I just have to point you to Frank Roche’s 35 bullet points about Internal HR Comms – I particularly like numbers 4, 19, 21, 26 and the last one.

• The Naked Truth About Great HR Communication

The design of your comms matters. The tone, the voice, of your comms matters. You don’t have to write the perfect communiqué – you do have to consider your audience and write for them, not yourself or your boss or the content expert.

I wrote this article for FirstSigns, the voluntary organisation I founded in 2002. I guess I’m just saying that many organisations have websites, but some may not, while some websites have organisations behind them, while many do not.

When I started surfing the web (and soon after, publishing on it) in the mid-nineties, I was struck by how all the websites were run by people; people you could reach out to. Over time, much of the web has become corporateville – nameless faceless worker bees maintaining committee led marketing based websites. Since the rise of Blogger.com, Moveable Type and Wordpress, it’s refreshing to again find websites run by real people – by individuals on a mission with a voice.

That said, many ‘amateur hobby sites’ pass themselves off as ‘established organisations’ simply because looking professional is so easy these days.

And that’s why I wrote the following article: The difference between a website and an organisation

Check it out over at the FirstSigns blog (a website front-end for the FirstSigns org :) and consider my 14  points of differences.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1261

1. Why are business writers obsessed with the FAQ format?

I don’t know. Perhaps the FAQ format is so very easy to write; one covers all the concerns comprehensively, and it’s just so easy to think of a question and write the answer. It’s much harder to explain a subject in proper prose, spinning a narrative that moves a person’s understanding forward in a logical progression of facts and examples.

2. Are all FAQs made up of frequently asked questions?

Certainly not. Most FAQs are created from two distinct areas. The first area covers subjects and queries the author wished the audience cared about! Instead of writing engaging, perhaps even exciting copy to draw the reader into the subject, the author despairs and resorts to making up obvious questions. While these queries have never been voiced, they cover the subject fairly well. See FAQ 1 above.

The second area covered are real questions, but have only been asked once. Some of these queries are so random and specific even the most gullible reader will spot them for what they are.

3. Do random queries help everyone learn more?

Yes, perhaps. A ‘Q&A’ might well be different from an ‘FAQ’ intranet page. Maybe Q&A articles cover in-frequently asked questions and fake questions – queries that the business expects its people to ask, whereas FAQ pages really are ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

4. Are Q&As written in the same format as FAQs?

Yes, it appears so.

5. What’s the difference between Q&As and FAQs?

Perhaps Q&As are written for the benefit of the author, and are made up of random and logical made-up queries along with random and specific queries the author has been asked over the last year or so. Maybe the author thinks that a nice long Q&A document will reduce the number of emails / phone calls they receive, or at least allow them to say “have you read my Q&A?” in an annoyed voice.

Perhaps FAQ pages really are a list of frequently asked questions; perhaps FAQs truly reflect the concerns of the audience in an authentic fashion.

6. Is the ‘question then answer’ format really really annoying?

Yes; it’s an inefficient manner of reading and learning. Many queries are unrelated to the reader’s role, or the reader may well know a great deal about the topic already. Wading through swathes of long-winded questions and dull answers just to find one shining gem of information is a waste of that person’s time. As a non-newbie, they’d be better off Instant Messaging the more knowledgeable person and asking directly.

7. How long should a Q&A or FAQ document be?

It shouldn’t be a document; it should be a web page so at least people can scan read it quickly. In answer to your frequently asked question, I imagine a FAQ page should be as short as possible, while encompassing all the queries required. Breaking it up into sections and providing in-page hyperlinks (a ‘jump menu’ at the top) and lots of ‘Back to top’ links might help.

8. What’s wrong with providing FAQ documents to people?

Word, PDF, PowerPoint files – these things slow a person down when they wish to just get to the content and scan read. If you’re emailing them a document, that document takes up space. If they are downloading / opening the document from the intranet – well – that takes time and can do funny things to old computers (like crash them). A simple clean web page is super-fast to load and the link to which can be emailed around et cetera.

9. Why do people insist on dumping Word documents of FAQs on to our intranet then?

Because it’s easy for them. The author is supremely well practiced at thinking of themselves (even a short life-span among humanity can furnish you with a superbly strong ego) and the impetus is to JFDI – to ‘just get it done’. The author will be satisfied to know that they’re work is ‘online for everyone’ regardless of how convoluted the journey is for a reader to find the document.

