How to Use Yammer to Drive Innovation

Many companies use Yammer to drive innovation, but they struggle to keep users engaged over time. To address this, the approach has to include three key elements: Awareness, Facilitated Content, and User-Generated Content. Awareness includes short, focused bursts aimed at building excitement and recruiting new users, such as a challenge directed at a specific issue. Facilitated Content involves delivering engaging, high-quality content on a frequent basis, which could be something as simple as inspiring quotes or fun cartoons. Finally, User-Generated Content is the ultimate goal, and the community becomes self-sustainable once over half of its content is generated by its users. However, hurdles to implementing Yammer initiatives include a general lack of understanding about social media and a lack of commitment from top management. To overcome these, experimentation and small wins are key. In the long term, social media should become an important element in external innovation networks.