Ownership Mentality Over Social Needs to End

Posted by Scott Gulbransen in Featured Articles, Social Media on December 30th, 2009 | one response

Too often organizations and companies are killing themselves at one of the most important times in marketing history. They’re doing this through internal strife and politicking with various parts of the organization trying to “own” social media.

As I said in my previous post about breaking down silos, this new revolution in word of mouth marketing will only fail in your organization if publicity hounds and quick-hit artists want to own and take credit for it. Everyone knows social and customer-centric marketing is a revolution and it will change everything forever. Because of the stakes and importance being so high, everyone wants to feed from the troff and take ownership.

Crazy women fighting over wedding dresses.

Like the video of women fighting over discounted wedding dresses at a recent sale, everyone is rushing in and wants to grab ownership and, ultimately, the credit for making it work in their business. This mentality only works to destroy efforts and undermine the success of using social throughout an organization.

Every function in marketing can share and supplement activity in social to help the bigger team win. There is no need for jealousy, ownership or fear. Those who fear not controlling all of social only really fear being out performed by others. Instead of living in fear, they should embrace their fellow brethren and work to create the best integrated social programs. You can help drive this mentality through your organization before it’s too late.

This is the standard in the industry, not the exception. Plenty of big brands are missing out on huge opportunities due to turf wars and egos. Many of them will fail and then reinforce the phallacy social media and social networks are just a fad. Ultimately, their competitors will figure it out and will turn the corner while they get fat and comfortable.

The ownership mentality needs to end throughout the marketing universe. There is great opportunity for all – advertising, brand marketing, direct marketing, public relations, customer service – to succeed by working together. Together and cohesive, these functions can help your business win big at social.

Driven apart in silos where personal recognition and ego reign supreme, great programs will fail.

Which camp will you be in?

http://www.donmartelli.com Don Martelli

I like where your head is at with this post Scotty boy. The key for SM to work in organizations is someone at the top who can give marching orders. I don't think one person can take credit. For SM strategies to work, the tactical elements might have to be sanctioned off in different departments. For example, you might have a Twitter strategy for both customer service AND media relations — two actions that don't live under the same umbrella.

For this reason and this reason alone, I think organizations will need to step up their game in terms of appointing someone at the leadership level, who understands the technologies, has developed their own strategies and has a track record of success. Is that the CMO? Maybe. Is it the SVP of PR? Maybe. Whomever it is, that person needs to have their hands in multiple pies and have people just underneath them who have the power to make decision on the fly because as you and I both know, you can't call a meeting to figure out how to respond to a tweet.