As many of you know, the Web Group has taken up residence on the Yale University social network known as Yammer. It’s a closed system meaning that, unlike Facebook, you cannot ‘friend’ anyone outside the university. But, very much like Facebook and other social networking sites, it is designed to create an online ecosystem where you can interact and connect with others. This article will show you some of the highlights if you choose to sign up (and we encourage you to do so!) and let you know how to find us if you’re already a member.
Getting Started
To get started, simply go to http://www.yammer.com and enter your email address in the box indicated on the home page. The system will walk you through a few questions to get your account started like most such applications, including asking for a profile picture so it’s good to have one handy before you get started.
Basic Navigation
When you finish the set-up process, you’ll see the ‘dashboard’ which contains:
- a number of navigation options across the top,
- your Inbox and Groups on the left,
- the ‘feed’ in the middle of the page, and
- the Recent Activity and Suggestions on the right.
Center Console and Feed
I’d like to highlight the center console which is where you can interact with other Yammerians. The Update option is the first and default option and is just like the Facebook status update field. You can specify individuals to notify of your update or, as I did in my example, the entire Web Editor group. You can also add attachments, submit polls, ask questions, praise someone, or ask a question. Note there is also a search bar where you can look for peoples, groups and topics being discussed.
Adding/Following People and Groups
You can directly add people and groups from the options available in the right column. Across the top, you’ll see buttons for the following:
- [Add] which is actually for ‘inviting’ other Yale staff to join Yammer,
- [People] for searching the existing list of Yammerites,
- [Groups] for searching various affinity groups such as the YSM Web Editors (hint!),
- [Files] to post items for others, and
- [Apps] for adding applications or getting information on the various mobile apps available.
You’ll notice in the right column there is a section for Recent Activity which shows you what is going on with people you follow and people in groups of which you are a member. Below that though are the Suggested People and Suggested Groups sections which are a great way to get started connecting with people in the Yammerverse.
Join Yammer AND the YSM Web Editor Group!
Finally, as a public service announcement, the YSM Web Editors is the Web Group’s latest effort to better inform and stay connected with our Editor Community. We strongly encourage everyone to sign up and for those already on Yammer, we’d love for you to join our group. For those who use email as their primary workflow, you can also sign up for a digest that pushes email summaries of Yammer activity to your inbox so you don’t have to worry about signing into one more application. Give it a try and let us know when you do!