The Impact of Social Media on Project Management - Report Example

?The Impact of Social Media on Project Management The success of any project necessitates better management of information and ability to perform in systematic manner. However, one key obstacle which is faced by project managers is maintenance of better communication. Communication acts as vital part for success of any project as it can help to understand different interest of stakeholders and other critical aspects. In present days, social media act as vital tool for effective communication and it can provide solution to the communication within project management. Based on these aspects, the report discusses about the impact of social media on project communication management. The objective of the report is to understand the extent to which social media can contribute towards accomplishment of project success. Furthermore, the report also addresses about the crucial social management tools which are helpful for accomplishing good project communication. Keywords: Social media, project management, project communication, success factors, project success Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 Background 4 Problem Statement 4 Scope of the Report 5 Objectives of the Report 5 Discussion 5 Background about IT and Social media 5 Background on IT Project Communication Success 5 Literature Survey 6 Contribution of Social Media to Accomplish Project Success 6 Important Social Media Tools for Achieving Effective Project Communication 6 Interpretation of Results 7 Use of Social Media in International Context 8 Use of Social Media in South African Context 9 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 11 Summary 11 Learnings 11 References 12 Introduction The report is based on evaluating the impact of social media on project management. Central to the topic is the accomplishment of good project communication for ensuring project management success. Regardless of better planning, budgeting and scheduling, weak communication among team members can make a project incomplete. Communication plays vital part in leading and integrating team members. Besides, there must be shared vision, where project managers must recognize the interest of every stakeholder and must ensure that the requirements and problems are addressed. Different project activities must be notified and monitored for accomplishing the overall project objectives. Thus, a thorough communication plan is necessary for efficient diffusion of information (Garbharran & et. al., 2009). Project managers require excellent communication skills, which can encourage formal and informal discussion of prospects, innovation, improvement and results. Thus, the subject social media fits perfectly in the topic as it is related with communication. Social media provides the tools and techniques which assist in better interaction. In project management, the success is dependent on how effectively team members interact with each other and accomplish differentiated activities in a cooperative manner. The traditional way of communication is becoming more flexible as social media brings new technology to communicate. There are different applications, which can match with project communication requirements and thus can help project manager to concentrate on critical aspects of projects without neglecting communication (Transformed, 2010). Background Problem Statement Project management teams in present days face increasing pressure for providing strong performance, while simultaneously dealing with different inherent obstacles. These obstacles comprise informal characteristics of team members, continually shifting project requirements, time burdens for project delivery, increasing virtualization of team members and problems of knowledge diffusion across the teams. In reaction to these obstacles, project collaboration expertise and communication techniques are helpful for project team members to perform together in an effective manner and to support in proper delivery of projects. These aspects of projects cause dilemma for proper management of team with appropriate rigor and without troubling managerial tasks and maintenance of team members (Trilog Group, 2010). Thus, project managers always search for new techniques and tools, which can assist in proper management of resources. In this condition social media grasps the attention for project managers for better team collaboration and for making the project to stay on the track (Pierce, 2010). Scope of the Report Focusing on the above-identified problem, the report discusses about the influence of social media on project management. In relation to project management, the report describes about the success factors of project communication. Besides, the uses of social media from international and South African context have been discussed in this report. Objectives of the Report The key objectives of the report are To understand success factor of IT project communication To understand how social media can contribute towards project success To know about different social media tools for accomplishing effective project communication and To understand best practices of using social media in project management Discussion Background about IT and Social media Social media denotes particular Information Technology (IT) platforms, which are designed for establishing real time social communication through chat, forums, and blogs among others. These functions are available in public websites such as Facebook and Twitter and private websites such as Jive and Yammer. Besides, there are other websites, which are specialized in different objectives. For instance, Linked-In is a social media website, which allows professionals to create and share profiles for establishing appropriate communications. On the other hand, social media website such as Facebook is intended to establish communication for general people. Thus Facebook use multiple platforms than the other social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube (Dossani, 2010). Background on IT Project Communication Success Concerning IT project management, its success is highly dependent on three key aspects namely leadership, communication and implementation of methodology. With respect to communication, there are three key forms of communication namely knowledge management, internal communication and external communication (Central Europe, 2013). The success of project communication depends on consistency, honesty, and notification of information. Besides, support from managers is also vital for successful project communication (Gartner, Inc., 2011). Literature Survey Contribution of Social Media to Accomplish Project Success The ultimate goal of any project is to finish it within stipulated schedule and budget without hampering the quality. Nevertheless, the key challenge for project success is to manage the unexpected occurrences that inevitably arise throughout the project lifecycle. Making a proper arrangement from disorder situation can truly express the quality of project. There are several project management tools which facilitate the success of a project. However, it is worth mentioning that these tools must be implemented in the right context (Remidez & Jones, 2012). The recent emergence of social media can contribute greatly to the success of project. The social media is intended to encourage democracy where every individual have equal opportunity to demonstrate his or her opinions. In theory, the aggressive ideas of cooperation preached by social media can provide positive outcome to project management. Social media permits project team members to give and obtain critical reaction on projects along with their bottlenecks and happenings. It is vital to recognize that the success of project management necessitate organized and well-ordered sharing of information for its success. Accordingly, too much sharing of information in social media can be harmful for project management. Social media tools if misused can generate negative impact on projects courses by potentially sharing of unproductive information. As a result, it can distract the mind of project team members from the key objectives of the project and in worse scenario can completely disrupt a project (Horine, 2012). Thus, concerning the characteristics of social media, it can be stated that social media can contribute to the success of project, not as a strategic player but as an unplanned player. Social media tools can add value to projects by spreading controlled flow of information such as sharing regular project updates and keeping the project stakeholders in loop. Social media cannot work effectively in every project, but project managers can utilize it as additional tools to the existing procedures and tactics (Krauss, 2012). Important Social Media Tools for Achieving Effective Project Communication Social media tools are becoming ubiquitous component of project management. Social media provide opportunities for better association, communication and networking. Most common tools of social media are as follows. Facebook: Facebook is a social networking website, which allows people to send messages, images and other files?. Facebook supports user-defined controls to regulate the visibility of information. The central concept of Facebook is friends, thus once the team members become friends they can obtain greater access to information and get direct method to send and receive messages. Project managers can also create project based Facebook page for the purpose of underlining different activities and providing guidelines. Concerning the sensitivity of project, Facebook also provide tools for limiting the access of information for certain specific friends (Harrin, 2010). YouTube: YouTube is a specialized tool for sharing, uploading and viewing videos. Project manager can use this tool for providing momentary informational videos in order to proclaim significant project milestones, highlight vital features, sponsor overall project purposes, seek users’ response and provide training materials (Liu, 2010). LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a business based on the social networking tool. By using this tool, users can request others to connect on the basis of mutual interests. This tool allows for receiving and sending information about certain issues. Project manager can use LinkedIn by formation of group, allowing distribution of project progress report, discussion regarding project features and conversation among key stakeholders. This tool also permits the owners to regulate persons that can join the group, thereby ensuring that only authorized users can receive project related information (Krauss, 2012). Twitter: Twitter is a microblogging tool which lets users to send and obtain text-oriented posts, which is informally termed as ‘tweets’. However, it is worth mentioning that unlike other social networking tools, the information provided through Twitter is not private, i.e. any users can view such information. A project manager can use this tool in order to share short bursts of information such as meeting information or project highlights. Furthermore, Hash tags can also be used for