Employees spend hours on TikTok but avoid the company intranet like the plague. So what’s the deal?
TikTok is built for discovery, connection, and delight. It understands and delivers what audiences want. In. An. Instant.
The average company intranet? Well…safe to say, it’s not quite made it into the user experience big leagues.
Nevertheless, the intranet still plays a central role in many organizations. It’s a way to land messages, boost employee engagement, and improve operational efficiency. But only if employees are actually logging in.
This is where we can take inspiration from TikTok — an app that the average user opens a mindblowing 20 times per day — to create a modern social intranet.
A modern social intranet is a million miles from the dusty old document repository your employees grumble about. Done right, it’s a bustling hub of activity — and a place where your workforce actively chooses to hang out.
Want to know more? Here’s what your intranet can learn from the world’s stickiest social platform.
The problem with most intranet solutions
The average intranet packaged solution is about as far away from TikTok as you can get.
It’s built for desktop, not for mobile devices. The UX is cluttered and dated. Content is stale or irrelevant. Communication is one-way. And frontline workers are often excluded from the experience entirely.
The result? Employees actively avoid your intranet.
They use workarounds and WhatsApp in its place. And when they do log in, the overriding feeling is one of frustration. This damages the employee experience along with the workplace productivity, internal communication, and employee trust you expect your intranet to support.
But things are changing. Modern social intranets are rewriting the rules. They’re borrowing lessons from social platforms, like TikTok, and applying them to the digital workplace.
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Why TikTok wins (and what that has to do with work)
With two billion users spending an average of 95 minutes a day on the app, TikTok is a master of user engagement. So what makes it so addictive? And how can you bring that same energy to your employee intranet solution?
Let’s take a look.
TikTok tactic #1: Algorithmic personalization
The “For You” feed knows you better than your best friend. It learns what you like and serves it up on repeat. With a never-ending stream of videos — all relevant to you and your viewing preferences — there’s always a good reason to stop by the app.
Applying it to your intranet: Use personalization features to serve employees content that actually matters to them — based on their location, team, role, tenure, or interests. When employees see content and resources that relate to them, they’re more likely to see value in the intranet.
TikTok tactic #2: Short-form, snackable content
The most popular TikTok videos are short and snappy. They start with a killer hook to grab attention. They opt for authenticity over polish. And they feature text or captions that are quick and easy to digest.
Applying it to your intranet: Boost content consumption and move away from text-heavy messages. If you have a lot of information to share, break it up into bite-sized chunks. Include captions or TL;DRs. Use images, videos, and graphics to stop the scroll and help employees digest new information quickly — even in the middle of a busy work day.
TikTok tactic #3: Endless scroll
TikTok’s feed is designed to be frictionless. No clicking through menus. No dead ends. Just one piece of engaging content after another. There’s always something new for users, available just one swipe away.
Applying it to your intranet: The best intranets feature a home feed that invites browsing and discovery. They surface fresh, relevant content — from CEO updates to shift changes to the next team social — and put them where employees are most likely to see them.
TikTok tactic #4: Social interaction
Likes, comments, shares — TikTok is built for interaction, not just passive viewing. Users can respond to content and pass it on. That two-way employee communication builds employee communities and drives engagement.
Applying it to your intranet: Modern social intranet solutions act as a digital water cooler — a place to build connections. So give employees a way to react to what they see, using likes, emoji reactions, comments, and polls. Let them ask questions, offer feedback, cheer each other on, and share knowledge with their co-workers.
TikTok tactic #5: A creator culture
TikTok thrives because anyone and everyone can be a creator. Every day users drive trends and spark conversation. They enjoy a sense of contribution, creativity, and collaboration that keeps those user numbers rocketing upward.
Applying it to your intranet: Build an internal creator culture at your organization and include employees in your content creation engine. Encourage employees to share birthday shout-outs, behind-the-scenes videos, work hacks, and weekly wins. With authentic and diverse intranet content from employees, you make the intranet feel like their space, not just another management tool.
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What the modern social intranet looks like
To harness these tactics for your workplace, you need a different kind of intranet. This is what it should look like.
#1. Mobile-first and frontline-friendly
For too long, frontline employees have been excluded from the company intranet. To give them the same access and user experience as desk-based employees, you need a solution with mobile access built right in. A mobile-first intranet offers the same features and functionality across all devices — and puts company resources into the pocket of every employee.
#2. Rich, multimedia content
When creating intranet content, make like a social media marketer and think about your intranet as more than a content management system. Your intranet should support highly visual, eye-catching content. We’re talking images, videos, graphics, and easy-to-digest formats, like Stories. By ditching text-heavy content, you convey information and engage employees more effectively.
#3. Smart personalization + notifications
On a modern social intranet, personalized experiences come as standard. Employees receive tailored internal comms on custom homepages and can easily adjust their notification preferences. With features like employee journeys, you can also automate content to appear to the right employees at the right time.
#4. Two-way interaction
Social media is built on two-way conversations. A modern intranet solution gives employees the option to like, comment, share, and post emoji reactions to news feed content. Other interactive features include polls, surveys, Q&A events, and instant messaging tools.
#5. Seamless integration
TikTok is super easy to use. Just a few taps and users can be scrolling through the latest content. Your intranet can mirror this experience by integrating with your HR systems, scheduling, payroll, and collaboration tools — enabling employees to do more from one user-friendly dashboard.
Need to address the skeptics? Why this isn’t about dance routines at your desk
Adding a little TikTok spice to your employee intranet doesn’t mean persuading your CEO to jump on a viral video bandwagon. Or allowing your workforce to add unnecessary noise to internal communication channels.
Most organizations aren’t like TikTok — and don’t want to be like TikTok. And that’s 100% okay. Because this isn’t about mimicking the latest social media trends. It’s about leveraging the potential of TikTok design principles:
- Design for engagement
- Personalize the experience
- Remove points of friction
- Make it social and visual
By integrating social media-style features into the company intranet you can count on higher employee engagement, better reach, and improved connection across your organization.
It’s easier to reach your whole workforce, including your frontline organization. And when you do, you provide them with relevant and attention-grabbing content that will have them coming back for more.
Your next steps: Modernizing your intranet experience
So what next? How do you go from a clunky old intranet to something worthy of the TikTok era? Here are the key steps involved in upgrading your intranet:
Audit your current intranet solution. What do you feel is working? Which parts of the intranet get the most and least traffic? What needs to be changed?
Talk to employees. What do they want in an intranet solution and how do they feel your current intranet meets their needs?
Partner with internal stakeholders. Get internal communications, HR, and IT on board to reimagine the platform, laying out the intranet features you class as must-haves and nice-to-haves.
Find the right platform. Browse the top intranet software providers and take shortlisted solutions for a test drive, looking for tools that prioritize a digital employee experience, not just storage.
Start small. When rolling out new employee intranet software, pilot each new feature. Or test the platform with a small group of employees before tweaking and launching it to the rest of your workforce.
Make improvements. Like TikTok, use content analytics and user feedback to continuously improve your intranet solution so it meets the needs of employees now and into the future.
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Will you make the social intranet shift?
Today, employees expect consumer-grade tech tools in the digital workspace. By taking inspiration from tools, like TikTok, you can make your intranet — and the overall employee experience — a central part of your digital transformation.
Incorporate the very best social-style design and you create a reliable and engaging source of information and connection. You reduce employee frustration and improve intranet usage stats, too.
Blink is a mobile-first modern social intranet that comes with a personalized news feed, Stories, Communities, seamless integrations, and more — everything you need to deliver a high-impact and interactive employee experience.
Blink. And build an intranet your people actually want to use.
