One of the most widely used features of the SharePoint intranet is the SharePoint team site. It remains one of the most frequently used collaboration tool. The team sites' importance overshadows some of the other utilities of SharePoint. One such undervalued component is the SharePoint blog.

SharePoint blog has mostly been used for a single purpose across organizations, to host corporate blogs. In most cases, its utility has been restricted to the HR department or a small group of users who publish corporate news or specific content that serves the interest of a small group of users. A SharePoint Azure consultant would argue that organizations are underutilizing their SharePoint capabilities.

Here are some creative ways for utilizing the SharePoint blog and leverage the capabilities of the utility to the beast extent.

Advantages of SharePoint Blog over other sites

There are at least 4 advantages of SharePoint blog over other team sites that make it a better alternative.

Simplified content editing. SharePoint blog includes an embedded content editor that allows users to publish and edit text, graphics, and video in real-time. This gives users the unique capability of managing their blogs like a forum with content-rich information rather than simple documents and files.

Automated archiving. Content published on a SharePoint blog is automatically classified by date. This makes finding posts created in a particular month or year simple and provides a well-arranged archive by default.

Efficient content categorization. Apart from the ability to categorize content chronologically, users can also create categories based on which the blogs can be sorted. This simplifies finding content for employees based on themes that meet their specific requirements. This is a handy addition to the widely used document and folder-based content categorization.

Quality assessment. One of the most interesting blog features is the ability to add ratings to the blog. On one hand, it allows users to voice their opinion about the quality of the content that they are reading, and on the other, authors get a fair assessment of their content and get a better idea about what works. Statuses and badges lend credence to users and add value to their opinions. These are, of course, features not available with the out-of-the-box team site.

Uses of SharePoint Blog

Based on these advantages, below are 3 innovative uses of the SharePoint blog.

1. Managing projects. SharePoint blog inherits the capabilities of a SharePoint project site. It helps teams document changes, analyze progress on complex tasks, identify unique solutions and provide guidance on specific projects. Additionally, the blog can be circulated among other teams and stakeholders for them to implement them in their own practice.

2. Facilitate research. SharePoint blog can facilitate R&D activities in an organization regardless of the team size. Employees can post preliminary or readymade results, keep pace with the industry trends and collaborate with peers.

3. Promote collaboration and knowledge transfer. SharePoint blog can be used as an enterprise knowledge management KM solution. Employees can share their knowledge and create an enterprise-wide repository for data. This will help anyone who needs assistance from peers they might know or even the ones that have left the company.

Conclusion

SharePoint is a flexible tool with plenty of underutilized tools and solutions. As a Microsoft Partner, Apps4Rent helps businesses configure SharePoint to meet their specific requirements with 24/7 technical assistance via phone, chat, and email. We have deep expertise and years of practice in how to migrate SharePoint to Office 365. Contact us for any SharePoint migration requirement.