Crafting a web page, choosing it’s location on your sprawling intranet and slotting it in to the current navigation takes a little time – the author hasn’t got time, they ‘just want it done’. So, because they know how Word works (they think…) they stick to Word and discount the end-users’ experience.

10. Full articles can hide concerns; wouldn’t you agree that FAQs make good reference materials?

We’re straying into the realms of ‘Knowledge Management’ now, which is a good thing. Educating, elucidating, and enlightening people – that’s what we should be talking about, not whether an FAQ page is really a Q&A page… Knowledge Management is a strong topic with plenty of best practice guidelines – look it up!

So yes, FAQs can make excellent reference materials for a specific audience when combined with overviews, narratives and good communications. FAQs do not replace good communications; FAQs do not work well for ‘everyone’, but rather make good reference materials for a specific audience with a specific skill-set or need. ‘Everyone’ has differing levels of knowledge and need, and so FAQs, alone, can’t address ‘everyone’.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1251

Photo credit: dullhunk

Please can you vote in the poll on the right-hand side? I’m under pressure to make my intranet launch as soon as people sit down and log on to their computers, but I think it’s an incredibly poor decision to take.

We have thousands of employees; we have a diverse company (yes, we have ‘silos’) and we, here in our ivory tower, don’t really know how ‘everyone’ spends their time, or what programs they really need when they log on each time to their workstation. How can the few make such a personal decision for the many? Different departments work in different ways; some divisions rely on email to get everything done, others make use of automatic workflows and revised procedure documents. Different people like to work in different ways.

Launching the intranet at log in guarantees that people will see your front page headlines, right? So that’s a good thing, right? By forcing people to wait for their slow-as-death Internet Explorer 6 to launch on their low-powered laptop (while the anti-virus updates itself etc.) we ensure they read the stuff we want to force down their optic nerves don’t we? This is good communications yeah?

I don’t think so. If the first thing people do is close their browser in annoyance each and every morning, how do they sub-consciously feel about the intranet?

Front page hits don’t count; as the intranet manager, I care what use people are getting out of the intranet, what articles they have chosen to read – not if they’ve ’seen’ a flash of the home page.

Benefits:

• The intranet’s ‘hit statistics’ will go up. The stats will show that 100% of people have ‘seen’ the front page of your intranet – a fantastic (but utterly meaningless) statistic to wave around.
• Faster access to those web apps and search functions that people might use
• Lets the people in the ivory tower feel as if they’re in control regarding communication.
• Reminds people that the intranet exists..
• The IT Department get to ‘deliver’ a quick-win ‘solution’ to the company…

Concerns:

• Email controls a lot of people’s office routine; by insisting on launching Internet Explorer, instead of letting your people choose what to launch, you’re robbing people of time and bending their ways of working.
• No one cares about ‘home page hits’ they are meaningless for your intranet (unless they’re very low) as of course people have to open the home page to get to their applications and to the People Directory.
• Not everyone works ‘online’ ‘in the browser’; many people do their work using the software on their computer – they open files, amend data, create and save through the day. Not everyone cares about the ‘web apps’ available on the intranet, and those of us who do will launch them when they’re needed – not as soon as we log on.
• Many people log on multiple times per day. A person who logs on in the morning may well take their laptop on the road and into a meeting, logging on again. Then, after, they’re back to the main office where they log on for a third time. Launching the browser each time might be infuriating.
• Many people switch their computer on when disconnected from the network. They are not ‘logging on’ they are simply ‘working on their computer’. Launching Internet Explorer automatically, even when a person can’t possibly connect to the web never mind your intranet is downright annoyingly stupid. Stupid, as in, ‘without intelligence or consideration’. Basically, I’m calling you a numbskull for not considering different people’s ways of working.

Sorry, sorry. I tried to keep this little article open and unbiased, but even trying to be zen-like and professional I find myself unable to create a ‘benefit’ that in any way helps people. All I can say is that if you have an office of 300 people who work at desktops and all do the same job (call centre perhaps) then by all means launch their required programs, databases, service screens and intranet for them. If you have a homogenous workforce, by all means treat them the same.

But if you have departments with different needs, if you have field workers, shift workers, senior managers, creatives, administrators, document managers, time schedulers, logistic planners, designers, technical writers, CAD users, project managers – a diverse heterogenous workforce in other words then don’t treat them like a big cog in your communications machine.

