Yammer a Social Networking Tool for the Workplace

With the successes of LinkedIn and the rise of use of web 2.0 tools, it is no surprise that businesses are taking advantage of using these tools to help employees stay connected. Not only has LinkedIn grabbed the attention of larger companies, but they have also led the evolution of how social networks can be of benefit to businesses. But while LinkedIn helps users connect with other companies, Yammer has become a sort of the “enterprise” version of Twitter, the popular social networking tool.

While Twitter is based on the question “What are you doing?”, Yammer helps answer the question of “What are you working on?”. After all, Yammer was created based on the needs of Geni (a genealogy-related social networking website) employees who needed a way of keeping track of business projects. After winning the TechCrunch50, Yammer has gone public, allowing all companies to access the site and use it for creating a network for their business. Yammer works similarly to how Facebook did in its early days, users wanting to sign up for Yammer must have a valid company email to join the company’s network. Once users are signed up they have access to their companies networks and can tag their updates as well as search other users’ updates by keywords. With the innovation of Yammer, it is sure to be the enterprise version of Twitter.