Social Media and Project Communication

I believe that Social Media platforms can (and will) continue to influence communication within project teams. Managing global teams it is important to utilize the tools available to improve communication any way possible, however, it is important that traditional social media use and accounts are segregated between personal and professional lives.

An example of how social media platforms are used on my projects is WhatsApp. It is very common for WhatsApp groups to be created for various specific activities or task forces to keep all relevant parties quickly updated and connected. Take as example a critical fabrication activity by which you can keep the buyer, engineer and fabrication personnel all on a thread to give updates and keep aligned on priorities as things are moving forward. In an age of increasing email quantity this is very targeted and useful if used properly.

As others eluded to - we must define the context of social media. I had mentioned the same in a recent similar thread.

As we generally define social media, we speak of FB, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn, etc. But inside an organization would then the 'social' in social media hold a different definition?

I define social media as a platform that allows for engagement, communications, and sharing of ideas and content across a large group of people. That can be global or inside an organization.

Organizations can implement capabilities to enable a social platform; such as Jive, Confluence, SharePoint/Yammer, MS Teams, FB for Work, etc. Groups and teams can leverage these platforms for specific purposes like projects, to gather individuals, centralize communications and content, and easily expose information out to internal and external participants.

I have used Jive and SharePoint in the past and now use Confluence with and without JIRA. The benefits are significant. And then comes the discussion and relatability with Knowledge Management. This is where the fun really starts :)

Thank you very much Lenka for your input! Can I contact you privately for more information please?

Thanks Andrew! Can I contact you privately for more information please?

I do use collaboration platforms (Yammer, Jam) and messaging services (WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber) extensively with project teams. But these tools need to be used in the appropriate context.

The risk is in duplication of the message or (even worse) missing out on required recipients when overlapping two channels together.

The communication strategy in such projects needs to be crisply defined and the context of every channel must be spelled out there for all project participants.

I believe that Social Media platforms can (and will) continue to influence communication within project teams. Managing global teams it is important to utilize the tools available to improve communication any way possible, however, it is important that traditional social media use and accounts are segregated between personal and professional lives.

An example of how social media platforms are used on my projects is WhatsApp. It is very common for WhatsApp groups to be created for various specific activities or task forces to keep all relevant parties quickly updated and connected. Take as example a critical fabrication activity by which you can keep the buyer, engineer and fabrication personnel all on a thread to give updates and keep aligned on priorities as things are moving forward. In an age of increasing email quantity this is very targeted and useful if used properly.