For me it is a mixed bag of good and bad with these tools. This is because some people use them excessively and others don’t use them at all. The main objective is to get tasks done quicker by getting additional information faster. If you become “addicted” to the tool itself and use it all the time it tends to be a time waster. Therefore I recommend to first determine if you really need these tools. That might be necessary when you have distributed teams. It also helps to determine what kind of people you have on the project. How many visual, auditory or kinesthetic team members do you have? Will these tools really help them or will they make the communication even harder?
Example: For visually oriented people it is beneficial to use Skype or WebEx or any other social media tool that helps to visualize people and ideas. If you have mostly auditory people on the team it might not be a good idea though.
My general recommendation is keep it simple and keep it to a minimum.
Keep the communication objective in mind before you pick any tool. A general objective and challenge for any communication including project communication is that the sender and the receiver understand each other. This sounds easier than it is because everyone listens to the communication message with their own filter.
I consider these tools valuable when used in moderation. Nevertheless we still need to communicate effectively ourselves. Keep in mind that 55% of communication comes from body language, 38% comes from tonality and only 7 percent is through spoken words. Not all the social media tools cover all these area's, just be conscious about that when you pick the tools for your team
- Instant Messengers – needs some general agreement at the beginning to ensure it’s not a time waster or stress factor. Works well for short and precise questions that require a quick answer.
- Wiki’s
- Blogs
- Skype or something similar that allows to see the other person during a call
