The battle for which agency discipline owns social media has been raging for several years now.  Many observers (including Ignition, in past articles) have declared public relations the essential winner.  But that may be too simplistic of a way to see the role of social media in marketing.

Josh Spanier, head of communications planning at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, envisions three different roles for social marketing:

1. Top-Down Axis

First is a vertical group of activities. This is where a brand takes its mainstream marketing pushes, its major launches and promotions, and finds appropriate ways to activate them within the social channel. An example of this might be Weiden + Kennedy’s Old Spice campaign Twitter response videos. Or, for Chevrolet, Goodby Silverstein did an auction of the first Chevy Volt for sale, finding a buyer who paid $200,000 for a $40,000 car. Both actions came from a top-down approach of what the brand was promoting at the time. 

2. Side-to-Side Axis

The second group of social media activities runs on a horizontal plane. These activities are ongoing and independent of paid media and finite marketing campaigns. Most of the time consumers gather and connect to discuss what they are interested in without any concern for advertising. Brands however can, if smart about it, create programs and opportunities to engage with those consumers in ways that deliver on the brand’s purpose in the world.

For example, if Walmart is all about “everyday low prices,” the brand should on the lookout for ways to bring that mission to life across the social space ongoing, every day and forever. Walmart may interview 100 moms and collect their best money saving tips, and then publish them on the web with strategies for people to discover or link to that content. This is content creation to that delivers on the promise of the brand; however it is not advertising. It does not occupy ad units.

3. Bottom-up Axis

Finally, there is a group of bottom-up, listening activities. This is the opportunity to learn, inform and participate in conversations with a CRM/question-response/informational role. 

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Who does what

PR professionals are best suited to do the work of Axis #3. This is essentially reputation management.

Core brand agencies are often best suited to handle Axis #1. This is about not just social media, but social ideas.

And what about Axis 2?  Both ad agencies and PR agencies can work in this space. 

In the end, social media is the domain of marketing and communications advisors in both the paid and earned space.  Each has a unique set of skills well-suited to different aspects of the social media spectrum.

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 Three different social media roles for marketing and communications firms