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Organize department news on your SharePoint Hub
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SharePoint Online
Sep 28, 2023 7:29 AM

Organize department news on your SharePoint Hub

by HubSite 365 about SharePoint Maven Inc

I help organizations to unlock the power of SharePoint

Pro UserSharePoint Online

Master the art of organization with two effective strategies to streamline department news in your SharePoint Hub.

Intranet portals are critical for sharing news within an organization. Thanks to the powerful News Web Part feature by SharePoint Online, distribution of news and announcements has become more efficient. The focus here is detailing strategies for organizing departmental news on SharePoint Hub, particularly for larger organizations.More on SharePoint Online.

Small entities often only require one platform for news and announcements, which may largely be managed by an individual. Larger organizations, on the other hand, often have diverse categories of announcements that are managed by various departments. The strategies shared here aim to help in such situations.

One approach to organizing department news involves the use of metadata categories. The process entails utilizing multiple News Web Parts on the same site and filtering them based on metadata tags tied to each news post. You could create a Metadata Column called Category or Department on the Site Pages Library on the main portal and tag each news post against the respective category (HR News, IT News, General News). Subsequently, on the main landing page, you could add several news web parts, one for each category, and filter the News Web Parts based on the corresponding page property.

  • The advantage of this method is that all news posts reside on one site and one library (Site Pages Library), making it easy to maintain such as adding, editing, or deleting posts. This option works best if you have a single individual maintaining different categories of news.
  • The disadvantage of this approach is in case of multiple authors, there's no way to split security since all news posts reside in one site/library.

An alternative approach to organizing the department news involves using different sites on the Hub for each category. Each area or category of news gets its own site for creating news and announcements. These news posts are then gathered on a main Home Page or Intranet Page thanks to the Hub's news roll-up feature.

  • The benefit here is that it allows each department to have its own space to create news posts with separate security and permissions. You could potentially create a separate site called “CEO Corner” where the CEO can publish posts, which will be gathered and presented in a specific News Web Part on a SharePoint page.
  • The downside is that there's no way to select specific news posts to publish from the rolled-up sites. Also, in case of certain news needing to be expired on a Hub site after a set period, this could require the use of managed properties.

An Overview of SharePoint Online's Accessibility

SharePoint Online has continued to provide critical tools for effective internal communication in different organizations. It allows for a consolidated platform where news, updates, and reports can be shared across various departments. This way, all members of the entity have a central point for tracking developments within the organization.

Additionally, with diversified features such as the News Web Part, SharePoint offers an unrivalled medium for customizing the way information is disseminated within the company. The availability of the platform on the cloud also ensures remote accessibility, making the platform a critical tool in today's world where remote work is a growing trend.

Furthermore, security is well taken care of as SharePoint allows for setting up permissions for different categories. This guarantees that information is only available to the right person at the right time, upholding confidentiality when needed. As such, SharePoint Online is not just a tool for organizing and managing content; it's an integral part of organizational efficiency.

Read the full article 2 ways to organize department news on your SharePoint Hub

SharePoint Online - Optimizing Department News Organization on SharePoint Hub

Learn about 2 ways to organize department news on your SharePoint Hub

Learning to efficiently manage and share news on SharePoint Hub is a crucial skill in any organization. SharePoint Online offers a variety of options to assist in organizing department news efficiently, making it a powerful tool for internal communication.


The first notable feature is the News Web Part, which comes with ability to schedule or expire news posts. This feature can be very useful especially for larger organizations which have different categories of news managed by various employees.


Typically, smaller organizations might have single place for their news and announcements on the main landing page, referred to as Home Site. Larger organizations, on the other hand, often have a different setup where announcements are categorized and managed by different individuals and departments.


One effective method to organize department news on SharePoint Hub is through using metadata categories. This involves use of numerous News Web Parts on the same site, filtering them according to the assigned metadata tags for every news post. A metadata column called Category or Department is created on the Site Pages Library on the principal Intranet Hub Site in order to tag each news post under the respective category. For instance, categories could include HR News, IT News or General News.


By implementing this option, all news posts reside on the same site and library, facilitating easier maintenance activities such as add/edit/delete/schedule/expire. This option is apt for those situations where one person is responsible for maintaining different categories of news.


However, it's important to note that this option doesn't offer a way to split security in case of multiple authors. It requires all authors to have Edit access to the main Hub Site because all news posts are housed in one site/library.


The second option leverages Hub's functionality. Each category of news gets its own site for creating news and announcements; these are then rolled up on the main Home Site/Intranet site with the help of the Hub news roll-up feature. An advantage of this method is that it allows each department/category to get its own unique space to create news posts, each accompanied by its security/permissions.


A limitation here is that there's no way to selectively publish specific news posts from rolled-up sites. It's all or nothing. Also, if news items are to be expired on a hub site after certain period of time, setting up managed properties would be required.


Both options have their unique pros and cons depending on the specific requirements of an organization. It's upon the management to decide which strategy is best-suited and efficient, depending on the resources available and desired levels of control and security.

More links on about 2 ways to organize department news on your SharePoint Hub

2 ways to organize department news on your SharePoint Hub
Feb 22, 2023 — Option 1: Organize department news via Metadata Categories ... The first option would be to utilize multiple News Web Parts on the same site and ...
Setting up news for your organization using a hub site ...
Feb 21, 2023 — With SharePoint, you can share news content across your organization in a meaningful and discoverable way. By default, SharePoint news is ...
Create and share news on your SharePoint sites
News is shown as a personalized feed on the SharePoint start page and in the mobile app. It can also be shown on team sites, communication sites, and hub sites.

Keywords

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