Chatter is social, collaborative, and sexy. Yes, I said it. SEXY! In the BC years (Before Chatter) it seemed the number one gripe from every offsite I went to was the lack of communication between departments. Think about it – Sales and Marketing were never aligned, Finance had their own clique, and per IT our inbox wouldn’t function if it was over 500 MB. Well I don’t know about you, but my work life has really changed since then (and this is just 3 years ago…I’m not that old) and I can truly give credit to Salesforce Chatter. The scoop on why? #1 It’s a collaborative way to celebrate success within the company. I love being able to celebrate with my team members in different locations or recognizing employees who may not have a visible quota to achieve but have goals that they are working towards. They are behind the scenes making sure our company runs. Recently, a customer thanked Carole for great customer service.  We made sure everyone across the company knew about it. Way to go Sales! Another closed deal! #2 You can share vital information across the company in a few key strokes. “Well, no one told me” is no longer a valid excuse! Here are some sample posts of the information we share across the company:

• Wait, what did that competitor tell our prospect about FinancialForce.com? I don’t think so!
• Sales team – we have a kick butt campaign launching next week. Let me know how many opptys you want.
• Is anyone using this SFDC field? Good…because we’re deleting it.

#3 Get your work done FASTER. And I mean FAST.  We can now pay our marketing invoices faster than writing this blog post. That’s something.  Here are posts where we completed tasks in a short amount of time:

• Hey Tracy, leads have been delivered for that program. We can pay our marketing vendor now.
• Tom, please approve my invoice. Click. Done.
• Marketing team – please vote on the best title for our new e-book. Same day decisions and no back and forth

Okay so you can’t compare Chatter to Justin Timberlake, but anything that helps me build relationships with my colleagues, saves me time, and teaches me to become a better marketer is sexy in my book. So now, when I go to post an update on how we’ve doubled our leads and opps for the month, and I get a chatter comment back from my colleagues in the UK the second I post it, I hear the background music start to play and I start to get my groove on because….“Chatter’s bringing sexy back“…(sorry JT!)