I was walking the dog the other night and watched as he “marked” his territory and naturally I thought about the natural Tug-o-War that occurs with social. The desire for different departments wanting to own the “rights” to social media. Why do you think that is? Look at how strongly some people feel about the subject!
Danny Wong, the co-founder and Lead Evangelist for Blank Label says that PR should own social media because that department knows “what the appropriate messages are for the company’s followers.”
According to Chris Koch’s B2B Marketing Blog He just comes right out and states, It’s official: Marketing owns social media management, in which I agree with his next question, Now what?
Chris Kieff strongly believes, as usual, that it’s the bailiwick of the HR department and that HR should own social media; and if you don’t think there’s an opinion on that, look at the responses he got to his post
Lastly, Steve Radick thinks we all own social media. Wait cancel that, he thinks no one owns social media.
Now I’m confused.
But let’s think about this for a second. A dog marks his territory every day. The same territory every day. Why does he do that? Because another dog came along and marked the exact same territory as his own as well. This happens every day without fail. So the dog marking dance happens every day without fail. Sniff, then mark. Over and over and over again.
It’s simple really, it’s not about ownership, it’s about establishing that you as an organization, are consistently there every day, and making sure others know that you were there…every day, and that you are going to be there…every day. That’s all consumers want.
Marc, thanks for sharing these different points of view about who should own social media.
Wait… I thought customers are now are empowered with social media. So don’t customers own social media, not companies?
I’m frankly surprised that any department would have the nerve to claim ownership. These days it’s common knowledge that social media can be used most anywhere in the enterprise. Just like email and the phone.
I agree with Steve Radick — the social web isn’t owned by anyone, it’s a tool for everyone to use. That said, since social media is still a relatively young technology compared to email and the phone, someone has to take the lead within organizations. But that doesn’t mean they should “own” social media.