Salesforce and Chatter - What the Heck is It?

By Marc Baizman, March 8, 2011

You might have seen a couple of bizarre ads during the Super Bowl this year for this thing called "Chatter" and wondered to yourself, "what the heck was that?"  Or, if you're me, you frantically shouted and gestured at the TV and yelled, "That's what I do!  Yeah, that's Salesforce!  That...uh...what the heck is this random ad supposed to show?  And how much did that just cost?!"

Well, I don't know exactly how much those 2 ads cost, but I'm sure it was plenty. Here's what Chatter is: a private social network for your company (read: internal Facebook) that is integrated into the Salesforce platform.  Salesforce has been hyping this since their 2009 annual Salesforce conference, Dreamforce. 

I've been working with large and small organizations who are using Chatter to varying degrees of effectiveness, and I think there are some tips that can help prepare you to use this new tool. 

  • You need to have a critical mass of people using Chatter, otherwise it looks like a few people who showed up way early to a party, and no one else is showing up.  Depressing, right?  And then no one sees the value of using it.
  • It helps to have some guidelines up front on what people should use it for: sharing work and some personal info is okay, but maybe sharing way-too-personal info is off-limits.  I don't think you need to be too heavy-handed here, but written policies always make the HR department happy.  :)  Kivi Leroux-Miller has some good resources for this.
  • Since there's no way to pilot this with a small group (pet peeve of mine), prepare people for this before you turn it on!  Have a lunch and learn about how you might use it.  Brainstorm with people some cool things they could do.  Above all, get people excited about it, and they'll see the value, even in a very small org.
  • This may seem obvious, but you should use it too!  You can be a model of how best to use a new tool like this. Sharing status updates, posting fun links, updating people on what you're doing are all valuable things to use Chatter for.

Are you using Chatter at your nonprofit?  Is it useful?  A waste of time?  Let me know what you think!  

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Comments

Chatter

by Alicia Schmidt (not verified) - 2011-03-16 13:31

Full disclosure . . . I work for the Salesforce Foundation as the Customer Success Evangelist. For smaller orgs, I think it helps to think about Chatter less as a "collaboration" tool than as a way to keep on top of the data that powers your organization. For instance, I can follow a grant opportunity, or a custom object (like a rescued dog), and I can get updates when an LOI is submitted for the grant, when we received the check, or when a dog was adopted, etc. Rather than having to search for it, or read about it an email, all this information can be pushed to me on a single page. You might also think about using Chatter Free to manage your Board (you can start a secure group, post files, and dashboards) or your super volunteers.  It is an efficient way to keep on top of updates in a single location. We have a monthly Intro to Chatter for Nonprofits webinar. Please join us if you would like to learn more. http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/products/community/events

Pointers on using Chatter with a super small staff?

by Andrea Berry - 2011-03-10 11:42

 For us at Idealware, unfortunately, we can't seem to make Chatter useful.  With really only 2 active Salesforce users, it is kind of silly when we turn it on.  But I totally believe it has some real potential for orgs with a few more staff using the system.  Knowing what is going on with your data is essential, and Chatter is a unique and seemingly quite effective tool for tracking developments.  Any tips for making Chatter useful for such a small staff as ours?

Get the ED posting!

by Trish Perkins (not verified) - 2011-03-10 22:49

The only place I've seen Chatter really look useful and fun is in a tiny org where the Executive Director uses it every day to communicate with the staff. It helps encourage people to chime in. (What's with only two active users? What's everybody else doing? Outlook? )

Great Post!

by Tal Frankfurt (not verified) - 2011-03-09 12:55

Great post Marc!