Comments on: The Social Media Turf Wars: Are Marketing and PR on a Collision Course? http://kozinets.net/archives/400 Professor Robert Kozinets on Marketing Research, Social Media, and Marketing Strategy Mon, 21 May 2012 11:58:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Henri Weijo http://kozinets.net/archives/400#comment-6179 Henri Weijo Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:17:25 +0000 http://kozinets.net/archives/400#comment-6179 We had more than a few marketing and PR practitioners give guest lectures when we were teaching integrated marketing communications last spring, and the feeling that I got from the lectures was that folks working in PR were a lot more in tune with social media and maintained actual social media presences themselves. It was even kind of endearing seeing these really established and experienced (I don't want to say "old"!) PR people being so hyped up about blogging, microblogging and social networks. And they were very knowledgeable, too. I guess this is logical, though. PR firms have had to deal with events that originate from or are heavily driven by social media (corporate scandals, for example), where as "traditional marketers" have been able to somewhat keep their head in the sand because you still could achieve reasonable results with the old bag of tricks. Of course, there are exceptions and some old warhorses from marketing have seen the light in terms of social media, but overall I don't get that there's still the same sense of urgency to "get" social media unlike with PR professionals. I think we might see the same kind of merger and acquisition wave that took place between the late 70s and early 90s when integrated marketing communications was all the rage and advertising companies acquired a lot of PR firms because they noticed that their clients were investing marketing budgets in PR as well. Or at least PR people will be headhunted into marketing departments and advertising firms. We had more than a few marketing and PR practitioners give guest lectures when we were teaching integrated marketing communications last spring, and the feeling that I got from the lectures was that folks working in PR were a lot more in tune with social media and maintained actual social media presences themselves. It was even kind of endearing seeing these really established and experienced (I don’t want to say “old”!) PR people being so hyped up about blogging, microblogging and social networks. And they were very knowledgeable, too.

I guess this is logical, though. PR firms have had to deal with events that originate from or are heavily driven by social media (corporate scandals, for example), where as “traditional marketers” have been able to somewhat keep their head in the sand because you still could achieve reasonable results with the old bag of tricks. Of course, there are exceptions and some old warhorses from marketing have seen the light in terms of social media, but overall I don’t get that there’s still the same sense of urgency to “get” social media unlike with PR professionals.

I think we might see the same kind of merger and acquisition wave that took place between the late 70s and early 90s when integrated marketing communications was all the rage and advertising companies acquired a lot of PR firms because they noticed that their clients were investing marketing budgets in PR as well. Or at least PR people will be headhunted into marketing departments and advertising firms.

]]> By: tommyismyname http://kozinets.net/archives/400#comment-6169 tommyismyname Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:23:24 +0000 http://kozinets.net/archives/400#comment-6169 Lol the debate is humorous to me because social media isn't exclusively about PR or Marketing. It's about PEOPLE. So if you want to have a truly effective presence in the social media space, the person doing the job needs to be a hybrid of Public Relations, Marketing, and most importantly Customer Service! They need to be able to master level understanding of at least one set of online analytics tools so that they'll be able to use multiple packages that measure different parameters, and then use that data to refine and optimize their messaging moving forward. The PR vs Marketing debate as it relates to social media is really just plain silly because it's not as convoluted as either one of those two fields... it's really more akin to sociology than anything else. Building trust in people and asking them to take action, not finding ways to manipulating the masses... Lol the debate is humorous to me because social media isn’t exclusively about PR or Marketing. It’s about PEOPLE.

So if you want to have a truly effective presence in the social media space, the person doing the job needs to be a hybrid of Public Relations, Marketing, and most importantly Customer Service!

They need to be able to master level understanding of at least one set of online analytics tools so that they’ll be able to use multiple packages that measure different parameters, and then use that data to refine and optimize their messaging moving forward.

The PR vs Marketing debate as it relates to social media is really just plain silly because it’s not as convoluted as either one of those two fields… it’s really more akin to sociology than anything else. Building trust in people and asking them to take action, not finding ways to manipulating the masses…

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