A not so far-fetched story

Imagine your boss is stood behind you. You’re fifteen minutes late to work because your car melted and the train doors fused shut; nobody cares why you’re late, they just want ‘that’ document you’ve been working on. You’ve told them where it’s stored on the shared area and on the intranet, but it’s no use, your boss hasn’t got time to care about your Document Control System, they just want the document printing now for the Board Review.

You log in as fast as you can – every second makes you cringe, every process seems to take an age – the computer whirs and clicks – hesitating at your password, begrudgingly blinking your desktop at you (finally!) before providing three ‘helpful’ warnings about your data being synced across the network, and the anti-virus files being updated. You click ‘OK’ ‘OK’ ‘OK’ – frantically just wanting to open your email and send the file onwards – maybe you can print it yourself too if you can get Word open. But wait up, the intranet launches its self and logs you in. You click ‘close’ but you’ve caught it while the window is too ‘young’ to notice you (it’s still loading so the controls ignore you) and before you can click click again it’s signed you in to your corporate Instant Messaging system and JayCee has already messaged you to say that your boss is looking for that document.

Only now are you allowed to launch your email program and Word and open the damn file you need.

Log on never seems such a trial when it’s 8:23am and you’re sipping your first latte while saying hello to your colleagues and asking if they’re also disappointed with “Harper’s Island” – but when you’re against the wall, log on can seem, and be, excruciatingly inexorably slow. Unless you work for a tech company, I doubt your computers are top of the range lightning fast.

I’m not saying ‘all those wasted seconds add up to valuable minutes’ (which I could, because they do) I’m saying that I don’t want other people deciding that they know how I work or what I need to do my job – I don’t expect to have to wait for a browser to open just so I can then close it so I can get on with my work.

As the intranet manager (which I am) you’d think that I’d be thrilled about anything that promotes the use of my intranet, but I see the intranet as a tool, an online workspace, to help people get things done. The intranet gets used when it’s useful, not just because we think it’s ‘interesting’.

What you’ve said already

tonysharp I dislike policies that make intranets launch on network login. That said, good use of the screen can help push key messages.

BenBlack It would annoy/ disappoint our users! But our new intranet is being launched soon and we will ask users then about auto launch.

LBaehrUSAA Yes, and it’s fine. One less step to take in the morning.

jonnop It does. Just arranging to have that changed as compulsion doesn’t work. If it’s good enough people will use.

Update

Am now wondering about a half-way house. What about launching email or a browser for those departments that want immediate access to such programs? What about giving ’silos’ the option of having their browser launch at log in, if that’s what their people need to do their jobs? Can the IT department deliver a granular solution rather than an all-in-one blanket fix?

Please vote in the poll on the top-right of this article, and let me know in the comments below what currently happens when you log in at your company, and what you’d ideally like to happen (and why). Thank you

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1241

Photo credit: p c w

I read books about internal communications, communication theory, engagement and writing. I consider them to be informative and enjoyable. They inform my work, and they reinvigorate my interest in the subject of internal comms.

But, I don’t read too many ‘internal communications’ blogs on a daily basis, and as a communications professional, I don’t think you should either.

What is it with high-paid professionals in the UK that makes them write such dry material? Yes, I’m certain it’s valuable, accurate and that their ideas are worthwhile executing – gods know the realm of internal communications needs some improvement. But Human Resources, Employee Engagement and Internal Communications are not dry, dull subjects. They are about people, they’re about us, they’re about what we do, how we do it, and who we do it with. People are the driving passion behind a company, and people should be at the heart of our People Centred Comms!

Me? No, I don’t read the Melcrum blog very much, although we should all be familiar with Melcrum’s work. While I respect that Melcrum is an established company and offers a great many services that are useful and valuable (their ‘packs’ are worth buying / downloading I find), I don’t find their blog articles ’speak’ to me. I love learning about the authors, but I don’t always find that the content means so much to me. (And As I publish this, I note some fab people are writing on the blog just this month, sheesh, am I ever wrong…)

Me? I read outside of the box of internal comms, and I think you should too. Artists and designers can become stifled if they consume the very same material that they’re trying to create. Don’t consume and create the same stuff, consume inspiring stuff while you’re busy creating fantastic articles, speeches, presentations and announcements for your people.

