Although initially you might wince at the idea of using social media in your project management office (PMO), it does have its uses. When looking at your PMO and social media, how to get it right is the key question.
Having an Instagram account for your PMO might seem a little pointless, but there are a range of social media options that can add value to the work your office does. You can boost your engagement and share useful knowledge.
To help you plan your social media strategy for your PMO we’re going to cover:
- Where to target your social media communications
- The different ways you can use social media to the benefit of your PMO
- Some of the challenges you might face using social media
How can I effectively use social media in my PMO?
Social media isn’t just about the usual suspects – Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. There are lots of other platforms that allow for broadcast communications and for people to interact as a community.
Social media channels that you can use within your PMO include:
- Quora
- Google Docs
- Canva
Which allow you and your project teams to collaborate and chat about the work you’re doing and share your work externally, too.
Whether you use social media for internal or external communication will depend on a couple of different factors, namely the size of your company and PMO, and the strategic goals of your PMO.
A small PMO will likely want to keep communication internal. Any large-scale social media will likely be ran by the company marketing department. A PMO in a big company may want to become a thought leader and stamp its mark in the field and use external social media for promotion.
Once you understand how you want to use social media for your office’s needs, you must plan the different ways you can take advantage of its features.
What are the options for using social media in my PMO?
You have four main functions of social media to choose from. Not every PMO will need to use every option; it will depend on what you aim to achieve from using social media.
Discursive
Using social media to prompt discussion and share best practice is tried and tested. This can be anything from a case study presented on LinkedIn to having a group chat set up on WhatsApp. You can also engage stakeholders this way by showing how a large project is progressing through social media updates.
Networking
Having an internal communication channel, such as Slack, can help your project managers build their networks across the business. As the leader of your PMO you can also engage with other leaders across your industry and learn best practices that you can harness with your team.
Scheduling
Using an app such as Calendly is a form of social media. It means that you can book people into a meeting or event without tedious email chains. You can also create events in Facebook groups and confirm attendance to livestreams.
Collaboration
Getting each project under your office to work together can be a challenge. Some team members might like to work in a silo, so having your project work stored in a cloud space like Google Docs or Office 365 will encourage everyone to work together. You can also encourage collaboration on creative projects with infographic websites like Canva and Visme.
What challenges will I face trying to use social media in my PMO?
As much as most people enjoy using social media in their private lives, that doesn’t always transfer to a professional setting. Some of the challenges of using social media can be:
- Engagement – getting your team to be active in your social media efforts can be tough, you need to find content that works for them.
- Work/life balance – you may get push back because social media is seen as inherently personal, considering the amount of data that’s shared. Combat this by using professional channels like Slack or LinkedIn.
- Time constraints – as with anything, social media takes time. As long as you understand the value of your social media processes, it’s ok to allocate time within projects to manage mass comms.
The take home
Everyone working under your PMO will be familiar with social media, so you can jump right in and introduce it without much training. Getting social media in your PMO right will still need some thought. Understand what you want to achieve, how you will get the best out of your social media, and how you will drive engagement with your team to be successful.
