3rd July, 2012
I’ve been thinking a lot about Enterprise Social Networks recently, and so should you if the figures about the potential size of the market over the next few years are to be believed ($6.4bn by 2016).
The news that Yammer has been acquired by Microsoft for $1.2bn therefore shouldn’t come as any surprise. Sure, it is a big sum, but I think this is a smart move by Microsoft. Whether the same can be said for Yammer is another question. Can Microsoft harness the power of ESNing? Time will tell and it is a subject for another post.
That’s because, long before the deal went through, I was thinking about the potential of a Twitter/Yammer tie up. It might seem strange at first but bear with me.
Is the idea of one unified profile to join work and personal social networking that ridiculous?
As a big user of Twitter and working for a company that uses Yammer, I often find myself dithering between whether to post on Twitter or Yammer or both. Sure, sometimes posts are clearly more appropriate or relevant for public or private-work but surely there would be some benefit in having a unified experience for both?
Clearly Yammer and Twitter won’t happen. But there are plenty of other options out there should Twitter consider this a wise move and, given its ‘finding a business model’ difficulties, maybe getting enterprises on board (and paying) through ESN, especially given the sums mentioned above, isn’t such a bad idea?
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