I had a great discussion with a young journalist at lunch, mentioning that she was pretty upset to know how to recruit a community manager for her online magazine, and how to insert this new position at the best place.
Funny enough, many companies gave this job to young people (maybe bright!) but who did not have the right to talk in the name of the brand, or who more generally were not senior enough to decide.
So as the community management was kind of unmotivated enterprise function, non-integrated in the whole business value chain.
My opinion is: community management, and more generally digital positions, are not made to remain in an isolated department. They must obviously be integrated as crossmarketing discipline, with the power to take decisions.
Most of the criticisms about social media and corporates is that the company is not engaged enough, and that social media marketing appears at the very end of the whole process. So flip-flop the problem, implement social media at the early stage. And I bet you you're gonna make business (damn! I know sound like an old 80s sitcom grand-daddy).
Excuse my 80s.
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