It's funny that on the one hand, we talk about how brands have lost control or have to give up control to consumers. And on the other hand, we argue over who controls social media within an organization.

We have to walk the walk internally, as Michel Lebrun implied. No one “owns” social media just as no one “owns” the conversation. Or, rather everyone owns it at needs to act accordingly, customer service in its way, marketing in its way and PR in its way.

The big challenge, as with all communication, is making sure everyone's on the same page. That's where things like social media policy, or your segmentation strategy, come in.

Great discussion topic!

regards
mark
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The challenge of this is that it means sales, IT, marketing and PR have to have open communication with one another to make this effective, too. For many companies this is an enormous change, but it's necessary for maximum effectiveness.

Now, despite the esteemed panel's hopes, my belief is marketing comes to own social media. It is clear that someone needs to “own” it, since the same tools and communities are used for multiple corporate objectives — no one needs to see a corporate marketing Facebook group right next to a corporate customer support group, right next to a sales group, and so on. But in most firms the marketing department has a distinct advantage: they know the tools and, most importantly, executives believe marketing knows the tools. If you are looking for an owner marketing becomes that group 4 out of 5 times; it already has the first mover advantage.

All things considered this is a great opportunity for the CMO to become more powerful and grab control more customer initiatives, more budget, and more decision-making authority. But even if the CMO loses, you can be sure the battle is just getting started.

That's one example of many SM pushes in the entertainment field; and they are just getting started.

Huggies just launched a campaign on a popular mommy blog, using all the predictable SM tactics: forum, polls, etc. This is not about damage control, but about branding and building trust. Huggies is walking the consumer through the front doors, not the decrepit, falling down, leaky basement.

Customer service is certainly not the ONLY social media touchpoint – not by a long shot. I don't think anyone on the panel would hold the viewpoint that social media is the domain of customer service (or any single discipline), although I do understand that customer service was a central part of the discussion on Wednesday. Of course, we did have Frank (from Comcast) whose focus is on customer support as this is the team he leads AND it was a panel discussing the concept of social meets CRM, not a generic discussion on social media.

To be clear, today's reality is that social media is in greater use by PR and marketing professionals in most companies. Yes, there has been some interesting discussion over the past couple of years about “who owns social media”, but I think this debate is fading as more recognize – as you say – that the social web is a multi-purpose communications medium. I like to dub it, the “social phone” just to make the point.

The interesting point about social media entering into the realm of CRM is to make the very point that social media is expanding deeper into the enterprise and becoming integral to multiple business functions. PR and marketing were the first. Now we have companies expanding their listening & engagement to customer support, sales, community management, etc.

There are, however, some interesting characteristics to the social web which make it unique. In fact, I believe the medium's public nature means that the skills of public communicators are in greater need throughout the enterprise. The social web's nature is actually driving the need for increased collaboration between PR/marketing, customer support, sales and online community management. You make this point well in your post and I couldn't agree more!

The truth of the matter is that – in most companies – customer service isn't there yet and PR/marketing is leading the way. The point we are driving with the panel and illustrating with great examples like Comcast is that customer service needs to join in and become a key part of a company's online listening & engagement. But this isn't “taking over” from PR – quite the contrary.

I do appreciate your feedback and I appreciate hearing how the panel came across to you.

Cheers,
Marcel
CEO, Radian6