If you want your project to succeed, routine project management won’t be enough. In between keeping tabs on resource allocation, collecting actuals and performing other tasks, you may easily forget the people who are actually doing these jobs.

In this context, social media tools like Twitter can be a powerful and pervasive way to connect with your team members. This way, they will feel invested in the outcome of the project which increases their productivity. Project managers who don’t involve their team members in this manner, risk losing the motivation of the team.

How can Twitter help in project management?

Once a project begins, 90 percent of a project manager’s work is communication-based. And Twitter is a great tool to facilitate collaboration and communication in your team. Project coordination and communication is important because it keeps stakeholders informed, helps identify risks, and also ensures that miles-stones on the project are achieved. It also helps to coordinate resources, manage the scope of the project and more. Since you are obligated to communicate, Twitter can help you communicate more effectively and efficiently. Here are some more ways how Twitter can help in project management:

  • Twitter allows you to send concise messages.
  • You can filter topics by keywords.
  • Twitter allows you to provide links to websites and documents.
  • Allows you to track a communication by the user through timestamps.

More twitter tips for project management

You can even use third-party applications to create a private group on Twitter, with you being the moderator. To make communication even easier, you can create and use hashtags in your tweets, to direct or redirect an employee(s) to an article, post, video or piece of communication you want them to see. Examples of relevant hashtags are #schedule, #scope, #budget, #resource, #change and more. You can also send private messages to team members to inquire about certain details. Note that Twitter recently revamped its messaging feature, removing the 140 character limit on private messages.

Engaging on social media may look like unbillable time even when the talk is work-related. But both project managers and workers are beginning to realize how non-work social media banters can help improve the morale of employees, and increase productivity. Some people have gone as far as to say that the two are related. Social networking through tools like Twitter can also help discover hidden knowledge, which doesn’t come up through normal e-mail and conversations.