Yammer Communities FAQ

Contents
• General Information
• Privacy & Security
• Additional Product Details
• Glossary of Terms

Note: Many of the admin controls mentioned in this FAQ are only available as part of Yammerʼs
premium Silver & Gold packages.

General Information
What are Yammer Communities?

Communities are separate Yammer networks that can be used for private B2B communication.
You can create new Yammer networks to communicate with external parties, like customers,
partners, contractors, and fans.

Whatʼs the difference between Communities and existing Yammer company networks?

Company networks are based on email domains. Only employees with a verified company
email address can join. By contrast, anyone can be invited to join a Community, regardless of
their email address. Communities are created from inside company networks, which are the
“parent networks” of Communities.

Whatʼs the difference between Communities and Yammer groups?

Groups contain a subset of the members of a network; the groupʼs messages appear within
that networkʼs feeds. A Community is a new network that can contain members from multiple
companies. A Communityʼs data is completely separate from other networks and only visible
by its members.

Why should I create a Yammer Community? What can I use it for?

There are many use cases for private microblogging Communities. Here are a few of the most
compelling ones:

• Companies can create secure B2B Communities to communicate with partners, customers,
vendors, consultants and advisors.

• Global conglomerates can create Communities for subsidiaries and divisions to link
together separate business units.

Yammer Inc. Page 1 of 9

 • Other organizations, such as industry associations, schools, clubs and conferences can
create secure Communities to meet their communication needs.

How do I find Communities?

You can discover Communities via the Communities directory, which appears in the navigation
bar of your companyʼs Yammer network.

This directory will only appear if your companyʼs admin has enabled it. Additionally, your
company admin can control which Communities appear in this directory.

Who can see the list of Communities in my companyʼs Community directory?

Provided that your company admin hasnʼt disabled this functionality, any member of your
company network can see the list of Communities in the directory.

Yammer Inc. Page 2 of 9

Can I join any Community listed in this directory?

It depends on how the Community is setup. If the Community admin has allowed anyone from
your company to join without an invite, then you can join right away. Otherwise, you will need
to request an invitation from the Community admin. You can do this right from the Community
directory page.

Can I create a Community and not have it appear in my companyʼs Community directory?

Currently, the answer to this is no. Yammer may remove this restriction in the future.

How do I create a Yammer Community?

Provided that your company admin hasnʼt disabled this functionality, follow these steps:

1. Log into Yammer

2. Click the “Communities” link on the navigation bar
3. Click the “Create Community” link on the Communities directory page

Who can I invite to a Yammer Community?

Anyone you like. Yammer Community membership is not restricted to specific email domains.
Most people will choose to create Communities around specific B2B relationships, topics,
projects or products and invite the appropriate people to them.

Who can create a Yammer Community?

Any member of a Yammer company network can create a Community - provided that their
companyʼs admin hasnʼt disabled this functionality.

What happens after I create a new Community?

You will be taken to a new, separate Yammer network. The name of your Community will also
appear in the Networks drop-down menu (or toggle) in the top right corner of your screen.
Finally, the new Community will appear in the Communities directory of the parent network.

How can I tell which Yammer network I'm currently viewing?

Yammer Inc. Page 3 of 9

 The name of your network is always clearly identified in the network header displayed across
the top of your screen. You can also see which network you are currently viewing by checking
the Network toggle.

How do I navigate between Yammer networks?

The Network toggle which appears in the top right corner of the screen allows you to easily
switch between networks. The Network toggle lists both company networks and Communities
that you are a member of.

What happens when I post a message in a Community?

Only the members of that network can see the message.

How do I know when there are new messages in each network?

The network toggle shows a counter for your unread messages in each network. This alerts
you when to switch networks and review those messages.

Who can invite new members to a Community?

By default, only the admin of a Community can send invites. The admin can also choose to
allow the other members of the Community to send invites. Finally, the admin can also choose
to automatically allow members of the parent company network to join the Community.

How do I join a Yammer Community?

There are three ways to join a Yammer Community:

1. You can accept an invitation sent to you by the Community admin.

2. You can request to join from the Communities directory in your companyʼs Yammer
network.
3. You can request an invitation from the Community admin by visiting the Communityʼs
landing page [https://yammer.com/communityname].

Do Yammerʼs various applications support Communities?

Yes. In addition to the yammer.com website, Communities can also be used from the Yammer
iPhone application and desktop client. We plan to add support for Communities across all of
our applications in the near future.

Yammer Inc. Page 4 of 9

How much do Communities cost?

Communities follow Yammerʼs existing “freemium” model. Creating Communities and

managing users are free. Advanced security settings and other premium admin features cost
$3 or $5 per seat per month. Discounts are available for large Communities. Contact Yammer
sales at 888-926-7377 for more information.

Privacy & Security

Who can see the messages in a Community?

Only members of the Community can see the messages. Communities are private.

Who administers Communities?

The creator of the Community is the initial admin. This person can appoint additional admins.

What does a Community admin control?

" For free, the Community admin can control:

• Community membership
• Community design
• Following model (follow everyone / choose who to follow)
• Default notifications

If a Community is upgraded to one of our premium packages, Community admins:

• Control which features are enabled (e.g. groups, org chart)

• Control member privacy settings
• Gain access to all of our other premium features

What control does a company network admin have over Communities?

" Admins of upgraded Yammer company networks can control:

• Whether Communities appear at all in their company network

• Which Communities appear in the company networkʼs Communities directory
• Whether employees or only admins can create Communities

These controls are not available to free company networks.

Are Yammer Communities private and secure?

Yes, each Community is a completely separate and private Yammer network. We offer
premium security features including: 2-factor authentication, IP restriction, password policies,
block users, monitor keywords, export for e-discovery.

