Why Agencies Will Never Own Social Media Marketing

Enough.

For the past three years I have sat on the sidelines on the topic of which marketing discipline “owns” social media (except in the comments from time to time).

No more.

Last week, I read a logical, rational thesis on the subject by PR pro Jeremy Pepper entitled PR Wins Social Media … Only to Likely Lose it in 2011.

The post has an honest and rational thought process: that PR is winning the social media ownership battle but will quickly lose it to advertising for a variety of reasons.  For the first time in a long time, this wasn’t a post on the subject I didn’t necessarily disagree with. Most on the subject cause my head to asplode.

However, the impetus for PR “winning” was the findings of the annual Communication and Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) Study. The GAP press release headline alone had me at hello.

PR/Communication, not marketing, is in control of digital/social media.

Start the victory parade.

When asked to define, in percentile terms, how much budgetary control PR/Communications exerted over digital/social media in their organizations, 25.4 percent of corporate participants said that PR/Communication has 81 to 100 percent of budgetary control. Only half as many — 12.6 percent — said that Marketing had that much control.

Stats? Sold!

A total of 382 communication decision makers in corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies participated in GAP VI, for which most data was collected in the last quarter of 2009.

Wait a minute. I know I’ve been out of PR for a few years, but that whole “communication decision makers” smells a lot like “PR practitioners.”

In fairness, Strategic Communication and PR Center Director Jerry Swerling did address the objection in the release, however, one wonders what a similar survey of American Advertising Federation members would say.

“While we need to bear in mind that these are the self-reported opinions of PR/Communication professionals, the disparities can’t all be chalked up to professional bravura.”

Maybe, maybe not Mr. Swerling. I know I’ve read enough posts over the last three years from prominent PR pros staking claim to social media that I have to imagine it’s had some influence on the practitioners of today. In response to the study and the ownership meme, I would say two things:

1. What type of agency or marketing discipline doesn’t think they’ll be doing more social media in the future?
2. What type of agency or marketing discipline hasn’t had an epic fail within social media?

Immediately it makes me wonder where’s the argument for who owns SEO? When was the last time you read a blog post about who owns e-mail marketing? To be successful, both take a variety of talents from copywriting, programming, creative (just like SMM) and yet don’t find themselves in this endless tug-of-war.

I demand equal opportunity outrage.

In reality, the ownership bravado is no different than those who have written that PR/advertising/email/blogging/breathing is dead. It’s a great debate, one that garners pageviews, comments and links (+1 internet for Jeremy).

The agencies and disciplines that will “win” social media will be the ones smart enough to get the business now, do a great job and promote the hell out of their successes to beget more business. And “success” will be a relatively short-term win anyway, who knows what this will evolve into.

Flickr photo courtesy of Horia Varlan.