Yammer - microblogging - at work

Interesting study done on Yammer activity, essentially microblogging inside the workplace, by Renata Gorman


Her findings indicated that

1.Participants used the tool to post many different types of information, not just questions, and work activity updates;

2.Participants did not generally reach out because of work activity updates but they did reach out to respond to questions;

3.Participants perceived that their learning, effectiveness and efficiency were increased because of their Yammer use;

4.Participants received assistance on the job through many different types of information that they post, not just questions and work activity updates;

5.Participants felt supported by the Yammer community.

I would add that it can be effective to use within teams as long as everyone signs in; it can reduce email while allowing you to stay connected and informed. Like any tool, it does need to be used effectively and managed.

Managing Change or Not...

Whether the company is going through a re-organization, a downsizing or a merger, change management is key but most organizations do not do it effectively. Usually there is minimum communications and considerable miscommunications - let's face it people talk and they spread what they think they know - right or wrong.

If you're re-organizing you should have:

• a clear understanding of what people do; jobs change over time so job descriptions need to be up-to-date
• a skills assessment of staff; they may have taken on tasks or further education or they may be struggling with duties they can't manage
• an impact assessment - if you're going to let people go what duties need to be redistributed and how can that be done with the least disruption; what are the implications if they manage several email addresses or committees; are there processes that they manage or have a  role in; - its not just the what its also the who - who needs to be informed and involved
• a communication strategy; if you are re-organizing and people will have different reporting structures have follow-up meetings for the new teams so they have the opportunity to ask questions. It's far better to get everything in the open right away rather than let people disperse to ask questions of people who don't know the answers or to complain to each other that they don't know what is  going on; people have a right to be concerned and worried and the best way to alleviate that is to communicate and get them in a productive environment as soon as possible
• a talent management strategy; if people suddenly become people managers they need to have the maturity, skills and resources to fulfill the duties required of them; and if they go from managing one or two staff to a dozen additional skills may need to be learned including conflict management, communications, and time management; otherwise the Peter Principal comes into play and no one is happy

It's equally important to know what you shouldn't do:

• don't lie; people figure things out sooner or later and they talk with each other; lies destroy trust and credibility and you will never achieve employee engagement or loyalty
• don't hide; people don't want to feel like they've been involved in a hit and run, they will have questions so be prepared and address them, otherwise you will lose respect and trust
• don't do a re-organization on a day when there is a social event or other company activity and if possible try to avoid any significant dates for the participants - like birthdays, no one should be let go on their birthday if you can avoid it

Essentially, managing change is respecting people by being considerate and communicating effectively. People will adjust and it takes as much effort to manage change effectively as it does to clean up messes when mis-managed. And if you truly want engaged and productive employees, giving them respect, communicating with them and allowing questions and providing answers while giving them the resources they need to cope, will keep them as happy employees.

Avinash Kaushik - Search Engine Strategies conference 2012

I attended the SES in Toronto this month and I did learn some nuggets of wisdom from Avinash Kaushik, Google's digital marketing evangelist, who was the keynote and gave a very animated presentation. He pointed out some obvious mistakes Rogers, Canadian Tire, Expedia, Calvin Klein, the Bay and the Toronto Star are doing online. And by defacto pointed out that TD Bank - one of the top 5, can't be found on some basic keywords like property loan, student loan or best bank for foreign exchange. So its not just about what you are doing - its also about what you aren't doing.

• "Do not make the world unhappy" Avinash pleads - fix your sites; check your bounce rates and fix the pages people are bouncing from. Also if your site doesn't load in two seconds fix it. He said Calvin Klein's was very slow to load because it was loading images in Flash.
• "Every time you use Flash a puppy dies" claims Avinash.

The three things you should consider when looking at metrics are:

• Acquiring traffic - look at your entrance pages and unique visits
• Behaviour - what did visitors do - check your bounce rate (daily) and enter/exit pages
• Outcome/value - what was the conversion rate? who purchased, downloaded, called?

Another piece of advice was around questionnaires - Rogers has a 37 questionnaire on their site - really. He said there is only three things you need to ask:

• Why are you here?
• Do you want to buy something?
• Were you able to complete your task?

He also cautions to beware of "Data puking" - too much of the wrong data just wastes time.
He ended with "Expect more" from our own websites and from others.

Advice for agencies

I recently ran an RFP for social media agencies and was surprised by a few responses and non responses. One company got back to me after the submission deadline and said that if I wanted to do business with them in the future I should email three people as the one I had as a contact had been on holidays. Note that I did not receive any vacation alerts. Sorry but if you want business you're the one that needs to be responsive - in this day of automation there is no excuse and if you are senior enough to be on your website then have someone monitor your email account when and if you take vacation.

Another response was equally absurd. The company indicated they were interested in responding and then another person at the firm submitted questions. I responded to all questions and I used the first/main contact's email. The day the RFPs were due I emailed them asking if they were going to submit something and they said they were waiting my response to their questions which they would have received a week prior. I emailed them back indicating that I had sent them the answers. They then emailed me saying that because I hadn't emailed the "right" person they should get an additional three days to submit. Hey, its up to you to read your email and talk with each other internally.

Needless to say I will never work with either of those two firms because they don't understand how to read an RFP, don't understand email or email etiquette, certainly they don't understand customer service, and they exposed their lack of organization and internal communication capabilities - seriously for a marketing and social media agency if you don't know the basics why would I trust you with my strategy project?

So agencies take note - if you can't practice what you preach you are going to lose business.