Put management in a role model role
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:11 am
Ideally, you then present Yammer to a group of employees who you expect to have some affinity with social media, such as communication consultants. Encourage these employees to actively Yammer from their phones during that meeting. During the meeting, you can show the messages live in a Yammerfall . This is a fun way to present.
In the days that follow, you can sit back and relax. Word of mouth advertising almost always does its job after a good presentation.
2. Organize your fans
yammer ambassadors
Your ambassadors can save you a lot of time.
When the platform starts to gain weight in terms of membership, it is important to organize the most active users – the fans. Involve them in your plans. The best way to do this is to organize a special meeting with them, in which you not only bring something (information), but certainly also get something. If the fans support your plans, they will automatically become the ambassadors of your message.
You really need those ambassadors. After all, they have more influence on their direct colleagues than you will ever have. After the meeting, it is important to organize your ambassadors online as well. Set up a closed group for them in Yammer. In that group, you can permanently involve them in the course of events and the challenges that you – together with them – face. In this way, you give your ambassadors a certain status that can be very motivating.
3. Strengthen your business case
As mentioned, this article assumes the situation in which you have received approval from your MT to connect your colleagues online via a free pilot with Yammer. It is important that you keep your management informed of the developments. Of course, you report in MT meetings about the increased number of members, the increased activity and the success stories of employees who received an answer to their question on the platform.
Gathering this information is important for building a business case for purchasing paid software. This is a logical second step, because the free version of Yammer has quite a few limitations. For example, you can only add terms of use, perform management and see statistics in the paid version.
In your efforts to activate your colleagues, you will notice that the number of active saudi arabia mobile phone number list members will probably remain somewhere between 5 and 10% of the total. This is completely normal. Anything above 10% is a major achievement. It is not impossible, but then you need good example behavior from management. Many employees are afraid to post something, or do not feel sufficiently encouraged. They are waiting for 'a sign from above'.
Good example is followed. But why would your manager want to become an active yammerer ? Emphasize the benefits, such as:
On Yammer you can see what's going on in the organization.
Yammer offers the opportunity to see what sentiments exist around important management topics.
Actively participating on Yammer contributes to a transparent management style.
Yammer offers an accessible platform for spreading your message. In addition, you save the time and money of a meeting.
Tip: organize a YamJam
Do you want to put management at the center of the platform in one go? Then organize a YamJam ; an online consultation hour on Yammer. Ask management to send an email to middle management prior to the YamJam with the explicit request to participate in the consultation hour, together with their teams. My experience shows that middle management in particular can use an extra push…
5. Attention to detail
Hurray! You did it. The director is on Yammer. But take another good look. Is his/her profile filled in correctly? And is he or she going to Yammer themselves, or is the secretary allowed to do that? The latter is of course out of the question. Employees immediately notice when messages from the management are not authentic. Their yams then hit back in the face like a boomerang.
When you use the management to play an exemplary role, everything has to be right – in short. Don’t make the mistake of taking organizing a YamJam too lightly. YamJams are usually so chaotic that it will go hopelessly wrong if you haven’t written a good script – and coordinated it – in advance! And even then, a lot can still go wrong. More about this in a next article.
frank_rws
Frank, the face of Rijkswaterstaat's activation campaign.
6. It's (still) in the mix
Posters, presentations, an intranet message and a piece in the staff magazine. These are all resources that help you inform all your colleagues about the possibilities that Yammer offers and the plans that the MT has with it. Make use of these online and offline possibilities. The power lies in the mix and in the repetition. At Rijkswaterstaat we even had an explanatory video developed that appeared prominently on the intranet. This video has now been copied by many organizations at home and abroad.
Tip: Don't forget the power of a presentation
Remember that you do not only approach the target group via paper and screen. You will miss the impact that a presentation has. You will also deprive yourself of the necessary lessons. The reactions that you get during a presentation will clearly show you which questions and sentiments about Yammer are alive in the organization.
7. Present
If you are going to present, prepare well:
In the days that follow, you can sit back and relax. Word of mouth advertising almost always does its job after a good presentation.
2. Organize your fans
yammer ambassadors
Your ambassadors can save you a lot of time.
When the platform starts to gain weight in terms of membership, it is important to organize the most active users – the fans. Involve them in your plans. The best way to do this is to organize a special meeting with them, in which you not only bring something (information), but certainly also get something. If the fans support your plans, they will automatically become the ambassadors of your message.
You really need those ambassadors. After all, they have more influence on their direct colleagues than you will ever have. After the meeting, it is important to organize your ambassadors online as well. Set up a closed group for them in Yammer. In that group, you can permanently involve them in the course of events and the challenges that you – together with them – face. In this way, you give your ambassadors a certain status that can be very motivating.
3. Strengthen your business case
As mentioned, this article assumes the situation in which you have received approval from your MT to connect your colleagues online via a free pilot with Yammer. It is important that you keep your management informed of the developments. Of course, you report in MT meetings about the increased number of members, the increased activity and the success stories of employees who received an answer to their question on the platform.
Gathering this information is important for building a business case for purchasing paid software. This is a logical second step, because the free version of Yammer has quite a few limitations. For example, you can only add terms of use, perform management and see statistics in the paid version.
In your efforts to activate your colleagues, you will notice that the number of active saudi arabia mobile phone number list members will probably remain somewhere between 5 and 10% of the total. This is completely normal. Anything above 10% is a major achievement. It is not impossible, but then you need good example behavior from management. Many employees are afraid to post something, or do not feel sufficiently encouraged. They are waiting for 'a sign from above'.
Good example is followed. But why would your manager want to become an active yammerer ? Emphasize the benefits, such as:
On Yammer you can see what's going on in the organization.
Yammer offers the opportunity to see what sentiments exist around important management topics.
Actively participating on Yammer contributes to a transparent management style.
Yammer offers an accessible platform for spreading your message. In addition, you save the time and money of a meeting.
Tip: organize a YamJam
Do you want to put management at the center of the platform in one go? Then organize a YamJam ; an online consultation hour on Yammer. Ask management to send an email to middle management prior to the YamJam with the explicit request to participate in the consultation hour, together with their teams. My experience shows that middle management in particular can use an extra push…
5. Attention to detail
Hurray! You did it. The director is on Yammer. But take another good look. Is his/her profile filled in correctly? And is he or she going to Yammer themselves, or is the secretary allowed to do that? The latter is of course out of the question. Employees immediately notice when messages from the management are not authentic. Their yams then hit back in the face like a boomerang.
When you use the management to play an exemplary role, everything has to be right – in short. Don’t make the mistake of taking organizing a YamJam too lightly. YamJams are usually so chaotic that it will go hopelessly wrong if you haven’t written a good script – and coordinated it – in advance! And even then, a lot can still go wrong. More about this in a next article.
frank_rws
Frank, the face of Rijkswaterstaat's activation campaign.
6. It's (still) in the mix
Posters, presentations, an intranet message and a piece in the staff magazine. These are all resources that help you inform all your colleagues about the possibilities that Yammer offers and the plans that the MT has with it. Make use of these online and offline possibilities. The power lies in the mix and in the repetition. At Rijkswaterstaat we even had an explanatory video developed that appeared prominently on the intranet. This video has now been copied by many organizations at home and abroad.
Tip: Don't forget the power of a presentation
Remember that you do not only approach the target group via paper and screen. You will miss the impact that a presentation has. You will also deprive yourself of the necessary lessons. The reactions that you get during a presentation will clearly show you which questions and sentiments about Yammer are alive in the organization.
7. Present
If you are going to present, prepare well: