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5 Ways to Use Social Media to Enhance Project Management
When we talk about social media, we often limit ourselves to thinking about platforms like Instagram or Twitter.
Furthermore, social media is either seen as a source of entertainment or a way to communicate with the external world and attract a target audience.
While it’s true that the best social media marketing agencies can help you strengthen your online presence using these platforms, social media is much more than that.
According to Merriam-Webster, it encompasses all forms of electronic communication that can be used to create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other forms of content.
As you can see from the definition, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram aren’t the only social media platforms.
In fact, there are a couple of platforms that aren’t used for entertainment but as in-house support for project management. Examples of these platforms include Slack, Zoom, Google Meetings, Skype, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Google Hangouts.
So, it is possible to use social media to enhance project management. Let’s see how.
How to Use Social Media for Project Management
Depending on the platform, you can use social media for different purposes in project management.
Communication
Many social media platforms, like Slack, Zoom, and Google Meetings, are used for business communication between team members.
As communication is one of the most important factors determining the success of the project, these platforms are lifesavers, especially because they support remote work.
Aside from online meetings, applications like Slack can be used to manage tasks and share other important information about the project informally, without requesting a meeting.
This is especially useful because you don’t have to start a meeting every time you get a small piece of information – you can simply share it in a chat box and save more time.
Collaboration
Remote work has been around for a while, but it has really bloomed since the COVID-19 outbreak. While it’s great that employees all around the globe can work together, it’s challenging to overcome the issues concerning their location.
Social media platforms make remote online meetings a breeze. Everyone is just one click away from their colleague, which allows for nearly effortless collaboration. Even the team members that have never seen each other in person are able to get to know one another and cooperate.
Of course, some boundaries need to be set. Just because you can easily schedule a meeting doesn’t mean you should do it outside office hours.
Project Updates
While it’s true that you can share project updates during a meeting, why would you schedule a meeting each time you have even the smallest update when you can simply use social media?
All you have to do is click that send button and that’s it – you don’t have to call anyone and waste their time when the customer has additional requirements or when you’ve finished one of your tasks.
Even if you don’t support remote work (which I hope you do), social media marketing is just perfect for sharing updates. Also, this reduces the chance of information leaks, as no one else can overhear your conversations.
Pretty much every platform that allows teammates to communicate with each other through messaging can be used for this: Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, Slack, and similar apps.
Easy Access to Documentation
Social media platforms allow you to easily share important documents and other files with others. Instead of scanning a document, uploading it to your computer, and then emailing it, you can simply upload it to the platform you’re using. This will only take a second and can be done on a mobile phone, which makes it so much faster.
The same thing goes for those that want to access that documentation. All they need to do is open the app on their phone and find the document you’ve shared.
Microsoft Teams, for instance, allows you to access the files your teammates share in groups and channels via One Drive.
Managing Issues
Dealing with problems in-person is easy when you’re working in a small organization. But, this gets more difficult when there are a lot of people involved.
Social media allows you to easily notify your employees of any problems and contact those that can solve them. You no longer have to schedule a last-minute meeting for dozens of people – you can simply text them and let them know what needs to be done to repair the damage.
Does Using Social Media for Project Management Always Make Sense?
Of course not. Sometimes it simply makes no sense to use social media for project management because it’s ineffective.
If your team is small, it is pointless to use social media when you can easily discuss everything you need in your office. Also, if the project you’re working on is very simple, you’ll just end up wasting your time documenting everything on social media.
Keep in mind that social media can be very distracting. If your employees spend most of their time chatting about private stuff, you’ll need to set some boundaries.
To Sum Up
Social media can be very useful for project management. Of course, it’s up to you to assess whether it can enhance your business activities or slow you down.
But, at the end of the day, we advise you to try it and see how it goes.