Creating an Organisation-wide Conversation with Yammer

Yammer is a microblogging or activity stream application which allows a particular community to communicate in a manner very similar to Twitter. It can be accessed via web browser, desktop client, or smart phone. The main difference between Twitter and Yammer is that Yammer is for internal use within an organisation.
Yammer was introduced to staff of the National Library of Australia in July 2010 with two main goals in mind: first, to allow staff to gain familiarity and become more comfortable with microblogging applications like Twitter and, second, to allow staff to increase their ambient organisational awareness.
Yammer lets people share their activities and collaborate with their colleagues without clogging up email in-boxes with long ‘email chains’. It is a less formal channel of communication and allows one-to-many broadcasting. It can be used for a range of purposes, for example: finding a specific document when the location is unknown; simple ready reference and directional enquiries; floating ideas on how the Library can do things better; building the collection; and asking for feedback on an activity or proposed activity.
In the past this was done in meetings, workshops, and informally at the staff canteen. However, with no staff canteen and over 400 staff working at the Library it is hard to keep up with what everyone is working on. Yammer is not a replacement for regular meetings, email, or face-to-face conversation—it is simply another communications tool which extends staff experience with new technologies and complements existing forms of communication.
Yammer was launched quietly and grew virally as colleagues informed people across their social network. At the time of writing there are 259 Library staff using Yammer, ranging from the Director-General to frontline staff. One of the strengths of Yammer is that it provides equal opportunity for all staff to comment and collaborate based on interest rather than position. Yammer creates a welcoming environment for the cross fertilisation of ideas. While many staff are actively posting on Yammer it is important to recognise that organisational awareness can be gained just by checking the Yammer activity stream, and indeed many staff are ‘lurking’ rather than actively contributing.
Yammer has been put to a variety of uses, including locating all manner of items, such as PowerPoint templates, spare shelving, Banjo Paterson’s estate executor, a Justice of the Peace and even the drink machines.
It is exciting to see all the different uses that Library members of staff are finding for Yammer and we look forward to the ongoing success of the Yammer project.
Bruce Klopsteins
Web Content Project Officer, Web Publishing Branch



