The heavy promotion of Yammer at Microsoft's 2014 SharePoint Conference has made me decide about something I have been considering for quite a while – a Yammer external network for subscribers of kalmstrom.com products.
What is Yammer?
Yammer is social network. It reminds very much about Facebook, but access to each Yammer site is limited to a specified group. So far is has mostly been used for communication within companies and organizations, but today Yammer also has a big potential for external networks.
After the aquirement of Yammer in 2012, Microsoft has been integrating this enterprise social network into SharePoint and Office. This work will continue with high priority, and there are already free apps that adapt Yammer to mobile devices. Therefore Yammer is very easy to reach and use. As Yammer is built in the same way as Facebook, most users will learn it in a few seconds.
Yammer also has other advantages over a traditional forum. It gives better sharing possibilites, and if you are already using Yammer there is no login. The kalmstrom.com Subscriber Network will be easily selected from your company's Yammer homepage.
But you can join the kalmstrom.com Subscriber Network even if your organization does not use Yammer. In that case you will just create your own login details.
Why a subscriber network?
A subscriber network gives benefits to both users and developers. Users get a chance to meet, to learn and get inspiration from each other's experiences. It may be a question about the same issue or feature addition as you have thought about yourself, or it could be a tip on how to use a kalmstrom.com Solution in a different way.
Also the kalmstrom.com team will learn from the subscriber network. We develop, test and document the solutions, but we don't use all of them ourselves. Therefor it is very important to get input from people who see the product in daily use. We already receive such input in e-mails and chats, but a contribution to a subscriber network will reach more users, and we can learn a lot from the comments to it.
We will of course also use the network for information about blog posts, new versions, new faq and tips articles and so on. Once a week each member of the network will get a summary of the entries by e-mail.
Invitation
kalmstrom.com is already present at open social media like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter, and our YouTube channel and Pinterest boards are popular.
This new network will be different, as only a limited group of people will have access to it. I will send an invitation to each person that is responsible for a kalmstrom.com Solution. They may in turn suggest other people to be invited.
Future?
This is something new, and even if customers sometimes ask for a forum where they can discuss our products with other users we know nothing about the actual interest for a meeting place among our subscribers. I don't expect the network activity to explode but rather grow steadily. Therefore we will begin with one network for all subscribers.
Should the kalmstrom.com subscribers be interested enough, we might eventually split the network according to product. Users of more than one solution would then get invitations to several groups.
I am always excited to try new technology, and I hope you will share the Yammer external network experience with me!
Peter Kalmstrom
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions
Yammer is social network. It reminds very much about Facebook, but access to each Yammer site is limited to a specified group. So far is has mostly been used for communication within companies and organizations, but today Yammer also has a big potential for external networks.
After the aquirement of Yammer in 2012, Microsoft has been integrating this enterprise social network into SharePoint and Office. This work will continue with high priority, and there are already free apps that adapt Yammer to mobile devices. Therefore Yammer is very easy to reach and use. As Yammer is built in the same way as Facebook, most users will learn it in a few seconds.
Yammer also has other advantages over a traditional forum. It gives better sharing possibilites, and if you are already using Yammer there is no login. The kalmstrom.com Subscriber Network will be easily selected from your company's Yammer homepage.
But you can join the kalmstrom.com Subscriber Network even if your organization does not use Yammer. In that case you will just create your own login details.
Why a subscriber network?
A subscriber network gives benefits to both users and developers. Users get a chance to meet, to learn and get inspiration from each other's experiences. It may be a question about the same issue or feature addition as you have thought about yourself, or it could be a tip on how to use a kalmstrom.com Solution in a different way.
Also the kalmstrom.com team will learn from the subscriber network. We develop, test and document the solutions, but we don't use all of them ourselves. Therefor it is very important to get input from people who see the product in daily use. We already receive such input in e-mails and chats, but a contribution to a subscriber network will reach more users, and we can learn a lot from the comments to it.
We will of course also use the network for information about blog posts, new versions, new faq and tips articles and so on. Once a week each member of the network will get a summary of the entries by e-mail.
kalmstrom.com is already present at open social media like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter, and our YouTube channel and Pinterest boards are popular.
This new network will be different, as only a limited group of people will have access to it. I will send an invitation to each person that is responsible for a kalmstrom.com Solution. They may in turn suggest other people to be invited.
Future?
This is something new, and even if customers sometimes ask for a forum where they can discuss our products with other users we know nothing about the actual interest for a meeting place among our subscribers. I don't expect the network activity to explode but rather grow steadily. Therefore we will begin with one network for all subscribers.
Should the kalmstrom.com subscribers be interested enough, we might eventually split the network according to product. Users of more than one solution would then get invitations to several groups.
I am always excited to try new technology, and I hope you will share the Yammer external network experience with me!
Peter Kalmstrom
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions
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