“Yammer” On and Have a “HipChat”

“Yammer” On and Have a “HipChat”

Companies Using Social Media: Creating & Supporting Internal Groundswell

Li & Bernoff says that groundswell should also be present internally, within a company. When social media networks exist within a company then communication has a freer flow with more immediacy and urgency.

Social media is key to a company’s success through productivity and accomplishment, but also economic success. According to the online magazine, Entrepeneur “…lost productivity as a result of communication problems. A business with 100 employees, for instance, spends about 17 hours a week clarifying communication. That translates to an annual cost of more than $525,000.” If your company can communicate effectively and efficiently than it will show outside your company and others will believe in your company. 

Yammer & HipChat

       

Internal Groundswell is an important aspect of a company. “Going with the groundswell” (by energizing, supporting, engaging, tapping, etc.) also involves creating an internal support system using social media. This is achieved with blogging, posting, and messaging social media networks.

Yammer and HipChat are two services that provide free, private social networks to companies all over the globe. The biggest feature of these services is their messaging applications. They encourage “real time,” rapid, free-flowing conversations amongst any level employee.

Yammer has already established itself as one of the top internal social networks. Yammer has features for managing distribution lists, emails, employee polls and questions, and many other inner-workings of a business. This means coordinating and confirming on the various stages of one company objective, ongoing task, or event, through the different levels of company branches and employees. CEO of Yammer, David Sacks, ensures that with Yammer “employees that feel more engaged, they feel more connected to their coworkers, they feel more connected to the company’s mission,’ says Sacks. ‘As a result, you have less employee turnover.” 

Sacks has faith in his product and belief in the importance of encouraging and support internal groundswell (internal employee communication). 

        HipChat is in an app in the same vein as Yammer, with features including public and private chat rooms within the company, real time file sharing, and mobile compatibility. My mom actually just started working for a startup that uses HipChat. It’s nice to see that companies caring and maintaining the internal groundswell, and encouraging a consistent mode of communication. And with HipChat and Yammer they both offer free service packages, which makes the service ideal for smaller (perhaps non-profit) organization. Again, this encourages good business practices by cultivating the internal groundswell.

There are the shared “pros” of both services, including:

• Connection and collaboration across all positions
• Real-time sharing co-editing of documents

There are the shared “cons” such as:

• Extra charges
• Compatibility issues

 

As well as different “pros” and “cons” for both…

Pros & Cons and list source

Yammer

Pro: Real-time conversations, compatible with other apps, compatible with desktop & mobile, free to use basic package, HIPAA certified, etc.

Con: Company email address required, cost is per user, no video chat available, etc. 

HipChat

Pro: Real-time video chat, screen sharing, complete chat history, drag-and-drop file sharing, compatible with any device or OS, secure, instant notifications

Con: Some features are paid only, cannot set notifications for selected rooms only, no SMS notifications certain issues require user to open web app, reported Mac compatibility issues, etc.

A Take Away

        While the services themselves may still have some work to do, the idea behind them is what counts. Having a universal mode of communication that connects employees is essential to a business’s  success. These platforms not only make communication effective and efficient, but they encourage it. 

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