It has been a while since social media and its numerous platforms made their great appearance in the world and quickly became an essential part of people’s lives. Today, you can instantly post, capture, and store every single moment and event of your life, just by taking your mobile and clicking once. Reaching people from different locations and building networks all around the world has never been as easy and affordable as it is these days; it is rare to find a person that, having the possibilities, chooses not to use some of the many features social media has to offer.

Social media innovation means a great advantage for professionals, as we can make great use of the many tools and resources that new software provides. For example, we can manage Virtuality more efficiently, diminish costs, gain time, reduce risks, and achieve milestones in the easiest, fastest, and most comfortable way. Currently, 43% of internet users utilize social media for business purposes.

According to an article released by Hootsuite in February of 2020, 140 million companies were using Facebook and its related apps —Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram— which means 4 billion people are working with Facebook on a monthly basis. In 2019 people and businesses exchanged ten times more messages on Facebook Messenger than in 2016, which means more than 20 billion messages per month. According to research, 64% of people prefer to send messages to a company through Facebook than calling them directly or sending an e-mail.

Another platform that keeps growing is LinkedIn. Some say no better platform in the world to recruit and hire promising talents and connect with colleagues exists; 90% of business executives rate it as their preferred social network for professional content. Hence, it is not a surprise that today, more than 30 million companies are using LinkedIn marketing features to share content and interests, sell their services or products, and build networks.

But what about project managers and their interaction with these platforms? Is there a chance to use them for working purposes? In the table below, are some of the most relevant pros and cons of the four most popular social networks.

 

 SOCIAL NETWORK  PROS  CONS
LinkedIn

 

 – An ad can reach 12% of the world’s population — it is the best place to run a marketing campaign.

– Users are 60% more likely to engage with a coworker than another connection*.

– You can target an audience by their job.

– Its active and up-to-date groups let you share content and interact with your peers.

 – It is less popular with the youngest and oldest age categories as they are not the target market— the biggest percentage of its users are between 25 and 34 years old—

– It does not help you to actually manage a project and work collaboratively with a team.
Facebook – 2.41 billion monthly active users.

– Ability to support team building and feedback processes; it also allows enterprises to easily communicate with multiple stakeholders.

– You can share important information and build rapport through the newsfeed.

– You can instantly share files and use the file management system Dropbox.

 – Data security and privacy considerations are a big concern. Many companies will restrict or even block access entirely.

– It can be too personal and hence, distracting; it can turn unprofessional.

– There are more effective and secure programs to oversee projects.

– It does not help you to actually manage a project and work collaboratively with a team.
Instagram

 

 – Ads can reach up to 928.5 million people, which turns it into a useful marketing tool.

– 75% of Instagram users act after looking at an advertising post. Big selling power.

– You can have a business account; there are many features that will help you promote your business.

– Engagement with brands is ten times higher than Facebook.

 – It is mostly a promotion tool.

– It is rare to find IT project managers on this social network; it is an unexplored territory.

 
WhatsApp – It is a private way of communicating, faster than email, free, has handy functions, and is easy to access.

– Communication with customers has more response and engagement —on average you will get 40% more responses—.

– You can update your team by adding them to a private group, and upload files, images, and videos.

 – It can easily lead to misinformation as the messages and files transferred are not subject to fact checking.

– Leaking project data to personal friends is a huge risk; you cannot separate your communications.

– Communicating with workmates could lead to legal or contractual disputes, as personal data, like your profile picture, have to be public in order to join a group.

*Engaging includes liking, commenting, sharing, and messaging.

Although the success of these platforms is evident, they still present some flaws, mostly bound to security and misinformation; and because of our profession and working field, that is not a datum we can simply ignore. Nevertheless, social networks offer some interesting tools that project managers could take advantage of and utilize wisely to reach more people and attract potential customers!