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In an organization of over 3,000 people,
everyone works in a silo
Our organization employees over 3,000 people. In most cases, employees only
interact with people in their work units. Every once in a while someone serves on a
committee with other people outside of their office.
In most cases, an employee’s network is extremely small compared to the number
of people in the entire agency.
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2.
You would like to tap into this wealth of
knowledge and experience to help you do
your job better
Imagine if you could connect with people who have knowledge and experience that
would help you do your job better, decrease the amount of time it takes for you to
figure out a problem, research an idea or implement a project.
In an organization of over 3,000 people, chances are that there are more than a few
people who could help you, who you could learn from.
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3.
You have no way to communicate with
everyone in the entire agency
As it stands, you have no way to communicate with all 3,000 people.
Staff members are not allowed to send mass emails.
Those members of leadership who are allowed to send mass emails must get prior
approval and the information that’s being shared must benefit everyone, not just
people who share a similar interest.
There isn’t even an intranet or discussion board for employees.
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4.
You want to have access to others in the
agency who could help you
The ability to communicate and collaborate with others in the agency‐‐who work on
similar projects and have expertise that could help you‐‐would be ideal.
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5.
Using Yammer can help you connect with, share with and learn from the 3,000
colleagues who could also use Yammer in three ways:
1. Opening channels of communication
2. Creating a knowledge base
3. Reducing email
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6.
Yammer can
1 open channels
of
communication
Yammer can open the channels of communication between you and your
colleagues, not just those who you work with every day, but all of them.
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7.
See what colleagues are working on
Yammer asks everyone, “What are you working on?”
When your colleagues answer that question, you get an idea of the types of
projects people are working on and what expertise they have.
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8.
View the
company
directory
By viewing the company directory, you can learn about the people in the agency
and what they do and what information they’ve shared.
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9.
View
employee
profiles
Jeff has
experience
speaking at
conferences
Company profiles show you lots of information about your colleagues, including
their phone number, the number of messages they’ve posted, the number of
groups they’ve joined and the number of followers and links they have.
The Messages tab shows their past updates.
The Info tab gives you information about their past work experience and education.
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10.
Ask and respond to questions
You can use the question, “What are you working on?” as a prompt to ask and
answer questions of your colleagues.
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11.
Respond
to status
updates
Respond to questions that your colleagues ask in their updates. Just click the reply
link below the person’s question.
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12.
Post
questions in
your
update
You can also solicit the help of others by posting questions. By tapping into the
network, you increase the likelihood of getting an answer to your question, maybe
even from someone you don’t know.
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13.
Tap into the power of groups
Groups are another great resource in the Yammer network.
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14.
Form or
join
groups of
people
with
similar
interests
You can form groups around your interests or work unit.
Joining groups related to your interests may introduce you to others in the agency
who you didn’t know.
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15.
Get updates
from groups
in email or
your feed
When you join groups, you have the option to get information posted to group in
your email or through your Yammer feed that you see when you log in.
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16.
Post updates
to groups to
share
knowledge
and resources
When you join a group, you have the option to share information directly with the
members of that group instead of the entire network.
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17.
2 Yammer
develops a
knowledge
base of
organized
resources
Yammer automatically organizes the updates and resources that the network posts
and makes it easy to find them later.
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18.
Use tags to create an organized, searchable
directory of updates and resources
Tags are the primary way that Yammer organizes information.
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19.
Tags are
created by
using
hashtags
#
To use a tag, just precede the word or phrase with the hashtag (or pound sign). If
you have a phrase that you want to tag, just include hyphens between each word,
since hashtags must be one word.
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20.
View
popular
tags and all
tags
You can quickly view popular tags and all tags. Tags that are shown in a larger font
have been used more frequently.
Clicking on the tag will take you a list of messages and links that use the tag.
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21.
Use search
to find
specific
information
You can also use the search box to find information.
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22.
Share a variety of resources
You are not limited to text when you post updates.
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23.
Share
links
You can share links to useful information.
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24.
Share
files
You can share many types of files, including pdf files, Microsoft office documents,
audio files and movie files.
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25.
Share
images
You can also share images.
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3 Yammer can
reduce email
Yammer can reduce email while giving you access to information that is important
to you.
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27.
Develop internal email guidelines for
office distribution lists
To do this most effectively, you should decide as a work unit what guidelines you
want to use to decrease emails and use Yammer as another communication tool.
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Post general
information
that might be
of interest to
others outside
work unit in
Yammer
One rule could be to post information that might be of interest to others, outside
your office, in Yammer instead of emailing them to the office distribution list. Think
outside of the silo and avoid limiting useful information to just your office.
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29.
Email only
information
that
requires an
immediate
response
Of course there is some information that is most appropriately sent by email, such
as information that requires an immediate response or information that is relevant
to your office only.
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30.
Modify settings that match your needs and
work style
You also have the option to modify your Yammer settings to limit the amount of
email that Yammer sends you.
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31.
Opt to
receive
emails of
updates
You can decide whether or not you want to receive updates to your Yammer feed in
your email inbox.
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32.
Check
Yammer to
get updates
Or you can choose to visit Yammer for your updates instead of getting them
through your inbox.
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Yammer can remove the barrier and allow you to communicate with all 3,000
people in our agency.
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It allows you to communicate and collaborate with others who work on similar
projects and have expertise that could help you.
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35.
www.yammer.com
1 2 3
Join Yammer today to open lines of communication, develop a knowledge base and
decrease email: www.yammer.com
Invite your colleagues to join too!
Check out the Yammer How To Guide to learn more:
http://yammer.zendesk.com/forums/57032/entries
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Photos and Images Courtesy of…
IStockphotos: Nikolay Kropachev, izusek
Stock.XCHNG: sanja gjenero, Sigurd Decroos,
Sachin Ghodke, Gaston THAUVIN
Yammer
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