I’ve been checking out a new tool called Yammer, which is a twitter-like api that is used from communicating with other employees within your company.  So far it looks like a meet and greet with no real productivity.  Anyone can start their own Yammer network and discuss current projects or happenings within the group.

I see some potential here in reaching out to other areas within Cisco.  I posted a recent update; ” I’m over here in San Jose in Cisco on Cisco.”  and received a few replies regarding the purpose of my group.

I’m in the process of writing a case study for Cisco IT on social media tools LinkedIn Answers and Twitter.  The challenges have been how to effectively utilize these tools in order to show ROI.

When first joining twitter, we got a lot of negative feedback about the structure of our posts from the community, which were very similar to that of an rss feed.  Working in a large corporation, there is still quite a bit of ambiguity in what can and cannot be said on the internet in many of my colleagues minds.  I guess that is to be expected in a large company such as Cisco, but I am very happy to see an increase in converasation around the topic.

Our twitter account has slowly evolved from a Cisco IT news feed to a real person with thoughts and opinions in the IT industry as well as some Cisco recommended resources.

LinkedIn answers has been a great tool as well that has been an enabler of conversations and relationship building.  I was quite surprised with the amount of positive feedback that I have been getting in response to some of my posts relating to Cisco IT.

In the end we are measuring amount of relationships, engagements, and traffic back to Cisco IT and we are still learning what strategies and tools can work best for a group that is a Cisco resource for best practices and case studies.

Cisco recently hosted a round table discussion around PCI/data security with retail and health industry experts.  The key points of discussion were around real-world business challenges, PCI’s position to managing compliance.  Yadda yadda  (credit George Costanza).  The social media seemed to be an rss feed and a series of youtube videos that covered the discussion.   My question is your opinion of an ideal social media release?  Is it a combination of all posibilites or is it just a select few that will target a specific audience?  In my opinion I believe it is better to cover a broader range of mediums to have the possibility of being viral among a larger group of people no matter the interest.  There are many times that I will come across a certain blog post that looks interesting to me only because of the way it is being presented and the purpose of eye candy.  It guess this all goes back to core of marketing techniques…just some food for thought.

I found a great web app called Tweetburner for keeping track of how many clicks your twurls are generating.  We all know that one way conversations are frowned upon in the social media community, but for purposes such as press releases or website updates it helps to see how effective or interesting your twitter titles are to your audience.

I love working in the connected workplace.  It gives the corporate environment a young startup feel.  The intention was to encourage collaboration.  Going to other buildings or floors on Cisco and seeing the old cubicle layout, it is depressing.  Check it out here.