Internal micro-blog connects Motorola’s global workforce

Its own variations on Twitter and Facebook keep relevant news circulating and e-mails in check

If you’re on Twitter, you probably noticed the barrage of tweets coming out of the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

What you didn’t see were the thousands of tweet-like updates that were simultaneously publishing on Motorola’s internal micro-blog.

The site, called Motmot, gives Motorola’s 60,000 employees a place to interact and broadcast internally through bursts of information. Different from many other companies’ micro-blogging platforms, the 10-month-old site has given internal communicators a place to disseminate official information and encourage Motorola employees to help out.

“What we’re ultimately trying to do is change from the old-fashioned ‘let’s tell you what’s going on,’ and elevate the employee voice,” says digital communications head Michael Ambjorn. “In many cases, employees know much better than we do what’s going on.”

It’s part of Motorola’s effort to connect employees worldwide using internal variations on popular networks while reducing e-mails and creating an enduring aggregation of information.