A social network as an internal communication tool

 

REX mission in a house of the LVMH group by Alexa…

One of my missions in this prestigious house of the LVMH group was the redesign of their internal communication application.

This application has the particularity of being inspired by the codes of use of social networks: administrators and users can share content in the form of a post (or story) and the community can react to this content.
The team even created polls and challenges to informally entertain and inform employees.

Knowing the boom that social networks have experienced in recent years, I found it smart to draw inspiration from these new sharing platforms to create a space for professional and accessible exchange that makes it possible to enhance daily life at job.

The objective of the redesign, beyond the new graphic charter, is to enhance the publications of users and to create a dynamic around the community.

In this article, I therefore share with you the 4 important concepts that have made it possible to elevate the application to a professional network where users are involved and where sharing is the key word!

 

#1 Share your professional experiences

The priority during the redesign of the application was the publication of user posts. Both creating a post and viewing a post.

What is a post? This English term is used to designate a message on the Internet (on a forum, a blog, a social network, etc.).

Central in the application, the post allows the user to express themselves. The goal is to leave him enough space to share the highlights of his daily life and professional activity. Beyond the codes of social networks, I was inspired by the mechanisms present on blogging platforms.

There is an important notion of sharing which highlights life experiences and moments of exchange.

But an important facet of this professional application is the highlighting of company news: products, techniques and good practices in the various professions. For example, I remember seeing posts created by a saleswoman in store on her feedback during the period of the health crisis.

Several types of posts have been detected :

  •  the post that the user publishes,
  •  the post of another user of the community,
  •  the post of an app administrator,
  •  the post linked to a challenge or an event. Each post type is broadly similar except for a few codes:
  •  The admin post had a visual distinction to detect it in the entire thread as a company news.
  •  The actions available are contextualized according to the type of user.

We can therefore say that users appropriate the application thanks to the posts. They were therefore at the heart of the challenges of the redesign. The whole process has been redesigned: from access to creating a new post, through the addition of a type of media of your choice and its editing, to the publish button!

The desire was to put forward a simple and intuitive toolbox to arouse the desire to use the application and share as much as possible. The multitude of choices during creation allows the user to give free rein to his creativity!

 

#2 View interactive content

The team responsible for managing and updating the application uses the story system, which has been widely used for several years on social networks, to publish news and repost user content.

The difference with the use that we have with our personal social networks, is that only an administrator can publish (and not each account).

Their objective was to highlight content but by removing the news carousel previously present in the application.

Through the use of stories :

  • The user is immersed in a journey and themes can be created.
  • Moreover, despite the complex implementation on the development side, there are far fewer news count constraints compared to a carousel.
  • And finally, the interactive aspect of interactive stories (with quizzes and polls in particular) allows the playful transmission of information and direct feedback from users to teams.

 

#3 Strengthen the community

The internal application brings together different individuals from the same company around professional interests. The community is international, more than 19 employees have access to this application.

The mechanisms of social networks reinforce the community effect thanks to the actions of sharing and retrieving opinions with the “like” button (I like button).

That's why, during the redesign, the actions of reactions for posts and stories have been highlighted to create excitement.

The objective is to create a group dynamic: the more there is sharing and feedback, the more you want to share and the more you share, the more you give the possibility of receiving feedback from your colleagues.

The community is also created thanks to the small groups within this same community. This is why the profile subscription system has been strengthened:

  • From the navigation: a tab grouping together all the profile posts where the user is subscribed. Put in parallel with a tab where all the posts of the community appear (this is also the case on Tik Tok for example),
  • The user retrieves all the profiles to which he has subscribed in his personal page,
  • The “subscribe” button has been highlighted on several routes:
    • Linked to a profile
    • Linked to a post
    • Linked to a like

#4 Create a sense of belonging

Activity on the application is also punctuated by the feedback it gives to the user. How does the user perceive his contribution? How is the user encouraged to contribute?

  • The first membership factor is their profile page, which has been redesigned. The objective was to highlight the personality of the user but also his publications on the application. An album of his posts, the posts where he is mentioned, statistics on the number of posts and likes he has obtained.

  • The second membership factor is the mentions he receives via his profile or via his posts. Indeed, a user can be mentioned on the post of another user or an administrator. An administrator can even re-post one of his contributions or his profile to give him a spotlight.

The user therefore feels valued and a certain intimacy is created with this application which serves as a diary of his professional life.

# To conclude

Drawing inspiration from the navigation mechanisms and functionalities of social networks makes it possible to create a modern and fun application for transmitting internal communication content.

Employees are grouped around themes related to their profession or sector of activity. And the application allows them to share their experiences and their news but also to recover thanks to the interactive stories their opinion on specific subjects.

 

Image source: https://undraw.co/illustrations

 

Alexa CUELLAR UX-UI Designer @UX-Republic

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