I’ve frequently heard complications come up as to whether PR should handle or be involved in social media or if marketing should primarily be involved in managing a company’s social media efforts. The truth is what you commonly hear: both should. I want to make it simpler, though.
There are two sides to social media: reputation management and promotional efforts.
Reputation management is really PR’s area, and involves a company’s presence online, commonly referred to as their web presence. Web presence for companies is nothing new. If they have a website, then they’ve got a presence, or so the thinking was 5 years ago. Web presence is different today. It goes beyond just your company’s little corner of the internet (your website). Your company’s web presence now spans to anywhere a literal conversation is being had about your company or product online, and your reputation depends on how you engage in that conversation. Dell is a great example of how reputation management can be done well.
The promotional, marketing components of social media, which make up the second side of social media, gets more into the nitty-gritty aspects of social media. The promotional side of social media deals a lot more in the current tools, communities, and medium’s of communication currently available.
Fundamentally, however, promoting content online is much different than the Promotion from the 4P’s has been. It’s not about blasting as many people as possible with a message. It’s about engaging an individual, even if it’s just one. It’s about forging a relationship with an individual, and then doing it many more times, with many other individuals. Is that a scalable promotional strategy? Hardly.
The point here is if the mental framework is instilled into those relationships you first forged, then the community you’ve grown will handle the scale. It’s then your job to simply continue to uphold the framework and engage your customers in a meaningful way. Nikon is a good example of the promotion side when it comes to the latter part. Seesmic is a good example when it comes to everything I’ve described on the promotional side.
The difference between the two sides that I want to make clear is that the promotional marketing side of social media deals with actively promoting (and engaging) your company to its audience, where the reputation management (PR) side deals in more of a passive mode, listening to the conversations while responding when appropriate (or outright necessary). Really, what should occur is your promotion will drive your reputation management, and that’s a correlation that should be seen.
I’ll take it a step further and say that a company should have a PR Department, a Marketing Department and a Social Media Department. With the ways that Social Media is growing, changing and affecting business culture, you cannot be half-assing your Social Media efforts. If you want to be in the game, you have to live and breathe there. Not just dabble.
All 3 departments need to be able to come together and make their company better and reap the benefits that each one performs individually while seeing the bigger picture for the team.
Greg, I definitely agree that you simply can’t half-ass your social media efforts. The company has got to adopt the mindset that goes along with it (that’s referred to most often in Cluetrain).
So I am curious, Greg. I’ll see your step further with the addition of a social media department and ask, what do you see the social media dept. doing?