As the number of communications platforms reaching customers and other stakeholders rises, decisions on who should guide those platforms become more complex. Yet those decisions have a monumental effect on communications success and, ultimately, the bottom-line results of any organization.
Social media’s rapid rise as an effective tool for attracting, engaging and retaining targeted audiences has contributed mightily to the question of ownership. Within an organization, which department is better suited to oversee social media efforts—marketing, public relations or a combination of both?
From an agency standpoint, who can better plan and execute social media programs, PR or interactive shops and ad agencies?
These questions have burned up the PR/marketing blogosphere in recent months, as organizations struggle to find the most effective internal structures and processes to best plan and execute social media programs.
PR practitioners’ long-held principles and strategies lead them to believe that they should head social media efforts. These include:
▶ PR and social media’s DNA is similar: Getting under the hood of social media and really thinking about the principles that drive it go a long way in forming ownership decisions, says Steve Cody, co-founder and managing partner of PR agency Peppercom.
“Social media is all about dialogue and conversation,†says Cody. And that conversation, he says, is often for the long term, not a one-off campaign. It’s easy then, to deduce where Cody’s views lie in the social media ownership debate.
“One of the great strengths of PR is that it listens,†says Cody. “And listening is at the heart of what organizations should be doing with social media.†Therefore, he believes that ownership needs to be on the PR side.
Christi Day, emerging media specialist and spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, agrees with Cody that the listening aspect best suits the PR function. “We in PR are in those listening channels every day,†says Day. “We’re well-versed in responding to the issues [as they] arise.
â–¶ Transparency and reputation: Marcy Cohen, senior manager of communications at Sony Electronics, brings a different perspective to the debate. Cohen looks at it from a transparency and reputation angle, where she believes PR is strong.
“Social media must be transparent, and PR teams understand that,†says Cohen. While traditionally PR tends to be scripted and guarded (press releases, statements and media training, for example), “PR understands that social media requires a level of well-thought-out openness that engages consumers without jeopardizing the reputation of the company.â€
▶ Social media’s connection with traditional media: Remember the five W’s? Peppercom keeps the who, what, why, when and where questions front and center when implementing social media programs. “By asking those questions just like a reporter would ask, we’re able to cover all of the messaging that needs to be accomplished in a social media campaign,†says Cody.
Cohen concurs with the traditional media/social media connection, saying that her group deals with social media and digital media, such as bloggers, in similar ways, “although the tone in which we communicate is different than with traditional media.â€
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL MODEL EMERGES
While these parallels with PR and social media exist, organizations have adjusted their structures to bring other business functions into the mix. Southwest has one such cross-functional model. While PR may oversee social media, Day says employees within other Southwest units do the bulk of listening and engagement with customers. “We’re very close with functions such as HR, marketing and customer service,†she says. For Southwest, it’s a model that works. The structure, as well as a laid-back culture, makes it easy to pull teams together from different functions depending on the campaign, though PR does the day-to-day management.
Sony Electronics has a similar model. “Communications handles social media from a corporate perspective, but because social media is so pervasive we’ve had to make sure there is collaboration among the practices within the company,†says Cohen.
Because communications/PR is overseen by marketing, there is tight integration between the group, she says. Example: Sony’s recent Auto-Tune the News campaign on YouTube ad Facebook involved the social media, comms, marketing and ad teams.
INTERACTIVE ANGLE
Despite the development of these successful cross-functional models, Cody often sees management choosing interactive shops or ad agencies to lead social media campaigns. “I’d never argue that these shops should never be involved—particularly with design and back-end elements. [But] PR practitioners should be mindful that your campaign may not be about the latest bells and whistles—it’s really about the listening,†says Cody.
Sony’s Cohen generally concurs with Cody, yet keeps the door open. “For certain initiatives where an organization might be looking for cutting-edge talent and ideas, it can make sense to bring in an interactive agency.â€
While the social media ownership debate continues, companies like Southwest and Sony continue to hone their models, and soon they just may make the debate point. PRN
CONTACT:
Steve Cody, [email protected]; Christi Day, [email protected]; Marcy Cohen, [email protected].