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As you might have gathered, I've been playing with Yammer and other similar tools (like SocialCast) over the past few weeks and months. In the years I've been working with communications systems, like newsgroups, forums, blogs, wikis etc, I've never seen a tool that's able take off so quickly and easily.
My experience has mirrored that of Jim Stogdill (although not with quite so many users):
... at some point or another someone started a Yammer account based on our email domain. Starting on whatever day that was, Yammer commenced its viral expansion and its spread has really been quite impressive and rapid ...
... The usage demonstrates all the free-scaling behaviors you'd expect though, so not everyone is yammering away. Still both the growth and the impact have been impressive. We are developing a nice network of the kind of weak connections that tend to "small world" a big enterprise like ours. It's always difficult to quantify the benefits of "soft" collaboration but I'm really happy with what I see and I've personally enjoyed the interactions and my expanded network.
So, what is it about these "Enterprise microblogging" tools that makes their rapid spread happen?
Network behaviours
Most corporations, whatever our org charts show, actually work around networks. Things get done because of who you know. These tools just model that behaviour. They don't try to impose a top-down structure. Connections are made between you and the people that know you. Those people who work across internal boundaries fill in the "structural holes" (See Ronald Burt's paper - pdf) that break organisations into silos. Using these tools allows connections to be made more easily across those holes.
Viral delivery
A virus develops mechanisms that enable it to replicate incredibly easily and quickly, thus providing exponential growth. Viral communication tools do a similar thing. They make it so easy to add new people that it becomes a no-brainer. Like LinkedIn (a professional networking tool), both SocialCast and Yammer constantly (but not obtrusively) ask if you want to invite other people. In Yammer, if you enter someone's name into a post (using @name, like Twitter) it will even suggest that you invite that person if they don't already exist in the system. (I expect SocialCast is similar here).
Online communication tools tend to work in only two situations:
- A small, highly focussed group, discussing or working on a particular idea or product, usually with expert facilitation. Eg. Open University course groups
- A very large, diverse group, able to talk about anything, but quite often focussed around a particular theme or issue (eg. Manager Tools).
The ideal is to get to a critical mass as soon as possible. When that critical mass is reached then the need for ongoing facilitation or marketing is reduced significantly. That's why viral propogation is so essential.
Multi-platform
If a communication tool requires you to go to a certain website to send or retrieve messages then you immediately limit your userbase. If you insist on them using a particular browser, then you've put even more barriers in front of them. The thing to remember about online tools is that there's also another one that people can use.
This is why tools like Posterous and the microblogging systems have become so successful. They allow you to access them using whichever platform you have to hand. You might want to receive or send messages using your email client, or by text (SMS), or using an app on your phone, or even via the website.
