Social Media in a Project Environment. Survey Results

Transcription

1 Social Media in a Project Environment Survey Results

2 Table of Contents 1 About the Survey...3 How I did the survey...3 Why I did the survey...3 Respondent profile Using social media and enterprise collaboration tools at work...5 How these tools are used...6 Technology adoption Benefits of social media tools A pressing issue?...9 Elizabeth Harrin

3 1 About the Survey How I did the survey I used an online survey to collect responses to the survey during January and February Respondents were invited to participate through an ad-hoc web campaign through my blog and Twitter, as well as from links re-posted on other websites. Respondents were selfselected. The survey has a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of 6.25% i.e. you can be 95% certain that the views of the project and program management community fall within +/- 6.25% of the numbers in the survey. Why I did the survey There's growing evidence that ways of working are adapting to include social media tools and that these are becoming prevalent in the workplace. While social media practices are established for marketing, brand awareness and customer outreach, I felt that project managers should be taking advantage of the available tools and I wanted to find out if they were. In addition, I was gathering data for a book I am writing on social media for project managers. Respondent profile There were 246 respondents from 32 countries. Country USA 41% UK 26% Canada 4% Australia 3% Other (Europe) 18% Other (rest of world) 8% Elizabeth Harrin

4 The majority of respondents were male, although there was a relatively even split. The survey was open to people of all ages. Over half of respondents fell into the category. Gender Male 55% Female 44% Not disclosed 1% Age % % % Not disclosed 2% As you'd expect, the majority of respondents worked in the field of project and program management. There were some allied professions represented, namely change management. Those responding 'Other' came from a broad mix of related fields like consulting, software development and business analysis. Role Project Management 54% Program Management 23% Program/Project Support 7% Change Management 3% Other 14% Company size Less than 50 25% % % 601-1,500 9% 1,501-5,000 11% 5,001-15,000 6% Over 15,000 19% Not disclosed 2% Elizabeth Harrin

5 2. Using social media and enterprise collaboration tools at work The most widely used tools in a business setting are LinkedIn and Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint is not strictly speaking a social media tool, but it is a collaboration suite, and this survey was also looking at enterprise collaboration tools as these often have elements of social media within them, such as wikis. Instant messaging (chat) was used by around 80% of respondents for business and/or personal use, and it was one of the few tools that everyone had heard of. However, many tools were flagged by respondents saying that they did not use them at all. Eighteen per cent of respondents reported using another tool and these ranged from GoToMeeting to Google Docs. Google Wave was also mentioned by several respondents, indicating that some project managers are trying out this product with a view to establishing its potential use in the workplace. Tool Business use Personal use Business & Personal use Don't use Don't know what this is Facebook 3% 54% 23% 20% 0% LinkedIn 47% 13% 30% 9% 1% Twitter 11% 21% 29% 39% 0% Microsoft SharePoint 48% 1% 2% 45% 4% MySpace 1% 10% 1% 86% 2% Vyew 2% 0% 1% 49% 48% Microsoft LiveMeeting 29% 2% 2% 60% 7% Skype 13% 32% 25% 30% 0% Instant Messaging 17% 14% 48% 20% 0% Blog 24% 22% 22% 33% 0% Wiki 35% 6% 22% 47% 0% Podcast 15% 19% 19% 46% 1% Video podcast 13% 13% 14% 59% 1% Web-based project management tool 27% 1% 2% 57% 13% Elizabeth Harrin

6 How these tools are used The biggest uses of social media tools are for staying in touch with friends and colleagues. Over 80% of respondents reported using social media tools for these purposes. When it comes to communicating with the project team, 61% said they use social media and enterprise collaboration tools for this purpose, with 41% reporting that they communicate with the project stakeholders this way. In addition, 43% said they actively use these tools for managing their teams, and 49% reported using them for project status updates. Interestingly, 36% report using social media and enterprise collaboration tools for team building: traditionally building virtual teams which tend to be the teams most reliant on technology-mediated communication is seen as challenging. Aside from communication, there is some evidence that social media and enterprise collaboration tools are also used for the day-to-day work of project management. Respondents reported using them for document sharing (70%), collaborating on tasks (49%), task tracking (35%) and hosting online meetings (53%). Use of social media/enterprise collaboration tools 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Staying in touch with Project status updates Communicating with project Communicating with the Document sharing Task tracking Other (please specify) Elizabeth Harrin

7 Technology adoption Social Media in a Project Environment Social media tools are often adopted virally. That is, by a grassroots effort from a small group of people who initially adopt and use the tool and spread the word. Survey respondents were asked about whether the tools they had highlighted in the previous question had been formally adopted enterprise-wide. Over 60% reported that the tools had been adopted either by the entire organisation or by their own department. However, nearly 40% of people said that they are not officially sanctioned to use social media tools at work, but they do so anyway. While some of this may be explained by the inclusion of tools such as LinkedIn on the list an organisation would be unlikely to formally request staff to use this it does highlight a potential problem for IT departments. Software that is installed outside of the official remits could be a security risk. Not only does the software itself create a risk as it will be unsupported by the IT teams, company data could potentially be exposed through channels that are not sufficiently controlled. Tool(s) been adopted across entire organisation Tool(s) been adopted only in department Tool(s) not officially is use, but respondent uses them anyway 46% 16% 39% Elizabeth Harrin

8 3. Benefits of social media tools The largest financial benefit gained through using these tools is in cost saving on meetings. However, more people report gaining efficiency benefits than financial benefits, and the two seen most often were improved collaboration and communications. Not all companies are tracking benefits of the social media tools deployed. This could be because not all tools are deployed under the umbrella of a corporate implementation. Financial benefits Saving on meeting costs 37% Saving on telephony costs 30% Saving on recruitment costs 6% No financial benefits realised 10% Financial benefits not tracked 36% Efficiency benefits Improved collaboration 56% Improved team morale 24% Improved communication 62% No efficiency benefits realised 5% Efficiency benefits not tracked 26% Elizabeth Harrin

9 4. A pressing issue? Finally, respondents were asked their opinion on social media and enterprise collaboration tools. Over 70% of people agreed or strongly agreed that social media and enterprise collaboration tools are a key issue for project managers this year. Respondents overwhelmingly believe that social media and enterprise collaboration tools can, or do currently, improve they way in which they manage projects. While there is as yet no trending data to provide a comparison, it will be useful to review this figure in the future to see if opinion continues to point to the fact that social media tools can contribute positively to the field of project management. Social media tools can/do improve the way I manage projects Agree 83% Neutral 13% Disagree 5% Elizabeth Harrin

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