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Microsoft Yammer:
the corporate social network


What is Yammer? Why do businesses use it so much?

The Microsoft 365 platform, now Viva Engage, is a tool for increasing employee engagement and strengthening the business community.

Sharing, discussions, and comparisons within a dedicated virtual space stimulate organizational growth and evolution.

Find out how to implement it in your company and reap the benefits.

What is Microsoft Yammer

Yammer, now known as Microsoft Viva Engage, is based on the concept of creating a digital social platform for business customers where they can share company knowledge, ask questions about common procedures or the company environment, and share projects that employees are working on and those that are in the planning stages with their coworkers.

Microsoft Yammer is a virtual meeting room or corporate bulletin board where you can interact with your company's employees, ask and answer questions in real time, and avoid checking endless emails.

 

 

This social network for businesses was created to make collaboration, communication, and information sharing easier within the organization.

You won't need to send a thousand emails and wait for a response to speed up communication and get updates on work progress on a specific project.

You only need to look at the company wall or see if any of your coworkers are online to get an answer in a matter of minutes.

Not only does this app help you be more productive at work, but it also improves communication.

Microsoft encourages its employees to be more innovative and proactive by enabling them to develop new ideas. Reading updates or topics from various departments can aid in the employee's transversal training and consolidation of the department to which they belong.

Department leaders and managers can monitor their Yammer groups and respond to employee doubts and questions. Employees will feel heard, and corporate well-being will increase with productivity.

 

chat di discussione nel social network yammer

 

A news feed, similar to Facebook, displays the most recent posts written by colleagues from various departments within the company.

Employees and teams can be assigned to groups that track specific intra-company activities and topics. There's no shortage of comments, gifs, jokes, and questions for quick social feedback.

Furthermore, a simple and intuitive instant messaging tool would allow them to communicate directly with coworkers and always stay in sync.

 

 

The benefits of Microsoft Yammer

  • Reduce emails: The average user spends 13 hours per week on email. Yammer drastically lowers this estimate by allowing users to share information in more intuitive and engaging ways.

  • Helps you get quick answers: Any doubts you have during your workday can be resolved with a few mouse clicks. The most knowledgeable people will provide the answers.

  • Create an informal training channel: create interest-based work channels and upload the resources needed to access them from any device anytime.

  • Simplify live events: Anyone, from executives to front-line employees, can host live events. Meetings and questions can be conducted on any screen or device for any business topic.

  • Allow employees to display internal results: Sharing and publishing employee results has increased engagement by as much as 84 percent.

  • Posting worker milestones in Yammer posts can inspire other teams to achieve success.

  • Important data is unlocked: Images or videos of security training can be quickly shared throughout your organization. Yammer ensures that information reaches managers and employees who can use it.

  • Employees can use Yammer to provide feedback, solve problems, break up silences, and raise their hands to be heard by leadership and other members.

  • Microsoft 365 integration: Yammer posts relevant to you are delivered directly to your Outlook inbox. Content from Microsoft Teams and SharePoint can also be imported into Yammer.

  • Greater control: Yammer uses artificial intelligence and "report this post" features to alert HR and administrators of potentially harmful conversations.

What is intranet.ai?

intranet.ai is the ready-to-use corporate intranet, designed to reduce costs and implementation times, thus creating a collaborative and modern digital work environment:

  • Initial price of 3,650 €/year for a complete intranet
  • 50+ applications, including advanced search, document management system, push notifications via Teams, personal profile, and FAQ pages
  • 100% integrated with SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365

 

10 Tips about how to use Microsoft Yammer

Microsoft Yammer is intuitive, but these tips can help you navigate like a pro. So, instead of trial and error, follow these guidelines for a better user experience.

 

1. Create posts

You are already familiar with this. On Facebook and Twitter, we publish posts to share ideas and express ourselves. In Yammer, you can use posts to ask questions about processes or policies, recognize team members, describe new initiatives, announce product launches, convey other information, and resolve concerns your contacts may be interested in.