Yammer Inc. Page 5 of 9

Is my company data safe and private?

Yes. While your employees can be members of multiple Yammer networks, the data for each
network is completely isolated and secure. Each Yammer network has its own membership,
messages, administration, settings, groups etc.

What if employees create Communities that arenʼt work-related?

Any Community that employees create will be listed in your companyʼs Community directory.
Your company admin can remove these listings if theyʼre unwanted and can block users from
creating new Communities.

What if I don't want employees to create Communities?

If your company network has been upgraded to one of our premium packages, your company
admin can block users from creating Communities.

What if employees create Communities that our company admins donʼt know about?

Currently it is not possible for an employee to create a Community that is not listed in their
parent company networkʼs Communities directory.

How do I control who can join my Community?

The Community admin(s) specify the join rules:

• Only allow Community admins to invite people (default).

• Allow any Community member to invite people.
• Allow anyone from the parent network to join without an invite.

These Community membership admin controls are free.

Who controls the Communities directory for my companyʼs Yammer network?

Your company admin does. If you create new Communities, they will be listed in this directory.
If your company network has been upgraded to one of our premium packages, your company
admin can remove listings, hide the directory completely, and can block users from creating
new Communities.

Who can delete a Community?

Community admins can delete their Community at any time. If you are the admin of a company
network and would like to delete a Community, please contact us.

How do I remove people from my Community?

The admin(s) of a Community can remove members at any time. This admin control is free for
Communities.

Yammer Inc. Page 6 of 9

Why do I have multiple profiles?

Users have a separate profile for each network that they are in. Each of these network-specific
profiles can only be seen by members of that network. The reason for having network-specific
profiles is to preserve the complete privacy of each networkʼs data - Yammer networks donʼt
share any data, and this includes profiles. Only a userʼs name and photo is common across
networks.

Additional Product Details

What is a parent network?

A parent network is the company network from which a Community was created.

Must Communities have a parent network?

Currently, Communities must be created from inside company (email-domain-based) networks.

In the future, Yammer may allow Communities to be created without an email domain. Yammer
is currently testing this feature with a limited number of networks. If you have an organization
that does not have an email domain, please contact us if you would like to use this feature.

What is the advantage of making Communities have a parent company network?

Because all company networks are based on email domains, Communities can also be traced
to a verified email domain.

I work with a single consultant. Do I need to create a Community for that?

If you want this consultant to be able to access your companyʼs Yammer network, then your
companyʼs admin has the option of issuing a "guest pass" to this person. This works even if the
consultant doesnʼt have an email address with your company.

If you donʼt want the consultant to be able to access your companyʼs Yammer network, then
you should create a Community and invite the consultant (and the appropriate employees) to
it. This will keep the data that your consultant can see and the data on your companyʼs
Yammer network completely separate.

How does password recovery work with Communities?

If you forget your password and initiate password recovery, we will send you an email that
contains a unique link which will allow you to change your password. However, before you can
access your company network(s) or Communities, you must re-verify your company email
address(es).

Can I post a message in multiple networks at the same time?

No, you can only post a message to one network at a time. This is a security measure to
prevent messages from being sent to unintended recipients.
Yammer Inc. Page 7 of 9
How are posts that I send via email routed to the correct Yammer network?

If you are replying to a Yammer message from your email, the reply-to field will automatically
be set to a unique, non-guessable address that will route your message to the appropriate
Yammer network and message thread. Itʼs not possible for messages to be posted to the
wrong Yammer network.

Each Yammer network has a unique email address which you can use to post a new Yammer
message to it. For domain-based company networks, this email address takes the form
domain_name@yammer.com, and for Communities it is community_name@yammer.com.

You must be a member of the target Yammer network to post messages to it via email.

How many Communities can I create?

Provided that your company admin hasnʼt disabled this functionality, there is no limit to the
number of Communities you can create.

How many people can join my Community?

There is no limit to the number of people who can join.

Can I have a different username for each Community?

No. You have one username that is shared across all the Communities of which youʼre a
member. This username may be different from your company network username.

Why do I have multiple notification settings?

Depending on how you use each network, you may want to customize your notification
settings. For example, you might want more notifications from networks in which youʼre more
active.

Can Communities have groups?

By default, Communities do not have groups, but this feature can be enabled by the
Community admin. As with groups in company networks, groups can only contain a subset of
the members of a Community.

Yammer Inc. Page 8 of 9

Glossary of Terms
Email Domain Name The part after the “@” symbol in your email address e.g. “aol.com”.

Yammer Network A single deployment of Yammer. Each Yammer network has its own
members, admins, data, groups, feeds, tags etc.

Domain-Based / A type of Yammer network that is linked to one or more verified

Verified Network company email domain names. These are usually company networks,
or belong to organizations that have their own website and web
domain.

Parent Network A parent network is the domain-based network from which a

Community was created.

Child Network A Community that has a domain-based network as its parent. The
child network appears in the parent networkʼs Communities directory.

Community A type of Yammer network whose membership isnʼt restricted to a

specific email domain. Communities are separate Yammer networks
that can be used for private B2B communication.

Group A subset of the members of a network; groupʼs messages appear

within that networkʼs feeds.

Company Admin The person(s) with administrative rights to a domain-based Yammer

network.

Community Admin The person(s) with administrative rights to a Community. Initially this
is always the Communityʼs creator.

Network Header On the Yammer website, the network header is the colored part of the
Yammer website UI that contains the network name, search box, and
navigation for the currently displayed network. The network header
resides below the black Yammer bar at the top of the page but above
the message feed.

Yammer Inc. Page 9 of 9