Social Media in project communications management

Abstract

Many experts agree that the greatest threat to the success of any project, especially IT projects, is a failure to communicate. Project managers say they spend as much as 90 percent of their time communicating. Just as it is difficult to understand people and their motivations, it is also difficult to communicate with people effectively. Communications software and collaboration tools like e-mail, blogs, Web sites, Google docs, and tweets can aid in stakeholder communications and promote stakeholder engagement in projects. A very popular software category todaySocial Mediacan also help engage stake-holders. This paper highlights keys to good communications, provides suggestions for improving communications using the Social Media (SM), and describes how SM can assist in project communications management.