Mukund Mohan is a serial entrepreneur who has gone through a number of successful exits, and is the founder of Best Engaging Communities, a popular blog on business communities and social media. I interviewed him yesterday on how he's used Twitter as an enterprise tool to facilitate a dispersed workforce. The following is a summary of our conversation.
Tell me a bit about the project that you were working on when you decided to use Twitter
We were working on a social media project for just over 9 months, which was eventually sold to Innovis. Because the company had grown through acquisition, we had a very dispersed team, with 46 people spread over 7 US cities, and a small team in London (UK). We needed to keep everyone engaged and in the loop. Initially we were using instant messaging and email to keep in touch, however this was inefficient and created a number of issues: IM was good when the person you needed to speak to was online at their computer, but when this wasn't the case it wasn't very useful, and there was no central record of the discussions that had taken place. Email was being used for more important announcements but with 46 people this resulted in a lot of clutter. Email is also what I call an 'open box' - anyone can send you messages, regardless of whether you want to hear from them or not, which can result in spam and other unwanted or unnecessary emails.
Why did you decide to use Twitter?
I've always been a big fan of Twitter personally, and it solved a lot of these issues. We set up secure accounts for everyone and ensured we were all following each other. This allowed us to have a single, always on discussion, allowing everyone in the company to stay in touch wherever they were, and whatever platform they were using - computer, IM, mobile, etc. We used it for two main functions: status updates, to let each other know where we were (both physically and with regards to projects), and for asking questions, requesting files etc. Someone could post a question at any time, and although there wouldn't always be all 46 of us online, at least a few would, and if they couldn't answer the question either they could pass it on, or when someone came online later they could check through the conversation and help then.
Was there a downside to using Twitter?
Some people felt that it was 'yet another distraction' and that it had the possibility of lowering productivity, especially if you're following or getting involved in conversations that aren't entirely relevant to what you're doing. However, this is less of the case than with IM, as with IM people expect instant responses, but with Twitter there's no expectation of an instant answer.
Would you use it again in the future?
Definitely, I'm actually involved with a new start-up that will be launching within the next month, and we have been using Twitter in exactly the same way to keep everyone in the project up-to-date and to allow the easy flow of questions.
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This is an area which I'm very interested in at the moment. If you have used Twitter in an enterprise situation like the one above, or different, I'd be really interested in hearing from you. Email me at joshATinetworkmarketing.co.uk, and Twitter me at /joshuamarch.
Thank you to Mukund Mohan for his time and answers.
Tell me a bit about the project that you were working on when you decided to use Twitter
We were working on a social media project for just over 9 months, which was eventually sold to Innovis. Because the company had grown through acquisition, we had a very dispersed team, with 46 people spread over 7 US cities, and a small team in London (UK). We needed to keep everyone engaged and in the loop. Initially we were using instant messaging and email to keep in touch, however this was inefficient and created a number of issues: IM was good when the person you needed to speak to was online at their computer, but when this wasn't the case it wasn't very useful, and there was no central record of the discussions that had taken place. Email was being used for more important announcements but with 46 people this resulted in a lot of clutter. Email is also what I call an 'open box' - anyone can send you messages, regardless of whether you want to hear from them or not, which can result in spam and other unwanted or unnecessary emails.
Why did you decide to use Twitter?
I've always been a big fan of Twitter personally, and it solved a lot of these issues. We set up secure accounts for everyone and ensured we were all following each other. This allowed us to have a single, always on discussion, allowing everyone in the company to stay in touch wherever they were, and whatever platform they were using - computer, IM, mobile, etc. We used it for two main functions: status updates, to let each other know where we were (both physically and with regards to projects), and for asking questions, requesting files etc. Someone could post a question at any time, and although there wouldn't always be all 46 of us online, at least a few would, and if they couldn't answer the question either they could pass it on, or when someone came online later they could check through the conversation and help then.
Was there a downside to using Twitter?
Some people felt that it was 'yet another distraction' and that it had the possibility of lowering productivity, especially if you're following or getting involved in conversations that aren't entirely relevant to what you're doing. However, this is less of the case than with IM, as with IM people expect instant responses, but with Twitter there's no expectation of an instant answer.
Would you use it again in the future?
Definitely, I'm actually involved with a new start-up that will be launching within the next month, and we have been using Twitter in exactly the same way to keep everyone in the project up-to-date and to allow the easy flow of questions.
-------------------------------
This is an area which I'm very interested in at the moment. If you have used Twitter in an enterprise situation like the one above, or different, I'd be really interested in hearing from you. Email me at joshATinetworkmarketing.co.uk, and Twitter me at /joshuamarch.
Thank you to Mukund Mohan for his time and answers.
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