If you are a business getting into social media, who should ‘own’ it? PR? Marketing? Sales? Online marketing? Brand manager? Where should it sit in your organisation?
Just a few months ago I strongly argued that PR should take ‘ownership’. My rationale for this is that genuine two way dialogue is at the core of social media. And traditional mass media practitioners are not yet used to these new rules.
Good PR practitioners are used to dealing one on one with stakeholders, consumers, and the like. Therefore they are best placed to ‘own’ social media.
However, just a couple of days ago, Flinndal, one of our clients, asked the same question. And my answer was a little different. Ultimately, it depends on your business objectives. Social media are just channels.
Here’s a few quick examples:
If you are using Twitter as a promotional channel, then it makes sense that marketing and sales should have ‘ownership’.
However if you want to use Twitter to improve your customer service, then it makes sense that customer support should take ownership.
If you are using a blog as primarily a channel to increase transparency of your company’s business, then public relations (along with your internal ‘client’: your CEO, marketing director, customer service manager) should be responsible.
If you are using a blog primarily to drive traffic to your sales platform (e-commerce) then it makes sense that online marketing should take ‘ownership’.
And if you are aiming to position yourself within your industry, gain credibility and influence public relations should take ownership.
So it comes down to a simple question: what do you want to achieve? Having a clear goal allows you to define the content you publish in that channel, and then, who should manage that channel.
After all, as Chris Brogan put it: “What are people doing taking titles like “Social Media Manager?” To me, this is a scary thing. Why? Because it’s like being the fax manager or the email manager. You’re naming yourself after a tool.”
And you don’t want to be a tool, right?
