Creating a more personalised intranet experience is widely acknowledged as an enabler of platform engagement and interaction, but many internal comms teams still lack the tools to deliver true personalisation within the intranet news hub.
In a world where employees navigate a relentless barrage of information and content from both internal and external sources, being able to deliver targeted messaging that cuts through the noise is more important than ever. Today’s employees expect the same seamless, personalised experience from their workplace tech that they get from the consumer platforms they use every day.
Truly engaging and effective internal news dissemination needs to ensure that relevant information reaches the right audiences, in the right timeframes. Because when employees feel overloaded with content that they deem irrelevant or unnecessary, they will often ‘tune out’ from all news and updates and inevitably miss the important information they do need to know about.
But while many studies have flagged content personalisation as a key way to increase readership and engagement, only 30% of internal communicators say they have the capability within their communication channels to enable personalised or segmented content.
We’re here to help turn things around by handing the power of personalisation back to the IC function.
This blog post considers the importance of personalisation, and explores how organisations can most effectively personalise the SharePoint news experience to increase readership and engagement.
Why does personalisation matter?
A recent study into the psychological impacts of personalisation found that marketing content that was relevant to a person’s interests, behaviours and demographics resulted in higher purchase intentions, greater brand loyalty, and increased customer satisfaction. And while this research applies to the external world of marketing, the same principles are reflected internally.
Volvo Car International commissioned an extensive study to investigate the reasons behind a relatively low utilisation of its corporate intranet. The research found that many employees did not feel the intranet’s content was “…particularly useful for their everyday activities”, highlighting ‘end-user personalisation’ as a key recommendation to increase platform utilisation and news readership.
Despite 48% of internal communicators agreeing that personalised content experiences will continue to be a high priority over the coming years, the foundations are still not yet in place. Less than a third felt satisfied with their ability to personalise content, and only around half said their comms channels could effectively segment employee groups.
Personalisation and Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 offers some fantastic opportunities for personalisation and segmentation, particularly via the Viva Connections dashboard and SharePoint’s ‘audience targeting’ feature. Building on this functionality, we’ve developed various other opportunities for personalisation, whether it’s the ability to personalise the links and apps most frequented and favourited, or receiving the latest news at a frequency that suits the individual and via their preferred platform.
One area that’s been historically more difficult to personalise is SharePoint’s news hub. This has mainly been due to the out-of-the-box functionality on offer, and the need for internal communicators to strike an appropriate balance between a ‘centralised’ and ‘decentralised’ approach to internal news dissemination.
We hear a lot from our clients about the toss-up between a ‘push’ and ‘pull’ approach to news content, as they want to introduce a more personalised SharePoint news experience without losing control of important internal messaging.
This is where the recently launched news module within Beacon – our tool that helps you enhance the capabilities of SharePoint – comes into play. Beacon has dedicated modules for branding and design, customised links and tools, and now… personalised news.
As one of its three modules, ‘Beacon News’ enables IC and content teams to balance must-read company news and updates with a fully personalised approach.
Let’s explore some of the best ways this tool helps organisations take SharePoint news readership to the next level:
1. An employee-configured News Centre
Beacon News provides IC teams with a perfect middle ground between ‘fully personalised’ and ‘fully centralised’. It ensures the big-ticket internal news is still promoted at the top of the News Centre, while letting employees filter down and control the next level of content they want to see.
By selecting which sites and topics they want to follow, employees curate a personalised feed that is both engaging and relevant to them, translating to higher readership and greater interaction. And they can easily switch from ‘My News’ back to ‘All News’ to get the company-wide view of things, whenever needed.
Promoted news will always be displayed at the top of the page, featuring content that is relevant to all employees, such as CEO updates, operational information, or policy changes. Internal comms teams also have the ability to set ‘mandatory follows’, where different employee groups are automatically subscribed to certain sites.
2. Personalised, automated newsletters and notifications
Employees are also able to select how frequently – and via which channels – they would like to receive notifications about the sites and topics they’ve subscribed to.
Through either a notification in Teams or an email newsletter, employees will receive a round-up containing automatically compiled news that’s been recently published across their followed sites and topics. With Beacon News, IC teams gain the ability to customise and brand the newsletter templates that are used within the automated updates.
