This post is about how to use chatter effectively to manage relationships.
Ken has great points on chatter. I have seen chatter strategically used to colloborate, knowledge share and offer data insight quickly on deals and leads. The outcomes of using chatter should result in more participation of the channel partners, lesser sales cycle and quick wins on short deals which can be used as a way to measure chatter ROI. So approach it strategically and then come up with activities which you can use to measure it quick.
Colloboration – teams and groups would help for sales people and the rest to colloborate.
knowledge share – you can share documents, files and content and see how they are shared in the groups.
data insight – notification of lead stages, opportunity stages to the groups or channel partners will help a lot in offering insights quickly. So let me know if you have any further questions and i can certainly help you.Please click like if you like my answer.

he challenge is to not add work or a task to the channel members since they have so much to do already but rather, to provide quick access to what they need. I see Chatter as a quick way to form “virtual” teams to work a challenge or opportunity. Form a virtual expert team on Chatter to support each channel partner. Sales people from each channel when they have a general question or are working a particular opportunity can post their questions, results or information to share. Your whole expert team is informed at once and everyone keeps the string of communication intact.