8 of the best free tools every internal communicator can use
By
— September 30th, 2015
There are many software tools and apps available to internal communicators. I've gone through a few of my favorites and highlighted a few you may not have heard of but can find value in using.
The eight free tools listed are all designed to save you time, make your content more engaging or add interactivity to your employee communications.
The Ultimate Guide to Internal Communications Strategy
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
The free content headline analyzer will score your overall headline quality. As you know, connecting with your employees is key to successful content, and your headline is unquestionably the most important piece of copy you use to reach readers on your company's intranet, social network or blog.
IC Grader
A quick and simple online auditing tool created by a panel of IC thought leaders, the IC Grader allows you to compare your employee communications against the best in the industry. It takes just a few minutes to score the effectiveness of your internal email communications. You will get a free comprehensive downloadable report.
ease.ly
easel.ly is a website that features thousands of free infographic templates and design objects which users can customize to create and share their visual ideas online. Users can either choose a template from the library or they can upload their own background image and start from scratch.
iDoneThis
Despite its grammatically incorrect name, iDoneThis is a really good tool to help you keep track of work done and show appreciation for the hard work of your colleagues and team members. This handy gmail plug-in allows you to reply to an evening email reminder with what you did that day. The next day, it sends you a digest with what everyone on the team got done and allows you to send thanks to your colleagues ‘with a single click’.
ThingLink
ThingLink lets you create custom interactive images by adding clickable annotations and links to video, text, music and other images. Arguably the next Prezi in terms of fun for the creator, it allows you to present your content in a visually striking and interactive way.
PowToon
PowToon is an animated content creation tool designed to help make custom animated videos - it's great for explainer videos and short instructional videos. The company also offers a paid version which includes addition images and the ability to create animations longer than 5 minutes.
MakeMe
Need a little help ‘eating that frog’? MakeMe is a fantastic app for pushing you to get things done. The app is gamified to reward and inspire action. Available through invite only.
The Ultimate Guide to Internal Communications Strategy
MindMeister
For internal communicators tasked with creating a lot of content, the flow of stories can become overwhelming without some form of organization. Mind maps can help organize content creation easier. MindMeister allows users to create, share and collaboratively work on mind maps.
Newsweaver Internal Connect is an internal email communication tool that allows you to create and send targeted, and visually impactful internal email communications that include interactive and relevant content.