associating single form of negotiated information. Twitters can also permit embedded links to project website. Similar to Facebook, users can make such website private so that only those individuals who are authorized can see the Tweets (Rose, 2011). Blog: Blog is basically a topic-based website where, people can post article for subscribed users. Subscribers can receive notifications regarding articles. Project managers can use blogs for their projects in order to communicate in-depth topics, which are not appropriate in Facebook or Twitter. For instance, if a new agency joins in a project initiative, an article of the agency’s profile can assist in participating into the project. On the other hand, if a project committee commends new features to a project, blog post can help to describe them to the project members (Baruah, 2012). Interpretation of Results Use of Social Media in International Context Involvement of social media has become a business imperative for several organizations. From international extent, above 70 percent of organizations have active presence in social media. The adoption of social media tools is widespread for different projects in emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil. On an average, emerging economies are more probably to use social media in comparison to developed economies such as the UK, Germany, Sweden and Canada among others. The following figure demonstrates how different nations are enhancing the use of social media tools in different commercial activities. Source: (KPMG International Cooperative, 2011) From the above figure, it can be stated that the adoption rate of social media is different for various nations. Unexpectedly, the developing economies have surpassed the adoption of social media than developed economies, which indicates that there is considerable room for expansion of this media as a proper project management tool. On the other hand, emerging economies have rapidly founded social media as opportunity to vault the competition against developed economies. In several circumstances, incompetent and undependable e-mail systems are abandoned in preference of the quicker and more dependable social network channels. Furthermore, lack of substitutes also drive organizations to adopt social media tools for different activities. However, there are several doubts regarding the use of social media as effective communication tool. From the viewpoint of industry, retailers and wholesalers lead the use of social media, in comparison to other sectors. The following figure demonstrates the use of social media in different industrial sectors. Source: (KPMG International Cooperative, 2011) From the above figure, it can be observed that the difference between industries with respect to use of social media is quite low. Social media not only provides a cost effective communication channel, but also allow managers to capture rich source of information, vital for better product development and planning (KPMG International Cooperative, 2011). Use of Social Media in South African Context In South Africa, large corporations have awakened to the use of social media in various projects. The research of World Wide Worx and Fuseware in the year 2012 discovered that about 95% of popular corporations in South Africa use certain type of social media strategy for different projects. South African people use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Mxit among others. According to the findings of World Wide Worx, the most common reason for using social media by different South African organizations is to develop better public relation. However, several brands also use it as a core part of marketing related projects. The key components of social media for different South African organizations are sales, lead generation, and competitors’ approach. Several organizations also attempts to make investments in order to train people for engaging in best practices of social media (World Wide Worx, 2012). South African organizations are also becoming efficient to evaluate the effectiveness of different projects through social media. Different variables such as number of followers and level of negative and positive comments are used for measuring the success of projects. Concerning the barriers, the most important aspects for project managers who intend to use social media is proper management of different social media channels. Organizations usually face troubles to allocate resources and time for managing social media channels. Recommendations The success of project management is dependent on utilizing the best methods. Although from the above discussion it is clear that social media has become a popular and effective method of communication, organizations must be cognizant regarding the benefits and threats of this new method. Before utilizing social media there is need to gauge the readiness for proper adoption and to take a well-informed decision according to project objectives and organizational culture (Portny, 2013). The following recommendations will be helpful for using social media in project management. Development of social media strategy: Unlike other communication tools, social media tools necessitate strategic plan which can augment the productivity by evading the risk of sharing incorrect information to the wrong stakeholders. Management of information: According to characteristics of projects, social media can hinder the progress. For instance, delicate projects necessitate careful sharing of information and therefore must employ secure network and organized set of information (Kennon & et. al., 