This Is Not A Story About Social Media.

This is not a story about social media. This is a story about verification.

When I tell you that social media has a purpose for Project Managers, you basically have to trust me on this. I try to make a compelling case. I provide you argumentation that makes the case plausible. Or fail at it, for that matter.

I provide you with my profile. I make video to make a deeper “connect”. I use some personal branding. I use my associations with professional organizations. I use the fact that I am a practitioner.

I use the fact that I have a long history of writing on the web. I use the fact that I have spoken at conferences. I use the fact that I have written a book. I use the fact that I have a lot of people subscribed to my rss feed and newsletter.

And that’s with all blogs, books and other information “out there”.

Some people prefer statistical evidence. Some prefer anecdotal story telling. Some prefer case descriptions.

To you this is all “second hand” information. Which at best is plausible.

The entire collection of “second hand” information makes up the reputation space, as it is primary judged on the basis of the reputation of its source.

The key is that information in the reputation space lacks direct verification by you.

When you get in direct contact with a person, you can “check” your assumptions with interaction. When you experiment with social media in your own project, you can verify its use or lack thereof.

You use benchmarks, prototyping, testing, reporting as direct feedback on how things work out for you or your project.

The key to operating in the project space is that verification is possible.

It’s even by definition. Can you verify it directly, it’s in your project space. If you can’t, it’s in the reputation space. “Second hand” information is always directly linked to your view of the reputation of the source.

We need the reputation space. We cannot experience everything ourselves. In this space, plausible is the best we can do. We can provide context. But no person can provide all the context needed.

By selecting the elements of this context, we already make a choice. And it might be that the essential elements for your situation are left out of this “context”. Life is just to complex to list all elements that might be important in any other situation.

This is not a story about me. Or social media.

This is about you being aware and operating consciously in both spaces.