When it comes to SharePoint, small changes can make a huge difference in making it easier to use. Over the years, I’ve worked with many departments, helping them organise their sites and improve usability.
One of my favourite examples is a marketing team managing social media content. They needed a simple way to access their files, track campaign deadlines, and automate reminders. Here are five quick wins that completely transformed their SharePoint experience.
1. Add a Homepage with Smart Quick Links
Every great SharePoint site needs a homepage that makes sense. When I set up a new site for a team, I always recommend adding Quick Links to help users find what they need fast.
For this marketing team, we added Quick Links that:
✅ Navigated directly to key folders like Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube campaigns.
✅ Linked to a shared content calendar so they could see what was scheduled.
✅ Used PnP Modern Search to pull in all approved social media content.
💡 Tip: Be even smarter! Instead of just linking to folders, link Quick Links to a SharePoint search result filtered by tags like ‘Approved’ or ‘Draft’ to surface only the most relevant files.
I always ask the team: “If you landed on this site for the first time, what would you want to see?” That’s how we create a homepage that works for them.
2. Set Up a Customised View for Recently Modified Documents
One of my must-have SharePoint views is a simple one that shows all the documents you’ve been working on. There’s nothing worse than searching through folders to find that one file you edited yesterday.
For the marketing team, I created a view with a filter:
📌 Modified by [Me] → Shows only documents they’ve updated.
📌 Sort by Modified Date (Newest First) → So the most recent ones are at the top.
Then, I took it one step further:
💡 Tip: Instead of just having this view in the document library, I embedded it on the homepage under the Quick Links. Now, when the team lands on their SharePoint site, they see:
- Quick Links to their main folders.
- Their recently modified files at a glance.
This saves so much time, especially for fast-moving teams working across multiple platforms!
3. Automate Workflows to Stay on Top of Content Changes
The best way to make SharePoint work for you is to set up simple automations. For the marketing team, they needed an easy way to track content approvals.
Here’s what I set up:
✅ An automatic Teams notification whenever a new file was uploaded to the ‘Ready to Review’ folder.
✅ An email alert sent to the campaign manager if a document in the ‘Approved’ folder was modified.
💡 Tip: You don’t always need complex Power Automate flows—sometimes, a simple SharePoint Alert does the trick.
If you’re managing a lot of content, set an alert on critical folders so you never miss an update. It’s a game-changer for collaboration and tracking changes.
4. Use SharePoint Search Smarter
SharePoint’s search function is a powerhouse, but most people don’t use it properly. Instead of clicking through folders, you can filter results to find exactly what you need.
For the marketing team, I set up custom search refiners to help them find content instantly:
📌 Refine by Tag – Filter posts by ‘Instagram,’ ‘LinkedIn,’ or ‘Campaign Type.’
📌 Filter by Approval Status – Only see content that’s marked as ‘Approved.’
📌 Use ‘Created by [Me]’ – Find only content you’ve personally uploaded.
💡 Example: If a team member wants to find all Instagram posts scheduled for next week, they can just type ‘Instagram Approved’ and filter by date instead of digging through folders.
It’s a simple tweak but saves so much time!
5. Customise SharePoint with JSON Formatting (Make Deadlines Stand Out!)
I love using JSON formatting to make SharePoint lists more visually useful. For the marketing team, they had a content calendar in a SharePoint list, and I wanted to make deadline tracking super clear.
So, I set up conditional formatting:
🔴 If a post is due today or overdue, the row turns red.
🟠 If a post is due in 2 days, it turns orange.
🟢 If a post is more than 3 days away, it stays green.
💡 Tip: This works for any list—content calendars, project deadlines, or even tracking social media engagement.
Now, whenever they open their SharePoint site, urgent posts stand out immediately. No more missed deadlines!
Final Thoughts
Small tweaks like these make a massive difference in how teams use SharePoint. Whether it’s quick links, custom views, automation, smarter search, or visual formatting, these quick wins help teams work faster and smarter.
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