Next week, I’m moderating a panel discussion at The Social Customer conference in London on this very topic. Some smart people will be on that panel:
Katy Howell (Managing Director, Immediate Future); Nick Sharples (Corporate Communications Consultant), Martin Hill-Wilson (Brainfood Consulting), Aaron Stewart (Product Marketing Manager, KANA Software)
From the event description:
In most organisations, Marketing has led the way in social media adoption and usage. Some would say, though, that “social” is more attuned to the goals of Customer Services – in which a focus on generating trust and delivering value is not polluted by a requirement to generate leads. Hear some of the UK’s leading Marketing and Customer Services practitioners debate who should own social.
I hear all sorts of responses when the question “Who owns social?” is asked. Here’s a sampling:
- Sales, marketing and PR, at least for ‘social CRM’: http://socialcrminfo.com/who-owns-social-crm/
- No one does: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisperry/2011/12/06/asking-who-owns-social-media-youre-missing-the-point/
- No one, because it’s the wrong question: http://stuartbruce.biz/2011/02/who-owns-social-media-again.html
- Everyone does: http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/print-edition/2011/09/09/who-owns-social-media-for-a-company.html?page=all
- Maybe marketing takes a lead http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9005-which-department-should-own-social-media
- There needs to be someone at the highest level taking responsibility: http://www.learningconversations.co.uk/main/index.php/2012/02/13/who-owns-corporate-social-media?blog=5 (Does that address the actual question though?)
There are plenty of views out there but these six serve to illustrate the point – everyone has a different opinion, hardly a good place to be for everyone else to understand it. Is everyone defining ‘owns’ and ‘social’ the same way, I wonder? I find it interesting, too, that I see few answers that say ‘the customer.’ But does the customer really own social? Or PR, marketing? Or maybe it indeed is no one.
What do you think? If you have an opinion, please share it – I’ll do that, too, in the panel discussion in London next week: Thursday March 29, from 10.20am to 11:10am.
If you’re not in London on the 29th, you can still be part of the conversation via the hashtag #SCRM12.
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The Social Customer – London
London’s Leading Social CRM, Customer Engagement & Marketing Conference
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