Who Owns Social Media Within Your Organization?
If your company is starting to use social media, the next question you might ask is “Who should own social media in the organization?” This isn’t straightforward and there are different answers depending on the company and what you’re selling. You might consider each area of your organization to determine how social media can open lines of communication, solve problems, improve efficiencies, reduce costs and/or help to generate more revenue.
This assumes that someone must own your social media program, and I agree with that. I don't think an organized, coordinated and valuable social media program can happen organically. There are many people who generate content and foster it along, but like any other large communications effort in an organization, it needs a head of state — someone to set the tone, make the plans and take the plans to the masses.
According to the 2009 Digital Readiness Report, PR leads digital communications at 51% of organizations, while Marketing leads 40.5% of the time. The report was produced by iPressroom, Korn/Ferry International and PRSA to help marketing professionals better understand and appreciate how organizations are integrating online communications into their business practices. Over the course of a six-week period during spring 2009, they surveyed 278 public relations, marketing and human resources professionals to identify trends regarding their approaches to social media.
One finding, as noted above, is that PR leads social media in most organizations. This makes sense since most social media activities revolve around communicating with external audiences and producing content. If your social media programs call for audience targeting, message strategy and a regular flow of content and interaction with external audiences, PR is best equipped to deal with these programs.
I also think different departments can take ownership of a program or process, particularly if the goal involves direct customer interaction and user forums. For example, the customer support department might use Twitter to respond to common support issues. Facebook is a useful took for the product management department to gather feedback on a beta product or to push out announcements.
The legal department should be involved at some level for social media outreach. Some may argue that legal isn’t required but I believe that it is due to the transparent nature of social media, and how it can expose a company. The company should decide on the best ways to use social media from a business perspective, while staying in the confines of legal and HR best practices. For example, are there limitations on what the company and its employees can/cannot say? What if an employee starts sounding off about a client, and the client sues? What if an employee discloses proprietary information? Can we post trademarked or copyrighted material? The company needs to know what to do in those cases, create policies and understand how to enforce the policies.
According to the study, the most common areas in which PR leads digital communications are blogging, microblogging and social networking. Each organization knows best which people and departments are most likely to find success leading social media programs, so I think the structure will vary depending on what types of programs you’re going to conduct. On the other hand, if your company has a Twitter handle, you can assign a person or group of people to tweet from that handle. But at the same time, you can also encourage employees to Tweet on their own on behalf of the company and personalize the medium that much more.
Another interesting finding was that small to medium-sized enterprises are significantly ahead of larger organizations when it comes to adopting Twitter (64% versus 47%) and social networking (74% adoption versus 38%), but not blogging, which is now squarely in the large organization’s repertoire.
Social media is growing in importance as way to communicate to your diverse audiences. How to employ social media varies greatly by company. There is no formula and sometimes it takes some trial and error. However, in order to get into the game, it can’t be an aside or done in your spare time. Rather, you must consider it a core discipline, such as product development and marketing, and be managed by dedicated resources.
Posted by Davida Dinerman on February 2, 2010 at 11:36 AM
