A very interesting article in AdWeek this week caught my eye: Who “owns” social media programs within a company? Is it marketing? Corporate communications? Customer service? HR?
Social media still means – and should mean – different things depending on your target audience. Consumer marketing is very different from B2B marketing for a reason: The person you’re selling to and your target market. A customer-service initiative on Twitter makes perfect sense for the makers of Tylenol, who are communicating directly with a wide swath of the general public on critical issues near and dear to their hearts. But for a software maker who sells to an IT buyer in a vertical market, airing grievances or addressing complaints in a public forum could have a deleterious impact. After all, does everyone buy software for the same reason (to cure an ache or fever?) or implement it the same way (take two every six hours?)?
A few ways to consider how social media supports some critical business initiatives:
• Hiring: Tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook and Twitter can be invaluable as a way of quickly targeting and conveying the firm’s attributes and business needs. Owners? HR and Corporate Communications.
• Customer Relationship Building: Social media is a great way to build public and limited-access venues for furthering and improving relationships with your current customer base. As user conferences wax and wane in viability, social media puts your customers in direct contact with you, and if you want, each other. Owners? Sales, Marketing and Corporate Communications all carry the weight.
• Publicity: Owners? Corporate communications and Marketing work hand-in-hand in broadcasting company news.
• Thought Leadership: Owners? Corporate communications and Marketing again.
• Brand Enhancement and Management: Owner? Marketing, with Corporate Communications in a support role.
For businesses that sell to other businesses, keep your end goals in mind, and apply social media accordingly.
By Laura Grimmer
