Project Management and Social Media

You may not understand why someone would want to use social networking sites at work, but there are plenty of reasons why they might.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are not just for marketing and connecting with old friends; they're also used for managing projects and other tasks.

Social media has many project management features that will help you improve the efficiency of your project and increase its chances of success.

In today's world, where everything happens online, the question isn't whether you should use social media for managing projects but rather, "How?" How can you utilize social media for project management? What are the benefits of doing so? And what pitfalls must you avoid?

Social networking sites play an important role in project management.

Social media makes projects run smoother by connecting everyone involved in a project and making it easier for everyone to communicate with one another, while also allowing you to share important information such as due dates, essential documents, and progress reports.

If you're thinking of using social media for project management, you might want to consider platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. They aren't really designed for project management, but they can be useful if used properly.

Social networks are not just for sharing photos and videos; they're platforms where people can connect with others, exchange ideas, and collaborate together. Examples include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp, etc.

Slack is one tool that is particularly useful for project managers. Slack allows members of teams to instantly share files, images, links, and videos with one another. This is essential when team members must collaborate, especially on agile projects.

What Are The Benefits of Social Media?

A thoughtful implementation of Social Networking tools in your project will work miracles for overall execution. Here's why.

1. Improved communication

Social media helps teams collaborate by allowing them to quickly communicate with each other via instant messages, emails, and phone calls.

Communication is important for any project, and social media makes it easier.

3. Access to essential documents, files, and folders

Social media makes it easy to share documents, images, and videos.

Social media platforms enable users to upload photos directly to them and attach them to automatically-created reports for others to see.

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter enable file sharing by making it quick and simple.

3. Better project monitoring

Being able to spot potential issues before they become major ones and deal with them quickly is vital for successfully executing projects. Social networks allow you to keep an eye on the entire process.

You'll be able not only to see everything happening in the projects but also to study how the resource management is done, check the progress photos, watch the incoming datapoints, and observe every aspect so if anything goes wrong, you can act right away before it becomes an issue.

Sprout Social makes it easy for teams to communicate with their customers by allowing them to post messages on popular social media sites like Twitter.

Social Media for Project Managemnt has its advantages and disadvantages.

Social media platforms have their pros and cons, but you should be aware of any downsides before using them for business purposes.

1. Distractions

Social media platforms make communication easier, which means they're often used by employees to communicate things that aren't related to their jobs.

It's unlikely that this will be a major issue, but if it becomes one, take steps to resolve it.

3. Too much information shared too widely

Sometimes, sensitive project info will end up online because of the often broad reaches of social media sites. If you're not comfortable with people knowing certain details about your projects, you might want to consider blocking access to them.

You usually need to adjust the settings so that only specific people are allowed access to different channels. Look for software offering you this kind of control.

3. Too much information

Too much information can be overwhelming for some people. If you overwhelm them with too much information, they might get overwhelmed by it and lose focus.

Your employees might spend most of their time responding and posting information on social media sites that aren't necessary for their job duties.

Do you need to be using social media for project management purposes?

Most project mangers should be making use of social media and online collaborative tools. They have both pros and cons but they're definitely worth trying out. You'll be able to keep an eye on everything from one place, share vital documents easily, and get everyone involved in the project working together as one.

Most of the disadvantages can be managed -- you can keep an ear out for discussions so you don't get distracted by them, you can restrict access to sensitive files so that the wrong people won't see things they shouldn't, and you can consciously share just enough content to keep everyone informed without overwhelming anyone.

Therefore, when choosing between different types of social media tools, you should use them if they fit your needs. You may want to consider some specific situations where you feel comfortable making decisions.

When social media project planning makes sense:

Issues with social media in project management

In today's world, social media is ubiquitous. It is used to connect with friends and family, learn about news events, shop online, and keep up with celebrities. In fact, over half of American adults now say they use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, and/or WhatsApp. But despite its popularity, there is still much debate around whether or not social media actually improves productivity.

According to research conducted by the University of Michigan School of Information, people tend to overestimate the amount of work done via social media. They estimate that workers spend 80 minutes per day on social media and that this equates to approximately 2 hours spent every week. However, the reality is that most employees spend less than 10 minutes each day on social media.

The study found that employees think that they spend 30 minutes a day on social media, but they spend only 3 minutes a day on social networks. Employees also believe they spend 20 minutes reading emails, but they spend only 5 minutes.

This leads us to ask ourselves why we continue to invest our time in social media, when we know it isn't really doing anything productive for us? And what could we do instead?

If social media marketing isn't right for you, then don't worry!

Look for applications that integrate with social networks

There are lots of project management programs out there. You might want to try several and see which one works best for you.