2009). Willingness to use social media: Every organization cannot be benefitted to use social media. Thus, in order to obtain the best possible results, organizations must measure the willingness of using this technology. If the business is resilient to implement social media, the opportunity to gain project success by using this tool would be small (Stolovitsky, 2012). Use of best social media tools: Since social media inspire transparency of information, while implementing social media tools, organizations must be careful in incorporating best tools that can disclose appropriate information. Conclusion Summary The success of a project is highly dependent on the ability of team members to complete different tasks within time and schedule, without compromising the quality. It is hence, imperative for project managers to recognize the right human resources and to manage them properly. In such situation, communication plays vital party as it can help to recognize the right skills and other critical aspects, which are essential for successful completion of project. Social media can play vital part in developing proper communication within the project management team. Different social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogs signify opportunity for establishing internet based collaboration. Social media tools can encourage cooperative intelligence and empower better knowledge management. However, in order to exploit the benefits of social media, organizations require certain best practices such as development of proper social media strategy, better management of information and use of best social media tools among others. These practices can help to provide proper information at proper time. Learnings The report provides valuable understanding regarding differentiated aspects of project management communication. Furthermore, it also helps to understand about negative aspects of social media. In relation to social media, the report also provides information about the extent of using social media in different industry. Besides, the report also helps to learn about the aspect which must be considered while implementing social media in project management. References Baruah, T. D., 2012. Effectiveness of Social Media As a Tool of Communication and Its Potential for Technology Enabled Connections: A Micro-Level Study. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 1-10. Central Europe, 2013. Success Factors For Project Development: Focus on Communication. JTS Central Europe Programme. [Online] Available at: http://www.central2013.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/upcomimg_events/03_LAB_Milan_Success_Factors_Communication__Compatibility_Mode_.pdf [Accessed October 15, 2013]. Dossani, R., 2010. Social Media and the Future of Business. Stanford University, pp. 1-13. Garbharran, H. & et. al., 2009. Critical Success Factors Influencing Project Success in the Construction Industry. Acta Structilia, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 90-108. Gartner, Inc., 2011. Washington Community and Technical Colleges ERP Project. Communication Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/it/ctcLink_Communication_Strategy.pdf [Accessed October 15, 2013]. Harrin, E., 2010. Social Media for Project Managers. Project Management Institute. Horine, G., 2012. Project Management Absolute Beginner's Guide. Que Publishing. Krauss, B. R., 2012. Using Social Media to Market and Promote Public Safety Projects. Issue Briefs, pp. 1-8. Kennon, N. & et. al., 2009. Who Really Matters? A Stakeholder Analysis Tool. Extension Farming Systems Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 9-17. KPMG International Cooperative, 2011. Going Social How businesses Are Making The Most of Social Media. KPMG International. [Online] Available at: http://www.kpmg.com/ES/es/ActualidadyNovedades/ArticulosyPublicaciones/Documents/Going-Social.pdf [Accessed October 15, 2013]. Liu, Y., 2010. Social Media Tools as a Learning Resource. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 101-114. Pierce, S., 2010. Project Management: Social Media for Project Managers! Jeitosa Group International. [Online] Available at: http://www.jeitosa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/PIERCE_-_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT_05-2010.pdf [Accessed October 15, 2013]. Portny, S. E., 2013. Project Management for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. Remidez, H. & Jones, N. B., 2012. Developing a Model for Social Media in Project Management Communications. International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 33-36. Rose, K. H., 2011. Social Media for Project Managers. Project Management Journal, Vol. 42, No. 5, p. 95. Stolovitsky, N., 2012. Top 10 Considerations When Integrating Social Media in Project Management. Project Smart. [Online] Available at: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pdf/top-10-considerations-when-integrating-social-media-in-project-management.pdf [Accessed October 15, 2013]. Transformed, 2010. 6 Success Factors for Managing Project Quality. Articles. [Online] Available at: http://transformed.com.au/media/articles/tips_quality.html [Accessed October 15, 2013]. Trilog Group, 2010. Social Project Management: Engaging the Social Network to Deliver Project Success. A Trilog Group Whitepaper. [Online] Available at: http://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/gsd/showimage.do?id=30426 [Accessed October 15, 2013]. World Wide Worx, 2012. South African Social Media Landscape 2012. Fuseware. 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