Is Blogging Useful In Project Management

Yes! Blogging is useful in Project Management.

We’ve only recently started blogging and have enjoyed sharing our post and discovering other bloggers. We’ve found many of you project management gurus who use blogging to share your project management knowledge and experience. For those who enjoy reading vs. writing content, you’ve found blogs with very current news, opinions, and tips on any field or topic you choose. What an amazing platform.

Lovin’ The Blogging World – A Useful Platform for Project Managers
Although it’s not a project management tool in the traditional sense, there are many ways PMs can add the blogging platform to their handy project toolkits.
Here are 4 creative ways to use blogging on your projects:

1. Collaboration: Effective project managers find efficient and simple ways for the project team to collaborate. Of course there are many tools built specifically for this, and we talked about them in our Technology Thursday series. Consider blogging as an additional way your project team can share ideas and engage. After all, we’re all already engaged in social collaboration. You, for example, are reading this blog. Why not set-up a private blog that allows your project team to share ideas on recent project activities. This an be fun, creative, and effective!

2. Research New Trends:People at the forefront of their field or industry often write about what they see coming in the next year, the next version, the next edition. Often times they create blogs or articles to post on other blog sites. Take time to find bloggers whose goal is to educate readers or offer opinions that are thought-provoking. It will help you stay on top of your game and possibly expose you to new ideas early on.

3. Collect Tips and Tricks: It’s a fact that every project has its unique culture, challenges, etc that may require you to adjust your management techniques for that situation. Search blogs for interesting tips that will make you more efficient or more creative. Start a “library” of readily-available tips you can quickly pull from. Do this by bookmarking your favorite posts, creating links to posts in a single document that you keep on your laptop, or subscribing to a blog’s feed to receive updates anytime something new is posted on a subject you’re interested in.

4. If you create a project blog (#1 above), encourage team members to create posts. You can do this by coming up with interesting writing prompts related to your project. Try these: ‘word of the week’; ‘lessons learned’; ‘what deliverables are you most excited to complete’,  ‘the most unexpected meeting or status this week’, ‘a cool twist on a project term’, or ‘project photo of the week’. Whatever you choose, mix some fun posts along with very relevant informational posts to keep engagement up.

Whether you use blogging for leisure, research or simply as an outlet, this ever-growing social medium is a very cool platform that PMs can take advantage of. Make  use of it.

We’re still new to the blogging world but are enjoying the journey. If you have any other creative tips you can share about how to make blogging useful in project management, leave a comment. We’re always learning!

Other posts in the Technology Thursday Series:

►Trends In Project Management Technology
►Techno Speak – 6 Technology Terms Related To The Internet and Web
►MS Project Tips and Tricks 1
►MS Project Tips and Tricks 2

Chrystal Richardson is Managing Partner of CE Wilson Consulting, a project management and business efficiency consulting firm that has managed projects for technology, mining, medical and manufacturing clients since 2001.