Mayo’s secrets to churning out compelling content

Mayo Clinic has 56,000 employees. They’re physicians, scientists, residents, fellows, students, and staffers who work different shifts, have offices at different locations, and tend to be pretty busy saving lives.

In short, getting all of them to read an article or watch a video can be kind of tough. But Employee Communicators Manager Karen Trewin and Senior Communications Consultant Hoyt Finnamore have done a pretty good job of finding solutions.

“Present content that is compelling enough that people want to own it, respond to it, and share it,” Trewin told attendees at Ragan Communications’ Intranet Summit.

Mayo is inspiring its employees to do just that through blogs, videos, and user comments.

Right place, right voice

Rule No. 1 for compelling content, Trewin says, is to be where the employees are. That means posting news and other important information where it’ll be easily seen. For Mayo, that’s the intranet homepage.

It’s also important to purge corporate lingo from those posts.