Tweeting for Business
I wrote previously on a new model (or should I say form) of communication and stated that I was considering:
How twitter could be used in business to improve communication . . .
Twitter asks the question “What are you doing?” which encourages sharing of resources, ideas and encouragement.
One persons answer to this question recently gave me a chuckle:
I think it good that twitter has a core question, however ‘What are you doing?’ does influence the posts that people make . . . I wonder how the conversations would change if the question was ‘What are you being?’ just for a day!
What impact would there be on productivity and communication in the workplace if we embraced microblogging tools such as twitter or yammer as the preferred method for online communication?
Consider for a moment the amount of email clutter that could be reduced!
Yammer (Winner of TechCrunch 50) has a core question of ‘What are you working on?’ and is designed to be used in business networks.
Recently there was interesting discussion in the New York Times about the business models used for twitter and yammer titled ‘Popularity or Income? Two Sites Fight It Out‘:
Yammer tweaks the question, asking, “What are you working on?” The goal, said its chief executive, David Sacks, is to make offices more productive. People on Yammer update colleagues on company events or ask work-related questions without clogging e-mail boxes with mass mailings.
One very interesting point about Yammer is how quickly they provide support, even when you are not expecting any! When I first heard about the company I asked my colleagues (via twitter) if anyone had any case studies about using yammer or twitter in business and Kevin from yammer replied to me asking if he could provide some information!
This proactive and preemptive approach to customer service really intrigued me and Kevin promptly answered my yammer related questions and provided me with lots of useful information.
To see the yammer video tour (turn your speakers up) and learn more about how it can be used in your business click on the image below:
This form of communication encourages online collaboration and would be a great way to connect a team of people, especially teams who are based in various locations.
If you are interested in finding out more about yammer then have a look at the following pages:
Communication Problems and How Yammer Solves Them
Overview of Communication Mediums ie iPhone, Blackberry, Desktop, etc.
How can you see this being used in your business?
Thanks for this post, Matthew. You have counseled me before on the benefits of twitter, but I still haven’t taken the plunge…
The example twitter in your post is precisely what has given me pause about joining the conversation (“… just taken my pills, swallowed pint of water & gonna get showered …”). I find myself wondering if I have time to filter through chats like this. The information on yammer is inviting. Do you use both tools? The buzz seems to surround twitter. Do you think many established learning professionals will make the transition to yammer?
I recently asked Michele Martin if there might be a place to discuss twitter at Work Literacy Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals, considering its popularity. She said it was likely to come up during the final week of the course.
–David
LEARNING JOURNEYS> That comment you refer to was intentionally a sarcastic quip to the always there ‘what are you doing’. I never answer it direct, but this time it just seemed a fun thing to do. To take what Twitter was asking as specific question and answer.
Ofcourse people don’t really care about my pills, drinking and shower habits, just a bit of lighthearted banter.
Of which Twitter is perfect for, there is no right or wrong way to use Twitter. I am myself pretty much on Twitter, and if I feel happy im happy, if i feel angry then I’ll be angry. It’s my voicebox, and for the most part, people like to see what makes other people tick.
If you don’t want ideal chitchat, then Twitter maybe a frustrating place to be if you end up following the chitter chatter type. BUt there are plenty of professionals who use it to boost their business. I use it to market ImJustCreative and We AreJustCreative, so its business and personal, and I feel I have the balance just right.
After all, if a follower doesn’t like what they see, they can unfollow. Simple.
It’s just looking closer into people you choose to shadow, take more time in researching the right individuals. Which is easily done to be honest.
Hi, Graham — I realize your twitter was banter, and, like Matthew, I find it humorous. I didn’t intend my comment to describe the quality of your twitter. I was voicing my concern about joining twitter (hoping that others would be able to assuage those concerns). Thank you for your comments here. I want to learn more about twitter. I’ll never be able to stay away from it with its growing popularity. I just want to make sure I understand twitter and how best to use it before I toss out more information threads that require management.
–David
We’ve been experimenting with using Twitter for micro-status updates for about three weeks.
In our standup meetings, I ask three questions:
What did you do (or finish) yesterday?
What will you work on today?
Any issues blocking progress?
I expect that twitter/yammer will satisfy those questions along the way for the entire team.
It does reduce email clutter.
David, I don’t try and keep up with every tweet that somebody makes. The way that I ‘filter’ the twitterstream is to have a number of ‘decks’ in Tweetdeck set up to track topics and events that I am interested in – that way I have a record of the past 2 days conversations on the topics I am currently researching.
I also log into twitter from my PC or phone when I have a spare minute to chat with friends and share info (like when waiting for the bus on the way to work!)
I haven’t tried yammer yet, which is why I didn’t write about my personal experience of using it. I was researching it for use at work and realise that it would be a great tool for (in house) management who all share a common email address however this does come at a cost.
Because many of the people I work with are contractors and they have varied email addresses Yammer tick all the boxes.
Graham, I agree there is no right or wrong way to use twitter. I find than many of the sites you tweet end up in my delicious bookmarks and I thank you for your help and friendship. I am new to twitter and you are one of the people who has really made me feel part of the community. Keep up the good work on wearejustcreative.com.
Bob, thanks for sharing your experience. How do you manage Twitter in house, do you keep separate work and personal twitter accounts etc?
I worked at an international consulting firm after I graduated. I worked there for about 3 months until I realized that I am an entrepreneur at heart, so I left the company to go full-time on my startup Future Delivery.
I use Twitter all the time to stay connected to the blogging community and to track what’s being said about my startup. When I first saw Yammer, I could see it’s use in a flat company with little hierarchy. People would be able to freely communicate with each other and have fun while doing it. However, I do not see it being readily applied to large suit-and-tie corporate firms.
For example, I don’t see the consulting firm that I used to work at using Yammer at all. We already had instant massaging across the whole office, and our cubicles and teams were close enough to the point that we can just walk over and update each other face to face. There was a big hierarchy at the consulting firm, and I never felt like managers wanted to know how I “felt” after the meeting.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see large suit-and-tie firms using Yammer for a very long time.
- Jun Loayza