Your Social Media Strategy

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Business Intelligence   Communications Management   Resource Management   Strategy  

Social media (SM) has pretty much been baked into the culture of human kind since the dawning of the digital age. This being the case, it only makes sense that when developing a communication plan, project managers need to consider what role SM will play.

To be sure, if left ignored, SM will most likely seek its own level—and that could become embarrassing for the project manager and even the organization. If the organization has a PMO, it will hopefully have established policies on how, when and by whom SM and related confidential content will be used.

If no PMO exists, then it is incumbent upon the project manager to develop a SM policy for the project and make decisions about the tools that will be used to digitally communicate and share project-related content. Toward that end, here is some guidance for project managers to consider when developing a social media strategy:

• Develop clear and concise policies on the posting and sharing of project-related content via SM tools and sites, including a zero tolerance policy on anyone using public and/or personal sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. to communicate project or organizational information.
• Identify the SM tools and sites that are approved for use. When it comes to protecting confidential information about the organization and projects, it is best to err on the side of caution. Being explicit…

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