Everyone is talking about using social media at work. There are still some barriers to adopting new technologies though. Today we are going to look at 5 myths about using social media on projects.
#1: Everyone Can See Our Data
Not true. Well, it is true if you let everyone see your project data. But it doesn’t have to be true.
Some forms of social media, like Twitter and Facebook, have privacy settings that allow only a limited group of people to see information that you post. It would be more relevant, for business use, to keep these channels for customer service or marketing your project or company to the public. If you want to keep your corporate data private – and there aren’t many projects where you’d want to expose the internal workings to clients and competitors from the beginning – then choose another tool.
You can get social media tools that you host on your own environment and that are only available to employees and trusted third parties. This means your data is safe from public viewing. If you want to take it further, you can limit access of most tools through user accounts and passwords, so only designated employees can see the data.
#2: We Won’t Need Face-To-Face Meetings Any More
Sadly, social media tools will never negate the need for face-to-face meetings. Implementing a wiki will not suddenly make your PMO virtual, or replace the weekly status meetings. Any senior executive who thinks that introducing social media tools at work will slash the travel budget is unfortunately mistaken.
Social media tools do help teams collaborate when they are not all located in the same place, so there may be some travel savings. They contribute to a climate of virtual working by helping people work from anywhere with a network connection, but face-to-face meetings will always be the best way to communicate.
#3: A Wiki Will Never Be Accurate
Managers sometimes worry that because wikis are updated by ‘the public’ they will never represent the truth. There are a few cases where data on a high profile wiki site like Wikipedia have been tampered with and untruths posted, but these a few and far between. In fact, a study by Nature found the articles were broadly as accurate as those published by Encyclopedia Britannica.
The same happens with corporate wikis. Managers who are concerned that disgruntled employees will deliberately tamper with the wiki so as to spread confusion or worse, will be proved right from time to time. However, in the vast majority of cases, people will not deliberately damage the wiki content, or if they do, other project team members will quickly step in to correct any remarks.
#4: Employees Will Spend All Day Surfing The Internet
The introduction of social media tools at work is unlikely to result in a drop in productivity, because most of the project team who want to access social media sites at work are already doing so. Smart phones and personal devices like iPads mean that employees can check LinkedIn and Facebook while they are waiting for the kettle to boil in the staff kitchen. Giving them access to limited tools for work purposes from their computers won’t change how they already behave, although it may improve employee morale.
And so what if they do spend all day surfing the Internet? Managers have a number of tools at their disposal to deal with employees who do not pull their weight. Enterprise project management tools can record time spent on tasks and can help identify those who are not being productive. Then HR can get involved if necessary. The problem of a poorly performing member of a project team can be addressed whether the cause is lateness, long lunch breaks, too much chatting or too much time spent on the internet. Project managers have always had to deal with team members who slack off.
#5: We Won’t Know Who Is Contributing
In reality, social media tools have excellent access controls. If you allow people to access with anonymous accounts then of course you won’t know who is contributing. However, if you allocate usernames and passwords to everyone who uses the tool, and set it up to keep an audit trail, then you’ll instantly be able to see who is contributing.
You can use this information in two ways. First, if a project team member is not contributing but should be, the project manager can address this. Second, if the project manager notices that an abuse of the system has taken place, it can be tracked back to the person who carried out that abuse.
Set up right, social media tools can help your projects be successful and help your team members work well together.