2. Ask questions
Yammer allows you to find answers from the business community when you don't know who to ask. When other employees tag other contacts in your post, for example, you might get responses from everyone from an IT professional to the CEO. If multiple answers are displayed, the requester can mark one as the best and pin it to the top.

3. Search for information
Do you need to locate a professional, a company policy, a document, or a piece of information? You're probably aware that Yammer, like Facebook and LinkedIn, has a search feature. The app creates an online home where users can store files, documents, manuals, images, how-to videos, and other useful data. Use the search bar to find colleagues, chats, and important content.

4. Like and comment on posts
Colleagues and even managers can drive engagement by commenting on or liking posts. This way, they can also express recognition that will inspire the business community.

5. Use polls
Did you know that Yammer has a survey feature? All you have to do now is choose a poll and create multiple-choice questions and answers. Then, you can choose who to send the survey to and when.

6. Praise the team members
You can congratulate a few colleagues on their outstanding work at any time, making the entire corporate group aware that Yammer has a built-in praise mode. Type in the colleague's name, a text, or an image to describe what was done. Then, of course, you can tag the manager or other contacts with tags.

7. View profiles
Yammer is a knowledge-sharing platform. Go to their profiles to meet new people and learn more about them. Everyone can share their skills, titles, and roles to make the research process easier.

8. Use the Yammer Communities app
To join the community of your choice, use the Yammer Communities app in Teams. Yammer communities are a great way for people interested in a topic to share their thoughts and questions. Customer groups, CEO connections, new hires, IT, HR, innovation, and security are all suggested communities. If you don't find one, you can create one by searching in Discover Community. At the bottom left of the interface, click Create Community, give it a new name, and add the names of the members you want to invite. What options do you have? You can participate in live streaming events, interact with your colleagues on social media, share ads, create polls, and more among the features available.
9. Follow the topics

You don't need to keep adding bookmarks to the conversations you want to follow. Instead, add tags called topics. Click the three dots at the top of the conversation and select Add Topic. You can monitor entire conversations or just parts of them. In the Yammer Topic Center, you will find a trace of all the topics that interest you.

10. Use apps

Microsoft Yammer is perfect for mobile versions, just like a social network. Around 90% of users perform at least part of their online interactions on a mobile device. Download the mobile app from the Play Store or App Store.

Below, you will find the summary table of our 10 tips for making the most of Microsoft Yammer's features in the workplace:

 

Tips for using Microsoft Yammer features

 

Tips for using Yammer Description of the tip
Creating posts Use posts to share ideas, ask questions, recognize team members, announce initiatives, etc.
Asking questions Use Yammer to ask questions to the professional community and get various answers.
Information search Use the search function to find colleagues, discussions, and important content in Yammer.
Liking and commenting on posts Encourage engagement by liking and commenting on your colleagues' posts to strengthen recognition.
Using polls Create multiple-choice polls to gather community opinion and share meaningful results.
Viewing profiles Explore user profiles to learn more about their skills, titles, and roles.
Using Yammer communities app Join Yammer communities to discuss specific topics and collaborate with like-minded individuals.
Following topics Add tags called topics to follow specific conversations that interest you, without the need for bookmarks.
Using apps
Download the Yammer mobile app for user-friendly use on mobile devices, like a social network.


Yammer is integrated into Microsoft 365

The most important feature of Yammer is its deep integration with Microsoft 365 and its tools, such as Teams, SharePoint Online, and Outlook.

The streaming video below shows that Yammer focuses on communication within the digital enterprise to encourage dialogue between colleagues, managers, and employees. Its dynamics are more socially oriented than those of the teams mentioned above.

 

Yammer login

Any Microsoft 365 business plan includes Yammer (except Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise).

To use Yammer, go to your company's intranet and look for it in the application bar. Once you've chosen, you can begin browsing the platform and engaging in social interactions.