I read blogs about social media, customer service, grammar, writing, technology and about blogging itself – these varied topics help me go beyond my well-worn patch as an internal communicator, writer and editor and hopefully allow me grow as a person and as a communicator, serving the needs of the audience and the company. Sticking with internal comms specific blogs becomes stifling – the same ol’ problems and same ol’ solutions get cycled: what to measure, how to measure, reaching offline audiences, reaching specific people, crisis communications etc.

[But of course, referring to 'best practices' and known solutions is wise.]

I’m sure I cover these sort of topics; I ruddy well hope so anyway because they do need discussion. I can only hope that I bring a different take, a fresh view, to these staid subjects. I don’t think of myself as a senior, experienced comms person, rather, I see myself as someone who very much appreciates the theory, but has to implement good comms on a daily basis, to tight time frames and with no budget. I do internal communications in the real world, and I hope my blog reflects the highs and lows I’ve been through.

All I’m saying is, yes, Internal Communications is a specialist subject, but in order to be ahead of the game we have to widen our interests, go further than those dull ‘been here since Web One Point Oh’ books and white papers and get involved in what’s happening now in real life. Get outside the Int Comms box and read the exciting stuff that’s happening in social media, within start-ups, and in the media.

People to follow and read:

@ChrisBrogan over at chrisbrogan.com – social media in the enterprise
and with your customers

@ProBlogger over at problogger.com – how to engage your readers and write better

@CopyBlogger over at copyblogger.com – running a business online, blogging and engaging readers and customers

and @SoniaSimone over at remarkable-communication.com

@ittybiz over at ittBiz.com – stunning marketing copy – I mean that.  You will be stunned by the language, and it works!

dailywritingtips.com – get the scoop of the true meaning of words and remember to choose appropriate vocabulary. (Yes, they have Twitter, but they ain’t usin’ it right. Sucks.)

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1225/

Photo credit: yann!s

News stories on my intranet ‘fall off‘ the front page after two days and ‘disappear’; at least as far as my readers are concerned. Here one day, gone the next.

“Did you see that article about our pay offer? No? Oh well, you missed it.”

With all my reading, all my research, all my networking, I have failed to discover or develop a better system than the ‘news archive‘.

News stories are presented on the front page of my intranet, but physically reside within a year, month and week structure. Think ‘folders in a folder’. Basic web design; basic information architecture: Intranet Home/News/2009/August/10 August

The News Archive holds stories from last week and way back to years before. I think it’s easy to get to because the breadcrumb trail is easy to use and lets people ‘go back in time’. I also provide a direct link to the News Archive section from the footer of every news story.

Yet, I’m wrong; the News Archive is not easy to find. People tell me that in all the years the intranet has been running, they’ve never seen the Archive.

Besides, even for those intrepid adventurers who dare to delve into the past, how are they expected to know that I published the ‘How to Buy Shares‘ news alert in the second week of November 2008?

Basically, authors / project managers come to me (Intranet Editor) and say “we need a front page story to tell people about the new pension fund”. Then we all make great efforts to produce a decent page with supporting information and guidance. It’s great. It’s a master work of good communications, actionable direction with clear design.

Then I say “how will people know about this pension thing next week? Shouldn’t we update and refresh the permanent Pension pages within the Benefits and Pension section?”

Everything grinds to a halt and I’m told that I can update the Pension section if I want to. Hang on; that’s not right. The permanent Pension section is owned by the Pension team (yes, it’s probably me who updates the pages for them, but only because I manage the entire intranet), so don’t they want to present the very best information to our people?

(I’m only using Pensions as an example – please don’t think I’m ragging on our Pensions department, who are very nice people I can tell you!)

Basically, we are putting great effort into the front page story, but we fail to put as much energy and effort into the reference materials on our intranet. The very pages that people can find are out of date, uncared for and lacklustre. The problem isn’t in the effort made to make front page stories brilliant, it’s in the damn archive structure. Sure, a news article about one’s company appearing on the television only needs to be seen once, not referred to again, but so much of our comms need to be referenced again and again, at least for a time longer than the two-day period I give them on our front page.

The problem with blog-like date-based archives on the intranet

• Front page articles are often important, have real impact on business and people, yet they seem to ‘disappear’ in the black hole of a temporal based news ‘archive’.
• Impossible to find past articles quickly unless you can guess the month and week they were first published.

