Feb
A Twitter Kickstart for Project Managers
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I’ve been a “firefly” Twitter user for a while, meaning that I’m on and off about Twitter from time to time. I think that at least the concept of the platform has meaning for project managers and team leads because of the crucial impact of communications on project success. I’m just not sure that the best implementation of the concept has appeared yet.
In the meantime, Toby Elwin at the Project Management Hut has put together a useful compendium of Twitter knowledge for project managers that goes beyond what novices need to know. He’s clearly an enthusiastic advocate of using Twitter as a project communications tool:
You have an obligation to communicate, but with Twitter you now have an opportunity to communicate more efficiently, more effectively. 4 reasons to use Twitter for project management:
- Concise messages
- Topics filtered by keyword (more on this below)
- Link to documents or websites
- Track communications by user and using a time stamp
I wish he contributed a few more words to how Twitter – or microblogging in general – should fit into an overall project communications approach. Some kinds of project communication are easily adapted for Twitter, while many are not. I’m also skeptical about Twitter’s effectiveness as a project tool simply from the perspective of user adoption. For Twitter to be effective in this context, all of the project team has to develop the Twitter “habit,” which means making Twitter and tweeting as much a part of your electronic communications activity as e-mail and web browsing. That takes time, and people new to Twitter don’t often grasp where its value lies. Twitter for projects works best in environments where the team members have already drunk the Twitter kool-aid.
All the same, Elwin’s post provides helpful tips and lists of tools that can direct an early explorer of the Twitterverse to a better knowledge of the platform.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has experienced Twitter – or its more corporate-friendly cousin, Yammer – in a project context.
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Thank you for the comments and presenting my blog here.
My original post on my site has links that PMHut did not carry over that I think give a better context for “4 tips to use Twitter for project management” http://bit.ly/aW11Db
The learning curve for Twitter is extremely small and relies more on a communication curve to learn how to communicate effectively within 140 characters. I think Twitter’s popularity is this ease to state your case to gain someone’s attention in 140 characters; Twitter’s demand for brevity is equally frustrates many, but that may be a larger communication issue.
My goal calling out Twitter was to highlight the communication aspect of a project manager’s job: stakeholders, vendors, subject matter experts, implementers, etc… I take the premise that if subject matter experts built the work packages that the communication will focus on risk (tell me what happened that stops you from fulfilling your work package projected delivery).
Because people tend to not know how to write effectively (concisely) our inboxes are saturated. And I don’t want to miss an important point that was buried inside a 4th or 5th paragraph, and certainly don’t wish I did not have to digest an email to figure out the communication takeaway is. Twitter takes less time to write than en email and less time to read – and you can have it directed to your email, if you wish.
Also, the last thing a project manager or team needs is another status meeting. I manage projects using risk communication, and Twitter’s capability, or one of the other micro blogging technologies I recommend, to have time-stamps, keyword tags, and searches allows highly focused communication everyone has time to read.
Using Twitter and a link shortening service, like bit.ly, as i write in the original blog, you can direct people to a file or link for more context or information.
The user adoption I run into is less on technology and more on effectively communicating – no sarcasm intended. The Twitter training might make the kickoff meeting review and like all change needs to be managed and cultivated for adoption.
Google Wave is an incredible meld of micro blogging, email, and side conversation here is a link: http://bit.ly/aU86VF
We project managers need all the help we can get, communication is only effective when it is understood. I’ve found Twitter a great way to manage effective communication, time, and results – reach out to me if you have other thoughts or question, I’m happy to help.
Sincerely,
Toby Elwin
http://www.twitter.com/telwin