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A powerful corporate social network

Yammer now has new integrations with Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook, providing an intelligent experience across all devices.

It can broadcast live and on-demand events with simplified webcam and desktop sharing options. Unlike many competing applications, Microsoft Yammer was built by incorporating features designed to meet specific needs in response to some of the most frequently received user feedback.

The chat feed is customized based on artificial intelligence to highlight the most important topics, interface customizations based on the company brand, optimized discussion organization, and rapid sharing of video messages via the mobile app.

 

 

Features for collaborating with Yammer

The functions of a social network are combined with those of a microblogging platform and a collaboration platform for sharing ideas and projects.

However, Yammer has a unique feature: you can only connect with users who share your company's domain's email address (or multiple domains). Then, using Microsoft's cloud services, you create a corporate social network to manage confidential documents and new projects.

Introducing a corporate social network initiative requires a strategy to encourage the paradigm shift. The new corporate tools must be included in an adoption plan that considers the culture and objectives of the company.

The challenges Yammer faces to improve collaboration in your digital workplace are:

  • Collaboration and team growth.
  • Approach to communication.
  • Embrace a culture of knowledge sharing.
  • Work like a network.
  • Having a shared vision.
  • Work towards common goals.
  • Assist with cultural change.
  • Promote transparency and honesty.

 

Conclusion

Yammer has a high potential, and the companies that introduced it have significantly improved collaboration, communication, internal relationships, dynamics.

The positive effects are:

  • quick problem resolution thanks to communication
  • sharing and inter-company growth of ideas useful for productivity and business development
  • the birth of new talents
  • greater employee satisfaction
  • ease of connection and communication between distant physical places and teamwork
  • greater sense of involvement and alignment with company objectives.

 

 

Furthermore, as Microsoft has always stated, updates will never stop.

These benefits have been brought to light as a result of the latter:

  • Yammer is a part of Office 365's overall governance strategy.
  • In SharePoint, a complete Yammer web part is possible.
  • For a digitized, complete, and up-to-date browsing experience, you can use Yammer or the Microsoft Teams collaboration platform.

So, do you see the value Yammer brings to businesses?

Give your business a chance to thrive.

Giuseppe Marchi

 

Microsoft MVP for SharePoint and Microsoft 365 since 2010.

Giuseppe is the founder of intranet.ai and one of the leading experts in Italy in all matters related to Microsoft 365. For years, he has been assisting companies in creating their digital workplace environment on the Microsoft cloud, focusing on people's experience.

FAQ about Microsoft Yammer

What is Microsoft Yammer?

Microsoft Yammer is a social networking service designed for businesses and organizations. It allows users to communicate, collaborate, and share content within their professional networks.

Is Yammer being discontinued?

Yes, Microsoft Yammer has been discontinued and replaced by Viva Engage as of 2023. Viva Engage is part of Microsoft Viva and focuses on employee engagement and fostering collaboration within organizations.

What is the difference between Yammer and Teams?

While both Yammer and Microsoft Teams are collaboration tools by Microsoft, they serve different purposes. Yammer, now replaced by Viva Engage, focused on enterprise social networking, while Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform that includes chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and project management features.

What has replaced Yammer?

Viva Engage, part of Microsoft Viva, has replaced Yammer as the primary platform for employee engagement and collaboration within organizations.

What is Yammer called now?

Viva Engage has replaced Yammer.

Why did Yammer fail?

Yammer's evolution and eventual replacement were driven by changing market demands, evolving technology, and Microsoft's strategic decisions rather than a specific platform failure.

What is better than Yammer?

Viva Engage, the successor to Yammer, offers enhanced employee engagement and collaboration features within organizations. Additionally, other collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Workplace by Facebook, may better suit specific organizational needs.

Is Viva Engage replacing Yammer?

Yes, Viva Engage has replaced Yammer as Microsoft's primary platform for employee engagement and collaboration within organizations.

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