8.4 Document for Analysis: Direct Response
Date: March 4, 2015
To: Helen Lazar, CEO
From: Gilbert S. Luce
Subject: Chatter—A Potential Alternative to Facebook and Twitter
Here is my brief report in response to your request that I research alternatives to Facebook and Twitter.
We may be able to tap into Chatter, a new social-networking service created by San Francisco-based
Salesforce.com. This company provides customer-relationship management and other business software
to its 82,000 customers worldwide.
The disadvantages of conventional online social networks are obvious. They sap employees’ time and
productivity. Their openness creates a corporate security nightmare. Chatter, however, allows for virtual
watercooler conversations but with limitations that are appropriate for business. Management can control
access to sensitive information and records.
Chatter is similar to Facebook and Twitter, but it asks what people are working on, not what is on their
mind or what is happening. Salesforce.com calls Chatter a “real–time collaboration cloud,” meaning that
users need only a browser and an Internet connection to access it. Users create profiles, and their status
updates center on questions, salient tidbits, and hyperlinks that are shared with coworkers in their
personal network. Those comments and updates merge into a running feed. As on Twitter, employees can
follow each other, their customers, and deals.