echo "Knowledge Management portal is one of the
important process of the total KM program of any organization. It helps in
creating a platform for knowledge contribution, sharing and discussing for
the employees of the organization. Important knowledge gaps can be identified
and promoted here. The success lies in involving employees in visiting and
participating in the portal. Here are some good tips to use for your portal. Note that this is
not an internet portal so you have to use some different techniques to market it.
1) Know your visitors:
Yes we have to use different tools to market the portal but before that we
have to know more on our visitors coming to the portal. Now let us find
some answers to these questions. What is the time in the day your server is
getting maximum visitors? Which computers frequently used to hit your site?
Which section computers are not opening your site frequently? Answer to
many such questions can be collected by tracking your visitors. Find a good
tracking tool ( free tools are available ). Use the tool to find out hits from
different IP and computers. This will tell you in which section of
your organization have to focus on building awareness. Note that this is
not internet portal and off line promotion plays an important role in promoting
the portal.
Authors who contribute content for the site needs to know feedbacks, popularity,
page views etc of their article or contribution. One area where they can see all
such information related to their contribution will create interest among the
authors and they will visit the portal frequently to check the messages,
popularity etc. If you have email connected to the portal then system can
send alert to the authors regarding postings, messages etc.
3)Offline Promotion:
Let us not forget the power of offline promotion. This is not an internet
portal and within the organization we can create a strong brand awareness on the
portal and circulate monthly bulletins highlighting the best contribution /
articles with authors name will create strong awareness among all. Awareness
programs in different sections of the organization should be taken up initially
to make all the employees comfortable with the portal. Portal logo can be
printed in some office stationary which are in wide use in the organization.
4)Recognition the key to success:
Recognition motivates us. Authors are to be motivated with due recognition
in different areas. There can be many offline recognitions or awards but little
online promotion can easily achieved by showing some parameters like, top ten
authors, best ten departments in contributions, best ten contributions in terms
of feedback or in terms of popularity ( hits ) etc. If possible top management
can be requested to post their views selectively in some contributions and that
will help in motivating the authors.
5) Ask their Views: ( On-line Poll )
Ask your visitors to give their opinion on various issues related to KM and
the portal. This can be made as a regular feature by posting different
questions in different times. After posting their views the visitors can see the
result of the present and previous polls. This will create interest among
the visitors and they will return to portal to see the result of the poll. This
will also help in improvement plans of the portal.
6)Online newsletter:
One opt-in newsletter can be posted periodically to all the employees with
details like hot topics, featured author, best articles etc to remind or
motivate the member to visit the portal. The frequency and content of the
newsletter should be carefully decided after studying work environment, culture
etc
7)Communication and feedbacks
Interact offline with the senior officers or head of the section on various
issues and features of the portal. Develop various index to give idea on
popularity, participation level, hours spend on portal etc and circulate them
among the departments / sections with the parameters of the individual
departments.
8) Portal features and navigations:
Avoid using animation or big pictures or any thing to impress the visitors.
Visitors will be happy to read good content and will back again if some new
content is posted. So frequent updates and change in contents will bring the
visitors back to the portal. As far as possible depending on the IT awareness
level of the visitors the navigational menu etc has to be designed and updated
so it will always be easy to browse through the site. If you have to keep some
restricted areas in the portal and wants the member to login before viewing the
section, it is better to show some sample of the content before. Many visitors
would like to test the water before telling who they are. Finally the site must
have one HELP page to explain different areas of the site and how to use
it. One FAQ ( Frequently Asked Question) page also can be added to the portal.
9)IT infrastructure:
Keep an eye on the IT infrastructure and on the future plans of expansions.
Depending on the traffic and its growth rate IT infrastructure is to be added or
modified. Portal accessibility and speed is to be monitored time to time. Load
on the server and the peak demand hours to be noted while taking up any
maintenance work. Portal can be connected to mobile devices like cell phones,
PDAs etc to send alerts on new postings, messages etc.