New social media trends: Talking to Josh Nankivel
In this video I talk to Josh Nankivel from pmStudent.com, about new trends in project management (and some pitfalls), specifically around collaboration tools and social media.
A transcript follows below. We’re on the bank of the Potomac River, in National Harbour, Maryland, just down from Washington, D.C.
Josh Nankivel: Hello everyone! This is Josh from www.pmstudent.com. I have with me Elizabeth Harrin, the acclaimed author of Social Media for Project Managers.
Elizabeth Harrin: Thank you very much.
Josh Nankivel: And I’m going to ask her a few questions about this. You’re also a blogger at PM for Girls.
Elizabeth Harrin: I am, yes.
Josh Nankivel: So do check that out. If you haven’t seen her website already then what’s wrong with you?
But okay, let me ask you a couple of questions about the book. One of the things in the book, I think you have a little piece on some of the new trends in social media that are coming out.
Elizabeth Harrin: Yes.
Josh Nankivel: Talk a little bit about that. What are some of the new things?
Elizabeth Harrin: Well, I think there’s a lot going on in social media at the moment but some of the new things that I’ve been seeing are geo-location services so systems that will allow you to check in to places, things like Foursquare.
And I think we’ll see an evolution in that that could be useful for project teams but it may actually be something that hinders people because in the UK there’s been a spate of burglaries recently as a result of people who have advertised the fact that they’re not around. So I think that that technology is still quite immature and we need to work out a good way of using that constructively for the best practices.
Josh Nankivel: Yeah, privacy issue is pretty big with those types of services, right?
Elizabeth Harrin: Yes.
Josh Nankivel: What about just in general maybe not physical security like you saying that: “Hey! I’m off to somewhere this weekend,” and then somebody knows that you’re gone from your house and then you get robbed. So that’s the one side. What about just in general keeping your personal identity online protected so that there aren’t things that you don’t want everyone to know about that can get out there and things like that?
Elizabeth Harrin: Yes. I think that we should be aware of that because there’s been some quite high profile cases as well as people who have been made redundant as a result of what they’ve put on their Facebook page or what they’ve posted online. I think it’s just a case of using common sense and for example, maybe having two profiles.
So in my situation, I use Facebook just for my friends. I don’t have any work colleagues on there and I don’t use it in a professional capacity. Then I have a LinkedIn profile and I have my blog. I have other ways of reaching people in a professional capacity.
Josh Nankivel: Right. Well I think, it’s something that as bloggers maybe we forget about a little bit.
Elizabeth Harrin: Yes.
Josh Nankivel: Because we’ve been doing this for a while and so when I’m blogging for instance, sometimes I’m talking about, I’m writing about something from my history, right, and sometimes I’m writing about a company or a person in a bad way. But you always have to be cognizant of what you’re writing and make sure that you change the names to protect the guilty and that kind of thing.
Elizabeth Harrin: Yes, you can do that in an anonymous way or in a way which makes it more general without having to say: “I worked with that person at that company and they caused me problems in that project.”
Josh Nankivel: Right, absolutely. Alright! Well, thank you very much.
Elizabeth Harrin: Thank you very much.
Josh Nankivel: And we’ll put a link to the book, make sure you buy a copy and check it out. Thank you.
Elizabeth Harrin: Thank you.