Possible solutions

Maybe front page articles should be duplicated, copied, into the relevant permanent reference section. But no! Duplication is awful, confuses the search engine and one day, one of the pages will be more up-to-date than the other, and which should people believe? One page, one truth, one point of reference.

Maybe front page articles shouldn’t be placed in in the Intranet Home/News/2009/August/10 August
folder structure unless the news really is temporal and transient – with no lasting ramifications (e.g. ‘Cake Sale in the Main Dining Hall’).

Maybe news articles should be published within a sensible place within the extant intranet (just like any page) and simply be brought on to the front page in a timely manner. No copying, no re-publishing, simply promoted and linked to from the front page at the right time. This way, people who read the page (having ‘opened’ it from your front page) will be ‘in’ the intranet properly, and not simply within the news section.

I really need to think about this. I’ve read so many best practice guides to designing and running intranets, and yet news and news archiving seems to be ignored, or the blog-like ‘news archive’ seems to be the assumed and traditional approach. Down with assumptions! Down with tradition! Down with approaches that simply don’t work!

Please tell me, how might I explain to my readers that some stories are in the archive (”Return Your Pension Forms by Friday”) while many stories are actually housed within the relevant drop-down menu? (”Revised Maternity Policy”).

This is a change I can implement very quickly, but I really should know how other people manage their news archives. I really would value your input. My intranet has a great many news stories per week, and we’re business and company focussed. Please leave your experiences and thoughts in the comments below.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1213/

Photo credit: stitch

As the Intranet Manager and Senior Editor, you’d think I’d have everything sussed and sorted; that my intranet, above everyone else’s, would be a shining example of best practice and user centred design.

I wish my intranet matched my ideals. I wish I could tell you that since taking over the company intranet a year ago I’ve revamped, redesigned and redeveloped it. The truth is that while I know, for the most part, where our intranet should be going, I’m unable to take it there due to budget and technology constraints.

I have brought:

• Clearer navigation;
• Images and photos;
• Colour;
• Footers;
• Image maps (navigation aids);
• Larger font-size; and
• simple things like sub-headings and paragraph breaks!

I’ve managed these small improvements because I’ve brought so many best practice ideas with me, and I can hand code in XHTML and CSS.

I recognise that our intranet system needs replacing. The limitations are very, well, odd. The limitations, purposefully designed into the system by the software vendor, actually hamper good intranet design, adherence to standards and good communication.

But there’s more I can do, even if I feel I’m fighting the system.

Things you can improve without starting from scratch

In my little list above you’ve seen how I focused on good writing and page design in my first year. Every important page (news, section front page etc.) needs an image of some kind; “barely relevant” is better than no imagery.

Whatever state your intranet is in, however old and sprawling and however antiquated the system, you can improve the following:

1. Drop-down navigation menus – intranets should be designed around the end users’ needs, around tasks, not departmental sections. Use the Card Sorting method with half a dozen non-expert users to help you group pages, find themes and develop your navigation headings.
2. Individual page layout – at least your news stories should have some flow to them, rather than presenting the reader with a block of text. People read in an F pattern, so use plenty of sub-headings and front load your paragraphs with key words, not introductory ramblings. Get some photographs into the body of the text, have the photos right-aligned so your text flows around them. You can occasionally align them on the left.
3. Improve your headlines – news story headlines can either be witty and intriguing or specific and detailed. Don’t use whatever headline the author gave you; they won’t have spent any time thinking it through.
4. Get keywords into page titles – when desperately browsing through menus, or scanning search results, people are looking for words that match their expectations. Don’t call your salary pages ‘Reward’ if everyone thinks of it as ‘Pay’ – duh. Load your section titles, page titles and even sub-headings with key words and noun phrases. Be specific.
5. Provide alternative navigation aids – don’t rely on the main menus only; make use of left-hand navigation lists and the footer of each page. Help people get back to the top of the page, back to the section home, back to the actual home page, and to other related pages.
6. Improve how you present Word, PowerPoint and PDFs – don’t simply link to them!
7. Improve how you present email addresses - don’t simply link someone’s name to their address!

Can you help me reach ten? Please leave your ‘easy fix’ in the comments.

If you found this article inspiring in any way (please leave a comment!) you might like to check:

• The ‘do nots’ of intranet publishing
• Banish ‘click here’ and improve your document links

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1202/

Photo credit: www.lumaxart.com

Just wanted to let you know that you can visit kilobox.net on your phone and it should work really well in your mobile browser. I highly recommend the Opera Mini browser for mobile phones; it can be downloaded and installed on a great many phone models.

