The defection from Twitter to Yammer has been interesting; a few weeks ago we were twittering away then along came Yammer. It not only attracted a greater number of UL employees but those with dual status seem to have gradually moved across and deserted Twitter in favour of Yammer. There’s a noticeable decline in Facebook contributions too. It seems that one is enough. Two is too many. Is this the nature of Web 2.0 tools? The flavour of the month is easily replaced by a new taste. What will take over from Yammer? There must be something equally new and addictive just waiting in the wings.
one is enough…
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I think Yammer and Twitter are very different – or at least, I use them in very different ways.
I still Twitter, but mainly non-work related stuff, and the people I follow (and who follow me) on Twitter aren’t necessarily part of one single community. That’s what’s unique about Yammer to me: there’s an already existing community based around roughly shared goals (i.e working for the University). I know almost everyone in our Yammer community IRL (as the kids say), whereas I hardly know or have spoken to any Twitter followers.
I think you can explain it in terms of simple behaviourism. Essentially you’re more likely get a quick reward in the shape of a response if you Yammer because there are a lot of UL employees using it. That might be true of Twitter too, but I think there’s a bit more reluctance to use a public forum in the context of the University, which means you don’t get as many responses, or in behavioural terms, you don’t get as much reinforcement. That I think is also an explanation for email overload. People check their email because it often contains something nice, like a joke, or a funny picture or an invitation to a social event. Of course there’s nasty stuff in there too, but being human we’re always on the lookout for the nicer side of life. So people prefer to use e-mail to get anything out. I think any app that taps into that basic human desire is likely to do well.