Stop, Yammertime

You will most likely already be aware of Twitter, but just in case you’re not, Twitter is a micro-blogging social network that allows its users to send and read other users' updates. Each blog posting, or Tweet, can only be a maximum of 140 characters long. They are swift, short, sharp updates of what’s new, what’s happening or in many cases, simply what’s trivial and pointless.

Tweets are displayed on a user's profile page and delivered to other users who have specifically signed up to receive them. The service works by choosing people you want to ‘follow’ so you view their messages and have people ‘follow’ you in return, so they receive your updates.

This can certainly be trivial, but it doesn’t have to be and there are some great examples of organisations which are driving social media strategies using Twitter. Daemon Digital has recommended the use of Twitter to a number of organisations as part of a wider strategy and for more information see the following post on Mashable http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands

Taking this concept further and inside an organisation is Yammer – http://www.yammer.com/ – an enterprise version of Twitter which excludes any user without a specific enterprise’s email suffix, for example @daemongroup.com to join any given feed. This creates a very simple tool through which colleagues can update one another more securely with items of information that are useful but not worthy of a newsletter style article.

What’s so effective about this is that useful information can be communicated, for example “We had a great meeting with XYZ Co.” and dialogue can be created, for example, “I have a great idea for XYZ Co. does anyone have a contact there?” intra-day and across an organisation without waiting for the company update.

It feels as though this type of internal communication, which is fast, timely and cost effective, is more likely to be read than the traditional email or newsletter update, if for no better reason than it’s short and actually adds value.

And lest we forget, in the immortal words of MC Yammer (sic)

Break it Down
Stop, Yammertime.