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Who should own Social Media, the PR team or the Ad Team? – The Podcast

by Scott Hoffman on December 15, 2009

Who should own Social Media, the PR team or the Ad Team? - Special guest Colin Crook, Voce Communications

Listen to the Podcast here:

How can we corporate marketers distinguish between PR and Advertising, since Social Media has created such a mash-up of our thinking?

Smart brands are coming to understand that Social Media is an ongoing behavior change that pays homage to grassroots communications: it’s a mix of monitoring, communications, customer support and evangelism. Consumer evangelists can provide a bulwark against criticism and better yet, can gin up a wave of goodwill for new products and services.

With a traditional offline advertising campaign, the client hires an agency to run a specific campaign for a specific period of time. Most of the work is done upfront and once the budget is used up the campaign typically ends.

But Social media seems to work differently. Customers expect to have a relationship with brands and the one-way conversation of advertising doesn’t appear to satiated that need. But honest conversations are labor intensive, and require lots of work.

So who is better suited?

VocelogoJoin us as we speak with Colin Crook, Voce Communications, a Public Relations and Communications firm located in the SF Bay area.

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Tagged as: Advertising, Advertising and Marketing, Communication, marketing, Public relations, social media, Voce Communications

  • alichfield

    It's still PR, it's still advertising, it just needs more of an “outside-the-box” framework to it. While working in PR can involve Q&A sessions, it's still, for the most part, built around public releases.

    I vote that Social media is more of an advertising specialty. They craft the messages which make people think, or even entertain. They need to be bold enough to leave a message which will welcome discussion from their fanbase.

    But, I also think that the two departments should/could work together. After all, marketers are excellent at getting the message out, and PR professionals are well prepared to answer the fan response. (One department could be the “voice”, the other the “ears”.)

  • http://www.cliqology.com scotthoffman

    Thanks and I think that right now it's an open playing field. The concept of Customer Service was also brought up during the show, and I think that Social Media will have a deep impact on that profession as well.

    In an ideal would PR and Advertising groups should work together, but as I have seen so often, they usually don't especially at bigger companies.

    Thanks for listening and commenting on the Podcast, I hope you enjoyed it.

  • alichfield

    It's still PR, it's still advertising, it just needs more of an “outside-the-box” framework to it. While working in PR can involve Q&A sessions, it's still, for the most part, built around public releases.

    I vote that Social media is more of an advertising specialty. They craft the messages which make people think, or even entertain. They need to be bold enough to leave a message which will welcome discussion from their fanbase.

    But, I also think that the two departments should/could work together. After all, marketers are excellent at getting the message out, and PR professionals are well prepared to answer the fan response. (One department could be the “voice”, the other the “ears”.)

  • http://www.cliqology.com scotthoffman

    Thanks and I think that right now it's an open playing field. The concept of Customer Service was also brought up during the show, and I think that Social Media will have a deep impact on that profession as well.

    In an ideal would PR and Advertising groups should work together, but as I have seen so often, they usually don't especially at bigger companies.

    Thanks for listening and commenting on the Podcast, I hope you enjoyed it.

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