The phrase " for business" was tossed around when the company was acquired; but in reality, Yammer does much more than Mark Zuckerberg's baby. Here's an overview of what everyone is Yammer-ing about.

A Social Network for Your Business

Yammer is essentially a that's entirely focused on your business. In order to join your business's Yammer network, an applicant must have a working email address from your company's domain. You can also create external networks to allow non-employees, such as suppliers and customers, to communicate with your company.

The Ticker

Like Facebook, Yammer's primary screen--the Ticker--consists of a news feed, complete with Likes and icons indicating private messages and notifications appear in the upper left-hand corner. You can also create groups, which is helpful for segregating talk that's relevant only to specific internal teams. If a group conversation takes a turn that requires assistance from other employees, you can share it with a specific person via instant message or with another group entirely. Sharing a post with specific groups is a breeze thanks to handy-dandy drop-down menus below the Update box (which is similar to Facebook's Status box).