Who owns social media?
This is some stuff I banged out for a recent Neilson Online newsletter.
It’s brief, and shallow, but it addresses something I’m spending a lot of time thinking about and working on with our clients. The ‘who owns this’ part of the getting to grips with social web and online conversations.
I keep drawing this picture to illustrate the challenge:
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Who owns the social media beast?
Suddenly the world is different…
In the good old days everything was safe, stable and known inside the big corporation. We were cosy.
Marketing created the outgoing noise. Customer services dealt with the incoming noise. PR owned the media. And Brand owned the brand. Yeah this is overly facile, but the divisions on the playing field were pretty clear, and were largely respected. And then the internet changed everything.
Now social media, with consumers publishing and sharing digital oceans of content amongst one another on a flattened, frictionless, disintermediated plane, has made a nonsense of our demarcated areas of responsibility. For example, if a consumer publishes a hate-ridden review of a new mobile phone, and many other consumers join in, adding their weight to the story which gains momentum and swirls and snarls and bites, is this a PR issue, or a marketing issue, or a product issue, or a customer services issue? Who ‘owns’ the social media beast?
The answer, we think, is easy. Everyone!
It’s true but it’s probably not what we want as senior people or business owners (and I know, because I am one). which is usually a simple focused solution: a clear one-stop go-to-man approach. ‘We’ll appoint someone: David owns social media!’ Nope. It won’t work.
The clue is in the problem.
Social media is very hard to define because it the spaces, channels and technologies are many, and ever-proliferating, and the content, the topic matter, is as broad as life itself. Fascinated by ant farms? Find everything you need to know online. Desperate to know who King Tubby is? Find the answer and his biggest fans online. So the challenges and opportunities that our businesses face in this new online era are as multi-coloured and multi-flavoured as we can imagine (and then some) - they will cut across every part of our organisation, of our industry and of our brands.
So we all own this social media beast.
You own your part of it. If you’ve buried your head or hoped and expected Ted in marketing to pick this up, think again. The world is out there. Your impenetrable company fortress walls have been broken. So whether you’re in market research or engineering, take a peek outside. Start listening and learning and participating in the conversations. The sooner you do, the better you’ll do. Take ownership of your part today - you won’t regret it.
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Yes? No? Bovvered?
Will McInnes wrote this on 17.07.08 –
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes, Social media, Social networks, Strategy box
On July 18th, 2008 at 10:20 pm, Helen Aspell responded:
I’m not sure it’s a question of who ‘owns’ social media. I believe the point is that it cannot be owned by any part of the company, it’s owned by the consumers both users and contributors: a deliberate distinction based on value.
For me, it’s more who is involved in deciding which media to use, where that responsibility lies for successful implementation and most importantly how the company behaves in that space and what it’s trying to achieve. And that, I contend is directly linked to the structure and attitude of the company as a whole.
The real challenge social media poses is at a corporate level; it goes to the heart of what type of business you are. Successful participation and dialogue that has meaning can only work in a company flat line, cross teams, and where product expertise is considered as important and valuable as expertise derived by ‘rank’ and where decision making is taken in a collective manner. If a company’s attitude and approach is top down instead of an approach based on dialogue, engagement and involvement of staff then I think the chances of successfully harnessing social media are limited.
To finish and before my marketing colleagues get upset I believe all the above should be reflected in the brand. And in my book that makes us responsible for providing the specialist advice on how the technologies are utilised, driving its consideration and embedding an understanding of its potential through the company. It doesn’t, however, make us the right people to answer the questions or be the public face in these spaces.
On August 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pm, Who “Owns” Social Media? | Gino Cosme responded:
[…] my opinion while internally everyone can take responsibility for it, social media should be “owned” by corporate communications and should operate […]
On August 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am, Greg Cannon responded:
Companies can establish the communications medium and manage the media, but would be fools to try and own either. Individuals are unlikely to own or manage anything more than their own contributions.
On August 14th, 2008 at 2:43 pm, jezmondo responded:
I OWN SOCIAL MEDIA. JEZMONDO
And so do you. We all do. So all of us, and none of us.
Every time we attach ourselves to a piece of social currency and choose to feature it, we own it. Especially if it’s open source.
so if you want to buy social media, just make us all an offer.
On August 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pm, Will McInnes responded:
I agree with the direction you’re going in jezmondo, but that wasn’t what I was asking and thinking about.
This question was with a ‘inside a big company’ perspective - a better way of phrasing it would’ve been ‘who should take overall primary responsibility for handling communications with people in social spaces online’, but it would’ve been a bit long-winded.
But you’re right, so amen and all that.
On September 3rd, 2008 at 11:02 pm, Ellie Lovell responded:
Brilliant - this is just along the lines that I have been thinking recently for a CIPR Diploma project.
I am interested in exploring the relationship between ‘branding’ - traditionally the tool of marketers (although I note your ‘brand’ segment is nowhere near marketing) and ‘reputation’ - the concern of public relations. You go one (or two) further than this bringing in HR etc which is really interesting and some great food for thought.
I expect I will be referencing you in my project ; ) Have you got any more info you can share on this?
Thanks Will