Social Media Management: Who and Why?

These days, there are a number of agencies challenging each other over the management of social media. From the marketing department, to the advertising, to the public relations department, it seems the lines between who is responsible has significantly blurred.

Each of these departments, however, have unique specialisations and to clear up the confusion surrounding who does what, InsideOut PR have highlighted some of the management obligations of this often ambiguously positioned platform.

The first consideration to be taken when delegating social media responsibility, is that social media is not an outlet to use for advertising and promotional purposes. The aim of social media is to interact and initiate conversations with customers, building relationships with the intention of creating true brand ambassadors by nurturing brand love. This skillset is a specialisation of the public relations industry, with the management of brand image and customer commitment one of the basic requirements of a PR practitioner.

The social media conversations between business and customer need to be groomed to fit the intended personality of the organisation with discussions not limited to brand-specific products and services. The department managing the social media engagement must have an innate understanding of the needs and desires of their target audience, putting together conversations that will entice and encourage audience participation, while still remaining relevant to the brand’s core values.

Social media outlets are not always positive and light-hearted. Because it operates in an open forum, other users have the ability to post complaints and concerns about the brand, meaning the team in charge must have experience in the issues management sector – another key skill of the general public relations practitioner.

Because PR practitioners already have a comprehensive database of well-established contacts in the media industry, it remains logical that this department should manage the social media strategy and implementation. Practitioners can draw upon these contacts for brand engagement and can leverage a wider audience through these channels.

Although marketing and advertising both have the creative backgrounds to provide sound content for social media platforms, the public relations sector has the creative foundations, along with the image management experience to ensure an ongoing positive social media experience for your brand.

For more information on social media management, check-out this article http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/12274.aspx

-InsideOut PR x