A few years ago, social media was a niche cocktail party that was populated mostly by people who would categorize themselves as geeks. If companies were aware of the space, it was often from a communications perspective. Fast forward to today and the space is littered with case studies of company X, Y or Z making some serious coin off their community. Marketers are chomping at the bit to gain ownership or decision rights within the space.
In many cases, these overtures may turn into hostile takeovers from a marketer with no intimate knowledge of the space (I have had friends have this happen to them). The marketer gets wind of an agency known to work wonders and he's eager to jump at the opportunity without taking advice from the communications people who have been managing the company's presence.
Social media is something that no one can truly own. It should be managed like a ship with a captain and crew. Since the channel is generally social and conversational in nature, the captain's role should be played by someone with a communications background who will not hit the panic (read sell, sell, sell) button when the money isn't flowing in. The crew varies by organization but typically will encompass the functions of marketing, CRM, research, product teams, legal folks, etc.
With the conversational aspect out of the way, marketers can really do what they do best - market. The major networks offer the ability to insert marketing messages into the mix. So with some education on the space, their expertise in things like direct response can really blow out a social campaign. Don't believe me? Think about these three examples:
Turning online to offline - Conversations are great in principle, but if they don't translate to sales companies are going to lose interest. So if you have a great online presence in the social space, augmenting it with an "asses to the seats" mentality makes it an overall corporate win. Boston's Boloco does a great job of this using Twitter and foursquare. They interact with everyone on Twitter plus they offer a "Mayor's Special"- free products to the mayor and two friends on Mondays. The community is drawn in to try to get a freebie for connecting with the brand while giving Boloco the ability to track the effectiveness of their campaign.
Building an empire - Sure conversation is king, but marketing owns the masses. By incorporating social media into marketing campaigns and collateral, companies are able to increase awareness of their social profiles to existing customers (a good example is Planters Peanuts). By connecting them with the company, potential customers gain more of a personal relationship and brand affinity.
Measurement - Marketing folks are much better than us communications pros at running numbers and measuring things. It's true in my case at least. At the end of the day, social media is nothing more than a novelty if you can't measure anything. People in marketing tend to be numbers driven so it's a good idea to tap into their knowledge bank to see if there is anything that you can utilize in terms of measuring success. You may be surprised at what you find out.
What do you think about marketing in the social space? Should they be leaders, followers, shiftmen or out of the picture?