Business social media expands with Chatter.com
Cameron Sturdevant is the executive editor of Enterprise Networking Planet. Prior to ENP, Cameron was technical analyst at PCWeek Labs, starting in 1997. Cameron finished up as the eWEEK Labs Technical Director in 2012. Before his extensive labs tenure Cameron paid his IT dues working in technical support and sales engineering at a software publishing firm . Cameron also spent two years with a database development firm, integrating applications with mainframe legacy programs. Cameron's areas of expertise include virtual and physical IT infrastructure, cloud computing, enterprise networking and mobility. In addition to reviews, Cameron has covered monolithic enterprise management systems throughout their lifecycles, providing the eWEEK reader with all-important history and context. Cameron takes special care in cultivating his IT manager contacts, to ensure that his analysis is grounded in real-world concern. Follow Cameron on Twitter at csturdevant, or reach him by email at cameron.sturdevant@quinstreet.com.
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Chatter.com released yesterday (1/31/2011) and IT managers of companies and organizations large and small should pay attention. In December last year, I wrote an analysis piece on social media in the enterprise. That article was inspired by an opinion piece where I lamented the limitations of social media for business use. That’s all changing.
In December I wrote, “IT vendors, including Salesforce.com, Socialtext, Socialcast, Yammer and a host of others, have taken notice of the social media explosion by releasing a new wave of social media tools for the enterprise. The big bang that is the birth of social media platforms includes the initial formation of specifications and integration tools that seek to ease interconnection problems, while maintaining the fast-flowing and lightweight nature of social media interactions.”
With the release of the no-cost Chatter.com, which enables private, secure microblogging based on a users corporate email identity, social media in business has expanded significantly. Chatter has been a part of the various Salesforce.com editions for a while, so the idea itself isn’t that new. What’s new today is that anyone with a business email address can sign up to use the service at no cost and without necessarily signing up for a Salesforce.com license.
I’m working on a full review of the offering now, but it’s worth checking out Chatter.com. Feel free to drop me a note and tell me about your experience with business-class social media services.
