SharePoint Branding 101: Boost Employee Morale With An Effectively Branded Platform

SharePoint is an excellent platform for real-time access and management of documents and team collaboration. That is why hundreds of organizations, including many Fortune 500 companies, utilize sharepoint branding platform to improve data flow and efficiency across the infrastructure.

However, to make the most of this platform and address rapidly changing customer and industry requirements, organizations need to customize their SharePoint online. And branding is one such area in which customization cannot only enhance the look of your site but also promote corporate culture throughout the organization.

In this blog, we will discuss everything related to SharePoint online branding, from the risks involved to the process to follow. It will enable you to be prepared for top-notch branding to stay ahead of your competitors.

Why Should You Brand Your Platform?

You might be thinking that SharePoint online branding already has a lot of unique features to enhance both performance and outlook. Then why do you need to customize site branding? The main reason behind doing so is that branding enables you to make the most of your platform tools and services.

If your employees are not comfortable using the tools and other services, then it will impact your productivity and morale. Branding can help you resolve this challenge by customizing these tools and services according to your specific needs. By making your employees comfortable in using these tools, you will be able to complete the required assignments and projects on time.

Branding Challenges and Solutions

While Microsoft SharePoint branding can offer you a lot of benefits, yet there are many challenges involved in the process too. Therefore, before moving forward with platform branding, here are a few challenges that you should consider.

Microsoft SharePoint Is Dynamic:

The reason why you should think twice about modifying master pages is that Microsoft updates this platform now and then. These modifications, in turn, can alter many customizations for you and make it difficult for you to achieve the desired result. So, when you decide to alter the master pages, then you should know about all the recent developments on this platform.

Solution:

Fortunately, you can enable preview features in the admin area and sample new changes. This is not foolproof as you might encounter new issues such as bugs. However, you may learn more about the Office 365 roadmap ahead of time.

There Are Other Services Beyond Microsoft SharePoint Branding:

Microsoft offers a range of unique services and tools for users to drive value from. And besides SharePoint services, you might want to utilize other Microsoft services as well to enhance organizational efficiency and improve workflows. However, an important thing to consider while branding your platform is that you won’t be able to apply customization to these other services.

Solution:

One tool or service that other Microsoft services can also share is the ‘top suite bar.’ And by leveraging the available Office 365 themes, users can modify the bar and share the change across a range of services. Users can modify features such as colors and images.

Microsoft Discourages XML:

To smoothly produce and upload data or other files on the platform, MS SharePoint users relied on XML. It is an excellent tool that automates a range of processes for encasing and utilizing platform features. Users preferred this tool because they could produce XML profit using older versions of this platform. However, while migrating to newer versions, users encountered many difficulties due to the interdependency of many files and documents.

Solution:

To resolve this problem, most of the users today adopt the code-based approach. They do so because newer versions of MS SharePoint support it. It enables users to easily generate different kinds of features on your platform. And users can find plenty of information to easily start using this model. However, while considering adopting a new development approach, you should also consider that it will take time. So, you should determine the costs of delay beforehand.

How to Brand Your Platform?

Now that we have gone over the sharepoint challenges and solutions, it is now time to know about the branding process. Depending upon the kind of SharePoint branding customization that you want, you will have to take different steps to achieve it. Here are a few customizations and their processes discussed in detail:

Modifying Site Colors:

Changing your platform’s colors might seem complicated because of the complex interface. However, once you get the hang of your platform, it can become really easy. One quick and easy way to do so is by changing the overall theme of your platform.

Here are a few steps to do so:

1. Open your platform site and choose ‘settings’.
2. Click on the ‘Change the look’ option and select ‘theme’.
3. Search for the right look for your organization.
4. You will be able to preview how your platform would look like.
5. Now choose the save option once you have made your choice.
6. If you no longer want the same theme, select the cancel option.
7. It will restore the site to the previous theme.
8. To change the color, click on the ‘customize’ option.
9. Select the color that matches your organizational needs.
10. Click on the save option.

Customizing Header:

When a user visits your sharepoint tutorial platform, the first thing they come across is your site’s header. Therefore, you should be extra careful while setting up the header for your platform. Make sure that it suits your organizational outlook and hence, serves your objectives.

Here’s how you can customize your site header:

1. Go to your platform site and choose ‘settings’.
2. Click on the ‘Change the look’ option and select ‘header’.
3. Depending upon your requirement, you can either select ‘Standard header layout’.
4. Or you can select the ‘Compact layout’.
5. To modify or generate logo, select the ‘change’ option.
6. If you want to change the background, click on the ‘background’.
7. To save the changes, select the ‘apply’ option.

Adding Footer:

SharePoint users often ignore the site footer since it is not as crucial as the top. But it also impacts the overall outlook of your site.  So, while you should not spend a lot of time and energy in customizing it, you should make sure that it matches the overall look of your site.

Here’s how you can do so:

1. Visit your platform and choose ‘settings’.
2. Click on the ‘Change the look’ option and select ‘footer’.
3. First, you have to add a footer by searching for ‘foot visibility’.
4. Click on it to add the footer to your site.
5. Now to select the logo, click on the ‘upload’ option.
6. SharePoint will automatically adjust the logo to fit your site.
7. Click on the ‘save’ option to apply the changes your changes.

Modifying Navigation Style:

Finally, users should also be mindful of the navigation style of their site. This is because it impacts your site’s outlook in several ways. So, you should make sure that your navigation style matches your organization’s overall requirements and style.

Here are a few steps in which you can modify the navigation style:

1. Go to your platform site and choose ‘settings’.
2. Click on the ‘Change the look’ option and select ‘navigation’.
3. Now look for the ‘Mega-menu’ icon and click on it.
4. You will be able to view all the features in one spot.
5. To save changes, click on the ‘apply’ option.