Social media makes projects more effective and efficient [Video]

“Social media is not a fad or a craze,” Jonnie Jensen claimed during an interview at the APM Project Management Conference last month. The social strategist at Live+Social, who spoke in the Evolution stream at the annual event, feels that social media is fundamentally revolutionising the way that we work together.

Jonnie said: “Social media provides the tools and techniques to help us interact and do what we do naturally, better.”

The rise and rise of social networks is evident in a growing community of project professionals who use the likes of Twitter and LinkedIn more and more. Jonnie believes the success and future of a business will come down to choosing the right tool: “There are 101 different applications that you can go out and use. But, it is picking the right tools for the culture of your business.

“It doesn’t really matter which one, you just have to use one that fits the project and the people for it to be a success.”

Speaking alongside Jonnie in the Evolution stream, where the afternoon was dedicated to the world of social media in project management, was James Evans principal customer success manager at Yammer.

James also believes that social media can help in making projects more successful. He said: “The key benefit of applying social media to project management is improved visibility of what’s happening in your projects.

“Social media helps the whole team feel more engaged, it reduces duplication of efforts and makes the change management, and ultimately the project, more successful.”

James helpfully outlined the three best practices for applying social media to project management as: “Engage the project leadership to demonstrate the new ways of working, have clarity of purpose about how you want to apply social media within your projects and focus on the long term success through community moderation to make sure you have the right people in the right conversations.”

Jonnie concluded by saying: “The application of social media into project management creates the opportunity for people to be really open, really accountable and really supportive.

“Social media is not a magic wand, but it will make projects more effective and more efficient.”

A full round up on the 2013 APM Conference features in July’s issue of Project magazine.

Watch more interviews with the speakers from the APM Project Management Conference 2013.

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