How to use Twitter for Project Management?

How can we use Twitter in Project Management?

First what is Twitter? It is “an application that allows users to send brief text updates of up to 140 characters”. So let’s step back and look at the first question and replace twitter for communicate. How to communicate in Project Management? We all know the answer is Planning.

Twitter same as unsecured email is a valid risk.

We have all accepted the risk that email is insecure, and we all send confidential, potentially damaging artifacts through email every day. Should we consider Social Media; not limited to blogging, Facebook, Linked-in, YouTube and yes even email as security events and make it clear from the beginning in our planning documents? How can we use Social Media on our projects?

There must be some people, who have successfully used twitter in managing projects. For example President  Obama’s election campaign was a project. How did he use twitter for managing his campaign project?

We should say what twitter isn’t.

Twitter isn’t a blog. Twitter facilitates conversation, but it is horrible at retaining data. We should realize everything we twit is at once permanent and temporary at the same time. Robert Scoble correctly points out the significant historical twitter streams are “missing”. Perhaps, we can use it as a kind of performance review, or if we need more anonymous security we can use Rypple. Crowd sourcing using twitter? There are much better platforms already established for that, for example Amazons Mechanical Turk.

What is twitter good at?

It is part of an information eco-system Working the Social. It is a conversation starter. It is a way to post links to relevant items. It is a small but vitally important link to communicate with incredible people all around the globe as equals. Twitter strips away race, gender, power, control and allows you to interact based on the quality of your character. But at the same time it seems like there is a risk. It definitely breaks the first rule we ever learned outside of the house which is don’t talk to strangers.

Robert Scobles uses it as an intelligent discussion platform, and embrace it as part of a larger ecosystem.  Which brings us to FriendFeed a Collaborative Business Tool. Can the Global Community of Project Managers use it as a way to create a new PM Culture? As of July 5 2009 there are currently only 11 people in the FriendFeed Project Management Room. Can we create something that is open and intelligently discusses important issues?

Twitter forces people to pithily communicate. People are projects. Communication is how we perform project management. Twitter is a simple tool for communication and improving your social network, and for influencing people. Recent detailed technical studies June 2008 Project Management Journal “Measuring performance of Knowledge-Intensive workgroups through Social Networks” concludes that “Social Network Structure and Position are important Factors to consider for Individual Performance.” And “Structural Diversity played a new and important role for performance.” If you have a good character, if you can communicate to an intelligent community base of diverse professionals you can seek some advice and learn novel methods to manage your people and projects better. You can ignore Twitter and Social networking, but that would be risky in today’s world.

Conclusion

Twitter is a risk.  Communication Management Planning should specify social networking.  Twitter can be used in some social projects, but it is unclear how it can be used on specific projects.  Twitter is good at short messages.  Twitter is a part of a larger eco-system, and we can use it as a way to increase our personal knowledge.

Sign up on FriendFeed and let’s discuss it. How can we use Twitter for Project Management?

Update July 18th

Enterprise: List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines by Laurel Papworth

Update July 8th 2009.

Wallmart has embraced Twitter but they have identified the Risk.  They clearly state their authorized twitter users.  This is a good example of proactively managing Risk.  For more Info Visit Wallmart Twitter Page