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Using Microblogging in Business Communication: Twitter vs. Yammer

10-30-2008 | Posted by: Carolyn Young

Yammer is a new “micro-blogging” tool that won the top prize at the TechCrunch50 conference in September, 2008. If you have read our thoughts about Twitter (another micro-blogging platform), then you may already be familiar with the micro-blogging concept (otherwise, read this). Twitter has garnered a reputation as a great tool for communicating with friends, family, colleagues, potential customers, existing customers, politicians (pretty much any other user (see CNN’s Twitter page)). So how is Yammer different and why would you want to use it?

Yammer shares some similarities with Twitter, but it focuses on internal company communications, as opposed to external or public communications (only people who have your company e-mail addresses can join your group). I have worked with companies that use AOL Instant Messaging for almost all casual communication between employees (whether the employee was 3,000 miles away or 3 feet away) - the Yammer concept is similar, but with an added layer of security (the e-mail requirement). Yammer provides an easy platform to communicate with fellow employees, and an easy way to manage those communications (groups, teams, ditribution lists, etc.).

Here are some important differences between Yammer and Twitter:

• You can only have people in your Yammer network who share your company’s email address (no third-party emails allowed)
• Basic Yammer service is free, but there is a $1 per user/month charge if you want to administer your company’s network (manage content, set password policies, brand your network with a logo, and more)
• Yammer does not have a 140 character restriction (a typical micro-blogging restriction)
• Organizing conversations in Yammer is easy because you have the ability to create groups for different departments, easily view a conversation thread between yourself and someone else, and reply to someone with a click of a button

Yammer could be useful for any sized company (assuming there are at least 2 people who need to communicate with each other), and benefits compared to e-mail include reduced inbox clutter, and no special software required (just access to the internet and a web browser).

Like the idea of Yammer, but don’t have an enterprise e-mail address? We can help you set up a professional Hosted Exchange e-mail account so you can be yammering away in no time.