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considerably less than some other communications means, like develop-
ing a written report for instance.
Twitter has been characterized as social networking on steroids. It is
being used by emergency responders, the president of the United States,
NASA, and other organizations. Twitter may seem like overkill, but those
organizations are using it to get out their message, so why not the project
manager? The 140-character limit to Twitter makes it ideal, in our opin-
ion, for quick communications between project team members. Should
the message need to be longer, e-mail is always a good follow-up method,
but the “tweet” can alert the team to the issue and that a follow-up is com-
ing. The resulting green savings is obvious.
Probably the best known of the business social networking sites is
LinkedIn®. It is one of the oldest, founded in 2002, and widest-reaching
social networking sites, due to the variety of groups defined within the
site. There are LinkedIn groups and subgroups for almost all relevant busi-
ness groups. Some examples are:

• Writing—Writing Mafia, Green Communicators, GWEEN (Green
Writers Ever Evolving Network)
• Project Management—PMI® Certified PMPs®, Project Management
Link, Green PM (subgroup), EarthPM™

How project managers use a communications channel is limited only
by their own creativity. It can be used to inform a targeted community
about the efforts during the execution of a project. It could be used to find
subject matter experts to use to enhance expert judgment, a necessary and
effective tool for the project manager.
Specifically targeted groups like Gantthead.com (400,000+ members)
are additional resources for the project manager. Communications on
these types of sites can again enhance the common set of project man-
agement tools, and give the project manager further insight into poten-
tial issues and opportunities. It can also give the project manager a
“sounding board” to discuss potential issues and opportunities within
their own project. One of the key tasks during directing and managing
the project’s execution is training and managing of project staff. Targeted
groups can provide additional direction to specific resources designed to
help the project manager accomplish those tasks. White papers, helpful
Web sites, and online educational opportunities are all part of that direc-
tion provided.