If you surf on an iPhone or iPod Touch then this site should look awesome and work beautifully for you, thanks to Brave New Code’s design. Try it sideways or upright, see what it does to the font size, whichever way you like it best.

Besides keeping up with me while you’re out and about on your mobile, I would love for you to subscribe to my RSS newsfeed: see, it’s just there to the right – up a bit – the orange square box with ‘Posts’. Maybe you don’t currently have a News Reader programme, so you might want to try Google Reader or maybe an iPhone app.

If newsfeeds ain’t your thing, you might like to receive my new articles via email, as soon as I post them. Don’t worry if you pick your email up on your mobile device, everything will work just fine.

Another great way to keep up with me is on Twitter. If you use Twitter I’d love to connect; I’m Wedge – of course.

I’m Wedge; I’m not so hard to find am I?

P.S. I release the text of this article (public domain); if you have a blogsite that’s mobile friendly, feel free to use my words to promote yourself. The image is by rmpenguino and is used with permission of his Creative Commons licence.

You might guess from my previous intranet posts that I’m reflecting on the use of social media behind the firewall, within the intranet. Jakob Nielsen’s latest report comes a good time for me then, and there’s plenty for all of us to read and ruminate on.

While the focus of social media and Web 2.0 stuff might be wikis, blog comments, Twitter and social profiles, Jakob reminds us that getting stuff done isn’t about installing the latest tools on our infrastructure:

…organizations are successful with social media and collaboration technologies only when the tools are designed to solve an identified business need.
Jakob Nielsen

It all comes back to what problem are you trying to solve? What process would you like to improve?

If, like me, you’re a Twitter addict then all solutions seem to revolve around micro-blogging and status updates. When all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail… So Jakob reminds us that we must have a business need before we embark on a project to socialise the company, and I might remind myself that until I know what we want to achieve, I can’t go shopping for tools.

I very much suggest you read Jakob’s single web page and explore the links:

• Social Networking on Intranets

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1192/

Yammer is more and it is less than Twitter. Yammer is ‘Twitter for inside your company’. I private micro-blogging status update service that only works with your colleagues at work.

Your identity is based around your official company email. While Yammer is a web-based service, rather than something you install on your company network, it is only accessible to you and your signed-up colleagues – updates and information do not appear on the world wild web and will not show up on Google. It’s private and secure.

So Yammer feels like the solution for teams, groups and departments inside the company, behind the firewall. Yammer may well be an easy way to get social media into a corporation without risk of public exposure and with a reduced risk of upsetting anyone (caused by poor choice of words).

So how could I justify Yammer to my boss?

I feel that Yammer and ‘yammering’ could help a great many people in our company, perhaps 20% or so, to keep in touch, get engaged and know more about what’s going on.

I also feel that Yammer could be a valuable communications channel for the Internal Communications team, so I must discuss it with my manager.

But there’s a cost of course.

Yammer can be used for free, but there are no administrative tools unless your company (not the individuals) chooses to pay for all accounts. Yammer charges on a per person per month basis. At £1.83 ($3) per person per month the cost is neither small nor in any way large for a big company.

What if it became popular? What if, even with tight admin, the costs spiralled each year? What about ‘dead accounts’?

Beyond the modest financial ramifications is the culture shift concern. While I would of course suggest rolling Yammer out through obvious small teams first, teams and departments we know and can talk to, getting ‘everyone’ involved with Yammer could bring the house down on us.

People will ask why we’re wasting time and money on something so facile. Time spent yammering could be judged to be time spent skiving.

The obvious comparison is Instant Messaging around the office. IM provides ample opportunity to ask quick questions, get things done quickly and co-ordinate a group of people when time and timing is of the essence. But IM can become overly conversational to the point that it’s distracting, too personal and a waste of working time.

(Yes, many people work during working time; not everyone eats, drinks, chats about their children / new house or gossips about what Jack was saying to Moniker in that last design meeting…)

I don’t think Yammer should replace Instant Messaging; conversations and fact checking / instruction giving should still be done by email / phone / IM I think, but you can see how the time wastage concern is for both Yammer and IM. Time is money, and some people are really really busy and don’t like to see people ‘idly’ social media-ing.

So how shall I demonstrate the benefits of Yammer, and how shall I justify the financial and time cost?

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1175