The Buzz Bin

By Mike Mulvihill

 That’s right; PR folks have taken the lead in owning social media initiatives. A recent survey from the Strategic and Public Relations Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism showed that more companies put control of social media in PR’s hands than any other area of marketing.  Why? I defer to the following rationale from center director Jerry Swerling:

Social media “requires a relatively non-commercial approach; entails dialogue rather than monologue; often conveys objective information rather than product features; and tends to be free-form in nature, which is just the opposite of the highly controlled world of marketing.”

The biennial survey, popularized by Shel Holtz’s posts on the findings, reports that slightly more than one-fourth of companies put between 81 to 100 percent of budgetary control over social media in PR’s hands compared to 12.6 percent for marketing. One in four respondents said PR has strategic control over social media in their organizations with only 9 percent giving strategic oversight to marketing. In fact, just over a quarter of respondents said marketing has no budgetary control at all and about 22 percent said marketing had no strategic control.

Shel Holtz also points out that measurement could well be another reason leadership is entrusting social media to PR. The study revealed a correlation between the amount a PR department spends on measuring their efforts and the degree to which the CEO believes PR contributes to the company’s success. As a result, respondents said, senior management is taking PR’s recommendations more seriously.

Colin Alsheimer’s post on socialmediatoday on the same Annenberg survey agrees that PR is more closely aligned with social media and more skilled at measuring social objectives. He aptly points out that social media is also well-suited for a number of marketing objectives. Therefore, we would be doing social media a disservice by housing it solely in the PR function.  (Agreed, but for now, us PR people are still going to celebrate.)

Regardless, it’s a bit early to be leaving the stands and heading to the exit.  A recent survey by digital marketing firm White Horse indicated that almost 60 percent of B2B marketers have little or no engagement in social media while 44 percent of B2C companies also have little or no social media engagement. Obviously, social media has barely reached half time – and anything can happen in the second half.

We’ve already seen a fair amount of consolidation among social media agencies and consultancies, as well as acquisition of social media firms by ad agencies and PR firms alike.  I would be shocked if ad agencies did not go on a buying spree of social media firms as soon as the industry recovers a bit further. A maneuver much akin to the integrated marketing acquisition frenzy ad agencies embarked upon in the 90s. 

Philosophically, PR gets social. It is about communicating between and among audiences. It is about creating relationships. We’ve been doing that for years. While the tools may change – and keep on changing – this is still our sweet spot.

Photo courtesy of shastadaisy