2. Leveraging Social Media Analytics in Project Management
Theme:
Mantra for Leveraging Emerging Trends
Keywords:
Social media, communication, sentiment analysis, metrics, voice-of-customer
Abstract:
This paper aims to provide a roadmap to leverage social media in project management. The social media
tools available today can be used to improve project communication; provide a platform for collaboration
and introduce new project metrics. But a project manager should assess if social media is appropriate for
his project. We will discuss the ‘4C’ framework to classifystakeholder profiles and determine if project
ecosystem is conducive for using social media.
One of the key benefits of social media is the ability to introduce new metrics in project management.
Social media and analytics help us capture the voice-of-customer-(or stakeholders in this case). Metrics
such as stakeholder sentiment analysis can augment existing metrics such as EVM; thus helping the
manager drive the project effectively and address issues proactively.
A project manager has to ensurethat the social media tools are customized to meet the communication
needs of the project team. In this context, we will discuss the ‘SLATES’ framework t o check if theusers’
requirements for Search, Links, Authorship, Tags, Extensions and Signals are being met.
As with any other project management initiative, there should be a strong mechanism to gather feedback
from stakeholders and enhance the solution. We will focus on some of the best practices for continuous
improvement of the social media initiative.
3. Table of Contents
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................4
2. Roadmap for implementing social media in project management ......................................................4
2.1 Assess stakeholder requirements and suitability of social media ..................................................5
2.2 Select the social media tools for the project................................................................................6
2.3 Monitor sentiments and build metrics ........................................................................................7
2.4 Assess effectiveness and continuous improvement .....................................................................9
3. Challenges ................................................................................................................................ 10
4. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 10
5. References ................................................................................................................................... 11
4. 1. Introduction
The recent years have witnessed rising popularity of consumer social media applications such as Twitter
and Facebook. People use these tools for communication with their friends and peers. With the
increasing consumerization of technology, users have easily adapted social tools without any formal
training. At the same time, they have developed similar expectation from thei r office tools. They seek to
interact rather than consume information passively. They like to participate and voice thei r opinions
through blogs,wikis and IM updates. They are open to the use of podcasts and webinars to get
information. Such social interactions in the enterprise help knowledge sharing and empower people to
express their views. (Altimeter Research, 2012)
Globalization has brought new complexities to project management. Project teams are diverse; often
scattered throughout the world and located in di fferent time-zones. This increases the challenge of
effective communication among project stakeholders. Leveraging social media toolsin project
management offers an effective solution to meet the challenges ofproject communication; provide a
platform for collaboration and introduce new project metrics.
2. Roadmap for implementing social media in project management
Introduction of new process or technology presents unique challenges and opportunities. Social media is
widely used in daily life but its application in an enterprise requi res detailed planning and execution. In
this document, we will study a roadmap for the implementatio n of social media tools in project
management.
5. Following are the key steps in this process (as shown in Fig. 1) -
2.1) Assess stakeholder requirements and suitability of social media.
2.2) Select the social tools suitable to the project.
2.3) Monitor sentiments and build new metrics.
2.4) Check effectiveness and initiate continuous improvement
2.1 Assessstakeholder requirements and suitability of social media
Project managers have to assess if the social media tools are suitable for their projects. The success of
this initiative is largely driven by the participation of the stakeholders. The project members should have
an inclination to contribute and actively use the social tools. The project manager should also consider
the enterprise envi ronmental factors – such as the organizational culture, access to social media tools
etc. But when the other factors are conducive, the project team determines the success of the social
initiative.
To assess the suitability of social media for a project, it is important to classify the stakeholders based on
their propensity to participate. Project managers can use the‘4C’ framework to categorize active
stakeholders(based on Li and Bernoff, 2011). It classifies the active participants into four major
categories, as shown in Fig. 2 –
6. 1. Creators: These are stakeholders who are likely to create new content for the social webpage.
They express their opinions and ideas in the form of wikis, blogs or webcasts. These team
members play a crucial role in the propagation and popularity of the social media initiative.
2. Conversationalists: These stakeholders are likely to update thei r status profile or post smaller
messages or micro-blogs. They create new content but not as voluminous as the Creators.
3. Critics: The Critics play an equally important role. They participate in discussions and post their
opinions in response to the content posted by others. They help build on other’s ideas and voice
their feedback. They also enable online collaboration by editing wiki articles.
4. Collectors: The collectors actively read and follow the content posted by other members. They
are likely to use signals (RSS feeds) to keep themselves abreast of the latest updates. They
participate in surveys or opinion polls online.
Theother team members would fall under the categories of Joiners, Spectators and Inactives. These
groups basically consume the social information passively or are reluctant to participate. Based on the
percentage of project stakeholders in the 4C categories, the project managers can gauge if social media
would be successful. Further, they should focus on gathering requi rements from these user groups to
determine the social media tools to be deployed in the project.
2.2 Select the social media tools for the project
Social media applications offer a suite of tools, each designed to meet di fferent requi rements. Following
are some of the key tools (Harrin, Oct 2010) and ways to leverage them in project management.
