Social Media and Project Management
September 24, 2014 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Collaboration
Social Media and Project Management
By Michelle Symonds
By Michelle Symonds
In their infancy, social media networks were predominantly used by the public to communicate their personal news to each other. However, social media is now a vital part of running a business. Most businesses now use at least one social network platform. They use these to promote their business, market their products or services and to keep clients and customers updated with their latest news and information. They are also used in-house for the purpose of collaboration and communication.
As such, using social media is part of the role of a project manager. It is also a relatively recently added topic on project management courses as the need for project management training in this area is now recognized. If social communications are part of your role, then you may be wondering what the future holds in this arena.
Networks
As social media is constantly changing, it is difficult to make too many predictions about the future. What can be said, is that managers are spending more time than ever developing networks through planning, creation, and management. However, some people still prefer to use traditional methods of communication. Therefore, it is important to link both online and offline projects and give an equal amount of input to each and making sure they have the same relevant data. A social project manager is now expected to be able to manage both face-to-face and online collaborations.
Accessibility
As a result of the greater diversity in most workplaces and the anti-discrimination laws in place. Customers and clients will also come from a range of backgrounds and some may have a disability. For this reason, the role of a social project manager is to ensure that information is accessible for everyone and this may entail using a variety of media. It is essential to take into account all the needs of your users. It is possible that you may need specialist IT support with this so that you can implement the use of different platforms and tools.
Interoperability
This refers to the way that you can link the different social networks you use by sharing information, links, photographs and videos from one site to the next. This practice is still in its infancy at the moment and further developments to interoperability can be expected. The aim is for social project managers to be able to manage all their accounts from a single platform. There is a growing interest in this type of dashboard product. However, there are still plenty of current products to choose from that allow social managers to enhance their collaboration and communication.
Although the future is unpredictable, it is guaranteed that social media will play an ever increasing role in business. If you are not yet in the role of project manager and you aspire to become a great project manager, then you might find it beneficial to undertake some project management training with a specific focus on using social media in the workplace. It is likely that you will learn skills that will be invaluable in the years to come and particularly helpful for making remote project management work well.
Michelle Symonds is a qualified PRINCE2 Project Manager and believes that the right project management training can transform a good project manager into a great project manager and is essential for a successful outcome to any project.
There is a wide range of formal and informal training courses now available that include online learning and podcasts as well as more traditional classroom courses from organizations such as Parallel Project Training.
