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Now, Brevity Is the Soul of Office Interaction

Frank Addante of the Rubicon Project is a fan of microblogging.Credit...Stephanie Diani for The New York Times

ONE hundred forty characters — the exact length of this sentence — is turning out to be just right for business communications of all kinds.

Whether sharing project updates with colleagues or reaching out to customers, workers are communicating in a new medium that keeps messages very short. Commonly called microblogging, it started as a way to share personal information with friends and family. But micromessages are gaining ground at work, becoming popular for both internal and external exchanges.

The most established microblogging service is Twitter, started in 2006. Messages on it are generally public, which makes it good for connecting with customers and other external contacts. But workers who want to communicate with employees at their own companies are turning to newer services designed for internal communications.

All of the microblogging systems restrict messages to 140 characters, including spaces, or at least encourage brevity, and they offer immediate, flexible delivery. On Twitter, users can write and read messages on the service’s Web site, on a mobile phone using SMS, or through third-party programs.

Initially, people used microblogging to share quotidian details (“Eating pizza for lunch” or “Watching the Yankees game with my sister”). But over time, users have composed other kinds of notes, too, posting observations about the industries in which they work, or including links to what they are reading on the job.

Given the public nature of messages on Twitter, the more professional posts have made the site good for networking.

“I’ve connected with people I didn’t know before who have very similar business or technical goals,” said Shannon Snowden, associate consulting partner at New Age Technologies, an information technology consulting firm based in Louisville, Ky.

And because Twitter has more than three million users and is growing fast, companies are learning that it’s a good place to find their customers and converse with them.

As people have grown accustomed to public microblogging — also called microsharing, microupdating and micromessaging — they have begun to look for similar systems that will let them communicate solely with co-workers at their own companies.

Several services have sprung up to meet the need. Yammer started in early September, followed a few weeks later by Present.ly. Each of those two services reports that it has been tried by more than 10,000 businesses. Both provide private microblogging with features tailored for the workplace, like the ability to add attachments and to communicate in subgroups.

Other, similar services that offer microblogging tools are also emerging, including FriendFeed and SocialCast.

Workers say several aspects of microblogging make the medium well-suited to internal communication. The messages are very quick to write and read, replies are optional, and there is nothing to delete or file. Moreover, people can glance at posts as they come in or read a batch during breaks.

“Every time we put something across Yammer, we’re exposing it to people but not forcing it down their throats,” said Tom Link, chief technology officer of Universal Mind, a Web development company in Westfield, Mass., with 70 employees. “Depending on what they’re doing, people might be paying attention to messages as they’re posted. But if I’m not in the office, I can go back and get the whole company stream for a day and read it in about 10 minutes. I could never do that with e-mail.”

As information workers struggle to manage a deluge of e-mail and instant messages, many find that internal microblogging systems are more appropriate for asking quick questions and sharing brief status updates. The short posts can also reduce in-box clutter.

“We’re seeing fewer e-mails, and we’re in more constant touch,” said Diane Ty, a senior vice president in Washington at AARP. Her team of 15 people, spanning several generations and five cities, uses Present.ly. “With I.M., it’s quick one-to-one messages, but with microblogging, it’s quick one-to-many messages, making it easier to stay connected.”

Companies that have adopted microblogging internally say a surprising benefit is the ease with which employees can learn relevant information across departments. The sales staff, for instance, may get wind of projects in development long before it otherwise would. “We’re very, very engineering based,” Mr. Link said. “Our sales guys can watch those conversations, and it informs them about who they might want to pull into projects or have talk to a customer. That never really bubbled up to the top before.”

Frank Addante, founder and chief executive of the Rubicon Project, an online advertising company in Los Angeles with about 65 employees, said internal information could flow in all directions, and quickly.

“I’m personally learning about things I wouldn’t normally hear about until we’re getting ready for a monthly board meeting,” he said. His company, with offices on both coasts and soon in London, uses Yammer. “I’m constantly sending messages about what I’m doing,” he said. “The rest of the company gets excited, and they’re using that info to communicate with customers and partners.”

Companies with many employees who work from home or in far-flung offices may get the most out of internal microblogging, which can help fill the inherent social gaps among remote workers. Even simple updates like, “Going to the dentist” or “Mopping coffee off the keyboard” can make co-workers feel more connected to one another.

“People post things like, ‘Took my dog to get a trim,’ ” said Mr. Snowden, whose company has 140 workers around the world, 30 of whom use Present.ly on a regular basis. “When you see them the next time, you’re caught up about personal and business things, and you can get right into deeper conversations. We know what each other’s doing from remote sites as well as we would if we were sitting next to them.”

This phenomenon, often called “ambient awareness,” is easy for companies to sanction when the messages take so little time to write and read. As a result, few companies have set rules for internal microblogging.

NOT every company takes to these systems. Many workers cannot imagine checking another in-box. Others don’t see the utility of such short updates, or aren’t interested in learning what co-workers across the country eat for lunch. Some try it and simply don’t get hooked.

But at workplaces that find microblogging useful, the employees can be evangelical about the systems.

“This isn’t a fad,” Mr. Snowden said. “There’s something core to this that allows people to communicate more freely. This is another stream of information you want to keep up with. It’s not viewed as noise yet.”

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