Yammer On

In just 2.5 years, Yammer has become one of the major enterprise platforms for social media.  The IABC study (http://www.iabc.com/researchfoundation/pdf/IABCEmployeeEngagementReport2010Final.pdf)

reports that close to 20% of companies indicate that they use or plan to use Yammer.  I have used Yammer and find it is generally user friendly and intuitive.  So I was interested that Yammer just brought on board Greg Lowe from Alcatel Lucent as Enterprise Social Networking Strategist.  What really caught my attention, though, was a post that Greg shared from the ALU Yammer site:

Without your Yammer and Engage initiatives sheer frustration would have seen me leave the company many months ago. You have given the hope that we can collectively make this a better place to be. (http://greg2dot0.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/and-a-new-chapter-begins/ )

That is why organizations use social media internally – to make it a better place to work, to bring employees together and to create engagement.  And that is also why organizations should use social media with customers.  Do it well inside, and you have a better chance of doing it well outside.