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How to Use Twitter as a Project Management Tool

By Alan Smodic

Since its inception, Twitter has been pegged as the latest, and sometimes greatest (depending on who you ask), form of communication in the new social world. Non believers have always shared the same distaste, though; constantly asking “what purpose” Twitter actually serves.

In an art that requires constant communication, both in-house and out, Twitter should (and could) be the best web tool for any top businessman, more specifically project managers.

Project managers are responsible for overseeing every aspect of a certain goal within a company. In that role, the manager runs an open stream of conversation between the project’s employees, the men/women upstairs and the potential audience.

In the past, for everything behind-the-scenes, email was the No. 1 source of communication, according to Read Write Web, which starts the debate as to whether or not Twitter can replace email in the future.

The question is posed after introducing Joint Contact, an online project management tool that integrates Twitter. Joint Contact aims to take the idea of using Twitter for managing projects one step further, offering a full service beyond tweets to manage “tasks, documents, images, contact lists, online discussions and team events.”

The company’s premise seems clear enough, but for those not needing all the bells and whistles of a full-service web application, breaking down Twitter to a single group use isn’t hard.

With Twitter, a project manager could be connected with all its needed parties, including the outside world, which would provide an even larger base of operations. The possibilities for improvement on the project is just one instance where the tweeting could come in handy.

For example, if a manager had all of his or her employees tweeting status updates on their work, all of their followers could gain the insight into their work. Because of Twitter’s 140-character limit, the updates would be straightforward and to the point, cutting out any loose jargon that a normal reader might not understand. An interested reader could then chime in with thoughts on the progress and possibly provide some meaningful discussion.

Bruce Henry, at the LiquidPlanner blog, believes thoughts along those lines can completely change the way project managers do business. And that the biggest key benefit in utilizing the micro-blogging platform is “connecting people in a way that improves the value of the organization.”

Another route, for those unwilling or unable to post company info publicly on Twitter, would be to sign up for your own network on Yammer – “a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’”

Yammer allows any employee to create their own company network and begin to invite colleagues. And unlike Twitter, all conversations are held in private.

With those three options, the thought of using Twitter as project management tool is nothing new. It’s obviously been taken to each level of integration. It now just relies on what type of purpose you feel you can get out of it.

And if you’re still unsure of the whole process, give Dave Garrett’s notion a try and search project management on Twitter. As he writes, “it’s hard not to spend 10 minutes running through a twitter search of something you are interested in and not find something that interests you or sparks your imagination.”

So if you’re reluctant to start your own conversation, join in on the one currently being held and don’t be surprised at what you might learn.

Alan Smodic is a web administrator and journalist in South Carolina. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/alansmodic.