Social Media Tools for Project Teams
by Elizabeth Harrin
The Internet used to be a research tool composed of flat, static pages that served as corporate brochures. These days, it’s a lot more interactive, with websites that allow people to comment and ask questions, submit contest entries, read a blog just posted by a CEO, or check out audio or video clips. Today, the Internet is more of a community, and project managers have taken notice.
As project managers, it’s important to engage people in your projects and to communicate effectively about your projects. The Internet and social media tools can help you do that.
In my new book, Social Media for Project Managers (Project Management Institute, 2010), social media is defined as “communication and collaboration with purpose.”
Communication
People absorb information in different ways, and social media tools allow you to cater to the variety of people involved in your project. For example, podcasts (on-demand audio files) and vodcasts (on-demand video files) are ways you can communicate to project stakeholders, team members, or customers beyond the written report. This can help improve understanding among those individuals who retain information better through audio or visual input.
Collaboration
Wikis (websites that can be edited by invited guests), and blogs (parts of websites that allow visitors to send comments to or text message each other) can help you engage your team members, especially when working across time zones. Wikis facilitate asynchronous collaboration, whereas blogs encourage participation through the use of their comments sections. Both tools can be used to capture lessons learned or project knowledge for the operations team or future project teams.
The value of social media in project management
Social media tools are becoming more prevalent in project management. In 2010, I conducted an independent survey of more than 240 people from 32 countries to find out how they used social media tools for collaborating with their colleagues. The survey found that professionals use social media tools in the following ways:
- 85% to stay in touch with colleagues
- 60% to communicate with the project team
- 49% to provide project status updates
- 43% to manage
- 41% to communicate with project stakeholders
The full results from the 2010 survey are available online. You can also participate in the 2011 survey on social media.
Social media is not suitable for every project or every organization. However, it’s important to keep up with developments in technology because knowing about the available tools will help you make better decisions about whether or not you and your project team should use them.
 Elizabeth Harrin is head of IT Programme Delivery for Spire Healthcare and director of The Otobos Group, a business writing practice. She is the author of the new book Social Media for Project Managers and writes the award-winning blog A Girl’s Guide to Project Management. Her first book, Project Management in the Real World, was published in 2006. Ms. Harrin is also a member of the PMI New Media Council.
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