PR – The Clear Cut Winner in the Battle for Ownership of Social Media

June 7, 2010 | Posted by: Tom Rice

There had been an interesting debate in the PR and marketing worlds over the “ownership” of social media in recent years.  This is a debate followed closely here at Merritt Group and one we were always confident that PR would ultimately win.  So we were pleased but, not all that surprised, when we saw the results of the sixth Communication and Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) study that named PR the victor. The study is produced every other year by the Strategic and Public Relations Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

What might have been surprising is how one sided the battle was.  A blog by Shel Holtz of Holtz Communications sums up the findings nicely.  According to the study, “Slightly more than one-fourth of companies put between 81 and 100% of budgetary control over social media in PR’s hands, compared to Marketing, with only 12.6% getting the same level of control.” According to the Center’s director, Jerry Swerling, “…social media requires a relatively non-commercial approach; they entail dialogue rather than monologue; they often convey objective information rather than product features; and they tend to be free-form in nature, which is just the opposite of the highly controlled world of Marketing.”  Another key finding was “….nearly a quarter of respondents said PR has strategic control over social media in their organizations.  There was also a connection between the amount PR departments spend measuring their efforts and the degree to which the CEO believes PR contributes to the company’s success. As a result, respondents said, senior management is taking PR’s recommendations more seriously.”

In the early days of social media’s ascent some 4+ years ago, we had some very good discussions with our marketing/Ad partners and clients about where social media was really headed.  We had very solid partners in those days but it was clear to us that since we were so close to a client’s business, market and communications strategy, we were in a much better position to know if a social media strategy made sense and, if so, what should be recommended and how it should be deployed.  Marketing seemed to be more focused more on just deploying social marketing tactics quickly without seeing if they made any sense.  We knew that we had a great opportunity in front of us.

No doubt that most PR firms have had to evolve with the advent of social media.  One might argue that social media has saved the PR industry by forcing agencies to re-think how they build awareness for clients.  While there will always be a need for marketing/Ad firms, it will be interesting to see if PR firms will continue their evolution to go beyond not just traditional PR and social media but to other marketing disciplines as well.  We have no doubt seen this at Merritt Group where many of our clients (major global brands) aren’t just asking about building Facebook and Twitter Programs/pages but also asking us to build microsites, create digital ads and iPhone applications just to name a few – and we do most of this internally without contractors.  So a number of clients that came to us years ago for traditional PR have since given us the social media piece and now are letting us handle some of the traditional marketing work.  This is work we wouldn’t have dreamed of doing 4 years ago.  

Nonetheless, since we have been close partner to our client’s overall communications strategy, performing this work has been a natural step for us.  And the glue to all of this is measurement – it was referenced in the study but if PR firms can measure not only traditional press awareness but social media traction as well, the numbers will continue to swing our way.