Have you ever used a social media platform for collaboration on a project?

[begeland]

Question - have you ever used a social media platform as a collaboration tool on a project? A Facebook group, for example, or some other mechanism for sharing information? If you have, what did you use, how did you use it, and how successful was it?
Brad

[dhaughey]

Interesting question Brad. I haven't used a social media platform as a project tool, but I'm interested in hearing how people have, and if indeed they do. I've run projects where delivering social media integration is part of them, but that's different to using social media as a project tool. There's a lot of buzz around crowd sourcing and virtual collaboration, but I'm yet to see it in action on a project.

I'm looking forward to hearing about some real world experiences.

Duncan

[kwalford]

I can see the power in using an internal Intranet website (or even just a HTTP website) for projects. Having the project resources hosted on the internet for all to access could increase productivity.

With social media platforms, I feel that they are maybe a bit too informal for most business projects. Maybe Linkedin may take advantage of being a medium for projects in the future as they are more focused on business, than Facebook is for instance. Linkedin also have a lot of groups for project discussion etc.

[striking]

i3666,

Yep, it works quite well.

However, there are a few things to consider first.

1. Ensure information that is broadcast is clear and concise
2. Relevant to each stakeholder group
3. Fast communication cycle (hourly or when tasks are complete)

I presented about this at the International Project Management Conference in Greece in 2012.

Best of luck

[begeland]

I've personally used a Facebook group before for internal communication on my project team - but nothing involving the project client...yet.

Brad

[kwalford]

I think cloud based project hosting (i.e. Intranet website, Facebook, Twitter etc) is all dependant on the target audience of the stakeholder groups. Non-techy people, or the more senior among us, may not be comfortable using the internet for project reporting. Some people may just like an old fashion status report!

[begeland]

Agreed - the status report and internal weekly team meeting calls or F2F meetings really have to be happening for maximum communication and effectiveness. But something like a Facebook group can definitely encourage adhoc communication. It helps keep team collaboration going without things getting lost in the piles of emails we all get - especially for geographically dispersed teams.
Brad