Book Review: Social Media for Project Managers

A book review: Social Media for Project Managers by Elizabeth Harrin

   The title of this book could easily find strong resistence by the traditional project manager.   He/she might say that it would be a conflict of traditional definitions, hard fixed expectations and deliverables controlled by a project manager.   However, that already is not the case.  Just consider enviornmental factors that have been in place for years, such as email and virtual conference status calls.  Elizabeth Harrin notes those very factors as a basis for her intial discussions in her book.

I am a strong proponent of moving beyond the ways of yesterday.  I was very curious of what the author would bring forward that to the novice, new to the experienced, and most importantly how the subject would cross into the hallowed halls project management.  She did very well covering a gambit of topics.  We are at the beginning of a new era, and a loose term is becoming much more prevalent - Project Management 2.0.  Much of the book touches upon tools and concepts that are already well recognized in many varied ways, such as blogging and collaboration.  However, the author does a great job of placing a proper perspective acknowledging key and sometimes critical corporate business concerns such as costs, security, legal, configuration, transistioning, ongoing maintenance, privacy, and professionalism.   These are all extremely important factors that are overlooked and / or not understood by the individual sitting in the privicy of his home, twittering and blogging away, or the stand-alone independent project manager who does not have the understanding nor exposure of the bigger picture of business operations.  Unfortunately, these become somewhat dry topics, and as a result some the book reading is slow. 

I commend the author, who is a well recognized blogger, on a healthy book.  I believe project management personnel who have the ability to break the mold of tradition should give this book a try.  This is not a book on how to be a blogger, nor should it be.  There is value from the novice, to the indvidual who thinks he already knows it all.