings.
Deliver Newsroom Content on Digital screens
Delivering newsroom content via digital screens allows employees to quickly and easily access the latest information as they move through halls, lobbies, cafeterias or breakrooms. With Video on Demand (VOD) technology, users can select and watch video content whenever they want—in contrast to only being able to view it at specific times.
Organizations can implement solutions like Hughes Breakroom TV to support VOD and a range of resources, such as skills or process training, product demonstrations, leadership announcements, townhall recordings, event recaps, and more. Employees can then access the library at their convenience and from any screen location. To create a newsroom that becomes an essential tool for enterprise-wide communications, these tips and technologies can support your efforts to deliver diverse and dynamic content that is well organized, easy to access, and keeps employees returning for the news they need to know.