I was walking the dog the other night and watched as he “marked” his territory and naturally I thought about the natural Tug-o-War that occurs with social. The desire for different departments wanting to own the “rights” to social media. Why do you think that is? Look at how strongly some people feel about the subject!
Danny Wong, the co-founder and Lead Evangelist for Blank Label says that PR should own social media because that department knows “what the appropriate messages are for the company’s followers.”
According to Chris Koch’s B2B Marketing Blog He just comes right out and states, It’s official: Marketing owns social media management, in which I agree with his next question, Now what?
Chris Kieff strongly believes, as usual, that it’s the bailiwick of the HR department and that HR should own social media; and if you don’t think there’s an opinion on that, look at the responses he got to his post
Lastly, Steve Radick thinks we all own social media. Wait cancel that, he thinks no one owns social media.
Now I’m confused.
But let’s think about this for a second. A dog marks his territory every day. The same territory every day. Why does he do that? Because another dog came along and marked the exact same territory as his own as well. This happens every day without fail. So the dog marking dance happens every day without fail. Sniff, then mark. Over and over and over again.
It’s simple really, it’s not about ownership, it’s about establishing that you as an organization, are consistently there every day, and making sure others know that you were there…every day, and that you are going to be there…every day. That’s all consumers want.
Direct Marketing Observations 
Hi Marc,
Point well taken. Everyone should (and eventually will) have an ownership stake in social media. ITSMA research shows that marketing owns the *management* of social media, but eventually that will transition to more of a leadership role, as the tools for engaging in social media become more familiar to people. I think marketing’s role as the expert communicator is what drives the organization to see it as the leader in managing social media, and I think marketing will hang onto a more dispersed leadership role over time. Larger companies are developing social media centers of excellence that are staffed primarily by marketing types, because they are the most qualified to train and support those engaging in social media. I think social media participants will always need help and support if they are going to be effective. Thanks for a compelling question!
As the user looks at a building they will instantly know the number of employees the business has, the SIC code the business is engaged in, and how much that business makes annually. They will also have the names of all of the key executives who work at the company. And, depending if the company is publicly traded or not, they will have all the Edgar information online, all at their fingertips
@Chris I like the idea of Centers of Excellence. It makes sense.