The automated newsletters – which many employees select to receive weekly – have been a real game-changer for the IC teams we work with, saving hours of manual input every single week. And with ‘a lack of time or capacity’ being the biggest barrier for internal communicators in 2025, every minute saved counts. One of our clients even shared that the automated newsletters feature has given the team their Friday afternoons back, which was music to our ears.
3. Centralised templates for news pages
Beacon News has also brought centralised custom news templates to the table, making it significantly easier for content and news posts to be created in a consistent and brand-aligned manner. Templates give news posts a more professional and official feel, making sure the brand is being used in a standardised way.
The new feature allows templates to be managed from a central location – such as an IC-owned ‘templates’ folder – negating the need to upload duplicate versions of the same template across multiple different SharePoint sites across the organisation. This means that templates can be quickly and easily updated, in one place, for everyone to access.
Beacon News makes it easy for internal comms teams to deliver a personalised news experience without compromising on the central content strategy.
If you’d like to see how Beacon can transform your SharePoint experience, schedule a free Art of the Possible session with one of our experts.
Ready to Personalise Your Intranet Experience?
Download our free SharePoint Intranet Design Guide for practical tips on creating an engaging, user-focused experience that cuts through the noise and boosts readership.
Additional FAQs
How can I personalise news for different teams in SharePoint?
SharePoint supports basic personalisation through audience targeting, which allows you to show news posts to specific groups based on Microsoft 365 profiles—like department, location, or job title. This is a useful starting point for internal comms, but it’s limited to admin-defined rules.
If you’re looking for more dynamic, user-driven options, Silicon Reef’s Beacon enhances this by allowing employees to follow topics or business areas they’re interested in. This helps comms teams surface relevant stories while still prioritising strategic messages, creating a more engaging experience for everyone.
What’s the best way to manage consistent, branded news across multiple SharePoint sites?
Maintaining a unified look and feel across different SharePoint sites can be tricky, especially when different teams are responsible for publishing content. While SharePoint offers reusable web parts and page templates, these can be hard to enforce consistently across large or decentralised organisations.
With Beacon, internal comms teams can centrally manage news post templates that apply branding and structure consistently—regardless of where content is created. This reduces duplication, simplifies the content creation process, and ensures every news article aligns with your company’s tone and design standards.
How do I make sure important company news doesn’t get lost in SharePoint?
Even with targeted content, key messages like leadership updates or policy changes can get buried in busy news feeds. SharePoint includes a Boosted News feature that temporarily pins posts to the top of the feed, which can help—but it’s not always flexible enough for more nuanced messaging strategies.
Beacon tackles this by allowing featured content to be highlighted in a structured layout, ensuring critical announcements always appear in a prominent position. At the same time, users can still scroll through their personalised feed—so your comms remain visible without overwhelming the individual experience.
Can employees choose what kind of news they see on the intranet?
Out of the box, SharePoint doesn’t give employees much control over the news they receive—everything is admin-driven. This can lead to content fatigue if users see posts that don’t feel relevant to their role or interests.
With Silicon Reef’s Beacon tool, employees can tailor their intranet news experience by following topics or sites that matter most to them. They can switch between a fully personalised “My News” view and a broader “All News” feed, giving them autonomy while still keeping corporate updates visible.
Is there a way to automate SharePoint newsletters for internal comms?
Native newsletter functionality in SharePoint is limited, so comms teams often resort to manual copy-pasting of content into email templates—which is time-consuming and prone to inconsistencies.
Beacon simplifies this by letting users choose how they’d like to receive updates—via email or Microsoft Teams—and how often. It automatically compiles relevant news based on their topic preferences into a branded newsletter, which can be sent daily, weekly, or at a cadence that suits each employee. This helps comms teams scale their efforts while delivering a more targeted and timely experience.
What’s the difference between audience targeting and personalisation in SharePoint?
Audience targeting is rule-based: admins decide who sees what, using attributes like department or job title. It’s a good way to reduce irrelevant content, but it doesn’t account for individual preferences or behaviours.
True personalisation empowers employees to shape their own content experience. With tools like Beacon, employees can select interests, control notification settings, and customise how they engage with news. This creates a more meaningful intranet experience—where everyone sees what’s most relevant to them without missing out on top-down messaging from leadership.