2.2.1) Blogs: A blog is an information or discussion log posted on a social website, from
where it can be accessed by the team members. Blogs are organized in reverse
chronological order with the latest posts at the top, for easy access. Micro-blogs are
brief statements and updates with a limited character length. For example, the project
management team can maintain a blog with the latest information and updates on the
project. Some organizations have a structured format for their blogs (such as a blog for
minutes of meeting) or an unstructured format (for announcements, updates etc. ) to
convey information. The team can also seek comments from project team-members.
This allows them to participate in the discussion, ask questions and simulate further
thinking. A micro-blog with the current status, updates or reminders to the team is also a
handy communication tool.
2.2.2) Feed and notifications: In case of large project teams, there can be a plethora of
information on the social media site. Team membersshould be able to focus on the
areas that are relevant to them. The feed functionality allows the users to select the
topics and authors they want to follow. Any subsequent update or post is received as a
notification. For example, in each project phase, the team will be focused on different
7. work areas. They can subscribe to these areas accordingly and follow them in their
notification tab.
2.2.3) Instant messaging(IM)– This feature is popularly referred to as a chat. It allows users
to communicate with each other in the form on an interactive discussion. IM is one of
the most popular tools in project management. It is particularly useful for scattered
project teams to discuss any complex or technical details that cannot be verbally
communicated over telephones.
2.2.4) Wikis – Wikis are articles co-authored and edited by several team members. It is an
effective tool to build a knowledge repository with participation from di fferent sources.
Team members are free to edit or add content and synergistically build a complete
article. For instance, at the end of the design phase, di fferent team members can
contribute to the design aspects that they are responsible for and create a collaborative
document.
2.2.5) Webcasts and Podcasts – Information can be shared using video and audio feeds
through webcasts and podcasts. These files can be played back on demand, as per the
convenience of the user. These tools are extremely useful for project teams in different
time zones, who may not be able to attend a live meeting. The videos feeds are also
effective in sharing live pictures of a prototype or screen-sharing with program data,
which may be difficult to explain in words.
Table 1 summarizes the major social media tools and their applications -
Applications Social Media Tools
Communication - Blogs, Micro-blogs
- Feed, notifications
Collaboration - Wikis
- Instant Messaging
Knowledge sharing
- Webcasts
- Podcasts
2.3 Monitor sentiments and build metrics
Social media tools can help improve communication in the project team. Another key benefit is that they
can help a manager to gather critical feedback and measure the health of the project.
A project manager relies on several metrics to gauge the actual progress in comparison with the baseline
plan and determine if there is any slippage. The Earned Value Management is one such technique
commonly used by managers to determine cost and schedule variance (PMBOK ®, 2013).
8. However, it is important to measure the qualitative factors related to the project. The perception of
stakeholders, their opinions and sentiments can provide a good measure of the progress of the project.
Although a project may be on-time and under-budget, the deliverables may not be shaping up to
theexpectations of the stakeholders. Hence, measuring the voice-of-customer (or stakeholder) (VoC) can
provide useful insights into the qualitative aspects of the project.
Research shows that companies that use VoC programs to capture sentiments and feedback, and
address them through personalized, timely interactions, succeed in delighting customers and improving
operational efficiencies (Minkara and Pinder, 2014; Roman 2011). The VoC technique is now commonly
adapted in different business areas – including projects, to gauge the opinion of customers (both internal
and external). The key challenge is to gather feedback from the customer on a regular basis.
Questionnai res, surveys and interviews are the techniques used to reach out to customers at certain
milestones. Social media tools and analytics can play an important role in communicating with the project
ecosystem. The project team has an open channel of communication to ex press their views and
feedback. Thus, the voice-of-customer can be heard in real-time and corrective actions initiated to rectify
the situation.
There are two ways in which social media analytics can be used for VoC measurement:-
2.3.1) Quantifying feedback from social posts – In case of small project teams, the project
managers and their team can review the comments, feedback and posts from the project
stakeholders. They can reply to the authors, answering their queries or assuring them on the
steps taken. The total count of positive and negative comments received during a period, can
be a good measure of the stakeholders’ sentiments. Other parameters such as the criticality
of the issue, impact and the importance of the contributor can be used to arrive at a score for
each post. The data can be mined further to determine parameters such as geographical
location, role or importance of each stakeholder. This can help isolate the exact issues and
take proactive measures to correct them.
2.3.2) Using Text Analytics technology- . In case of large projects with many stakeholders, it may
not be possible to measure the customer sentiment manually. There are analytical tools
available that can study large volume of social data and assess overall positive or negative
trends. These tools search for keywords in the text messages and derive the author’s
sentiment based on certain business rules. They also have trend analysis, alert functions and
workflow rules to highlight any major deviation. (Sterne, 2010)
In this way, the unstructured data scattered in the social blogs, comments and posts can be a source
of measuring stakeholder sentiment. Social media tools can thus complement the traditional project
metrics such as EVM to arrive at a complete picture of the project.
