Ok class, raise your hand if you care who owns social media. 
I found this subject interesting a little over a year ago when there seemed to be some industry infighting, but the battle is still very much on with Marketing, PR and even some HR departments making claims to own social media.
Maybe since I’m getting to do the work (and I’m not in a true corporate setting) this isn’t as big of a deal to me, but can’t we all get along?
Can’t we all have a piece of the pie?
We all have social media campaigns we could develop, contribute to, and execute. Why not play nice together, collaborate?
My stance on this may change again at some point, but for now, let’s forget about who owns it and focus on doing it big and doing it right!
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“Can’t we all have a piece of the pie?”
I think a better question is: “Shouldn’t we all have a piece of the pie?” No one department should be “in charge” of social media within an organization.
I work at a newspaper. It doesn’t make sense for marketing to own social media because we’re not the ones with the info. The newsroom is. But marketing should be using it. HR should be using it. Advertising/sales should be using it. Circulation (ie., customer support) should be using it.
Social media is a form of communication. Why would you silo it?
I agree with Holly. We ran quite a heated debate in the last issue of Communicate magazine on whether PR or SEO should own it – http://bit.ly/3nnNJL. Both sides were very passionate, but I couldn’t help thinking that it’s a tool rather than a discipline it’s own right. Social media can be used to reach many different audiences- internal, investors, customers, communities etc. Ultimately used properly it can be a tool used and managed by each department or individual that communicates with those seperate audiences.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Holly and Andrew – I’m with you both. For us, social media involves what we do professionally and personally. For others, that doesn’t seem to be the case, so at work, social media seems to have turned into this “hot, new thing” that gives people power so they want to own it (and in some cases keep it for themselves).
Not sure why I’m telling you this. I’m preaching to the choir. You guys get it.
If only companies knew how big they could make this “hot, new thing” if they came together and really did it right….
As PR people, I fear that if we don’t care about who owns social media, we will be out of our jobs. Faced with a shrinking news hole, we can either fight to own the new frontier in communications or be cast aside by marketing departments that downplay the importance of media relations. At this point, PR is in danger of being defined as media relations and if we don’t own social media, we will become antiqued, like the folks who built the wheels for the horse-drawn buggy.
Hi Tony, thanks for your comment. I guess I didn’t see it from that perspective because I’ve never worked in an environment that focused mainly on media relations as a function. As a result, I didn’t look at the shrinking news hole, or should I say the shrinking traditional news hole, as something to fear. Rather, I just looked at social media as an opportunity.
Thing is that there are a lot of people who look at it as an opportunity and the winners will be the people who do it and do it well. I hear stories of people waging these territorial battles to own social media. The way I see it we all have a part in it, but I think we will get left out if we spend too much time trying to win the war and not enough time trying to prove our knowledge and value through good work.
Dear Mr. Antiquated,
I really feel for you that you might lose your “edge” but that’s innovation for you. PR should not own social media for many reasons, primarily because of the intrinsic relationship that PR has to be “earned.” Social media allows for PR professionals to bypass their indentured relationships with the media and create their own hype.
I truly understand and respect the value of PR, heck I produce my own for InsYght, the Firm at which I am a partner. And while I do, partially, influence InsYght’s social media it is still a relationship that I do not respect as deeply as traditional PR. At least when I receive a front page article about my Firm in a local opinion rag, I at least can know it was earned and not something that I manipulated.
You see Tony, in seeming contradiction to my first two paragraphs, I look forward to the demise of PR. The complete disembowelment of a few elitist journalists controlling what is said about my Firm. I want that power and control, but that truly is just a weird construct now isn’t it.
So please, the next time you consider yourself “practicing PR” by Tweeting or SMSing, reconsider. Realize that you are now helping put others out of business and jobs as well as contributing to the delusion that social media is healthy for PR professionals.
Just sayin…