9. 2.4 Assess effectiveness and initiate continuous improvement
It is important to review the effectiveness of the social media solution in a project . As stated earlier, the
success of the initiative depends on the active participation of the project team. It is critical to assess if the
solution and tools meet the requirements of the users. The manager should initiate a continuous
improvement initiative to meet the dynamic requirements for the project team and take corrective actions.
The SLATES framework(McAfee, 2006) focuses on checking i f the users’ requirements for S earch, Links,
Authorship, Tags, Extensions and Signals (Fig. 3) are being met. Following are the key parameters –
2.4.1) Search–It is essential for the users to search and access information posted on the website.
The effectiveness of the search will determine if the project teams relies on the social system
as a dependable source of information. For example, keywords and tag search should be
supported to look up any documents, IM conversations blogs or comments
2.4.2) Links – When users access a webpage, they should be directed to other relevant pages
linked to it. Effective linking of webpages is essential to ensure that relevant content is
displayed to the user. For example, when users look up the risk register, they can be
provided a link to risk management blogs, for ready reference.
2.4.3) Authorship – This is one of the major differentiators of social media tools. The project team
has the right to author new content or to express their comments and feedback on other’s
ideas. The manager should ensure that the right authorizations are provided to the team
members to create and edit content.
2.4.4) Tags – Tags are simple one-word descriptions that are attached to a webpage in order to
categorize and search effectively. For example,if the group has posted scattered feedback on
the lessons learnt, they can use a custom hash-tag which will enable them to search and
locate all the points and update them in a central register.
2.4.5) Extensions – These are algorithms that study search patterns and propose webpages to the
users based on their past actions.
10. 2.4.6) Signals–Tools such as RSS feed or email alerts should be available, so that the users can
get updates on the tags, blogs or authors of their choice.
Based on this assessment, the project manager should initiate a process of continuous improvement and
refine the social media solution to meet these changing requirements.
3. Challenges
Adopting social media tools in project management can bring a major change in the way the team
communicates and interacts. This can be a major paradigm shift for some organizations and teams.
Following are some of the hurdles faced in accepting social media in project management. These
challenges can be either technical or social in nature. –
2.4.1 Acceptance ofopen culture:The social media tools enable all team members to voice
their opinion and feedback. In certain hierarchical organizations, there may be resistance
to this open culture. It is essential for the manager to consult major stakeholders and
hierarchical leaders before introducing social media in the organization.
2.4.2 Perception of productivity loss: One of the common perceptions about social media is
that it can lead to loss of productivity. There are concerns that team members may spend
too much time using the social tools such as IMs. But research shows that the improved
communication provided by social tools often leads to improved productivity. Knowledge
workers spend 15 – 25% of thei r time searching for information. (Feldman and Sherman)
The gains from social media can offset any losses in productivity.
2.4.3 Alignment with corporate policy: In certain organizations, the corporate IT policy does
not include social media tools. Before the start of this initiative, the manager has to
consult the IT leadership team on the policy for social media. If the organization has a
defined policy, then the manager has to ensure adherence. This may require some
additional monitoring from the project management team to ensure that the content is
reasonable, representative, responsible, respectful and restraining (Meister, 2013)
2.4.4 Access control and traceability: The content generated on the social media webpages
should be transparent and traceable. The management team should be able to locate the
contributor of each comment or blog while restricting access where requi red. This is
important to ensure that the authors are credited for their content and any complaints or
feedback is addressed. It also discourages abuse of the system. Many social media tools
offer these features, but the manager should ensure that the access control and
traceability features are in line with their organization requirements.
4. Conclusion
Social media tools and analytics can improve project communication and measure stakeholder
11. sentiments. Success of a social media initiative depends on the participation of the team members.
Project manager should assess if the organizational policies and stakeholder profiles encourage the use
of social media. Based on the exact requi rements of the project, the manager can select the social media
tools to be deployed. Social media tools help a project manager listen to the voice-of-customer.Gathering
feedback and analytically analyzing sentiments can build additional metrics for managing the projects
effectively.
5. References
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Drive Data, San Mateo, CA, USA, (Feb 22, 2012) (pp.12-16)
[2] Feldman, Susan and Sherman, Chris, The High Cost of Not Finding Information, An IDC White Paper,
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[3] Harrin, Elizabeth, Social Media for Project Managers, Project Management Institute, Newtown Square,
PA, USA (Oct 2010), ISBN 978-1935589112
[4] Li, Charlene and Bernoff, Josh, Groundswell, Forrester Research, Vook Inc.; Harvard Business
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Review, vol. 47, no. 3, (Spring 2006)
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[7] Minkara, Omer and Pinder, Aly, Voice of the Customer: Big Data as a Strategic Advantage, Aberdeen
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[8] Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK)
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[9] Roman, Ernan, Voice-Of-The-Customer Marketing, A Revolutionary 5-step Process to Create
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Harnessing the Power of VOC-driven Social Media)
[10] Sterne, Jim, Text Analytics for Social Media, SAS Research paper (2010)
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