About a week ago, I posted a study to our NewsHub about which communications discipline “owns” social media.  The research, which was published by the California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, was fascinating because it found that public relations is winning the social media budget battle.

The money statistic from the study: “One-quarter (25.4%) of surveyed communications decision-makers say PR/communication departments have 81-100% of budgetary control over digital and social media; only half as many (12.6%) say marketing has that much control.”

Bloggers and social network users have spilled a lot of digital ink over this study.  One article that caught my eye (and ire) today was published at the Talent Zoo blog by Nancy Bistritz on June 9.  Nancy thought she was going to write an article about how it’s critical for different departments to collaborate when it comes to social media.  But, she changed her mind when she came across the Anenenberg study cited above.

She argued: “Remember: Whoever takes control of social media for your organization, needs to understand the level of commitment involved in it. It’s not a fad; it certainly isn’t just for the younger generation, and it definitely won’t fix an already failing organization.  No offense to the CSuite, but many times that’s not something that’s easily digestible (nor should it be) by the CMO or CEO. Not only that, but it’s usually the PR contact who’s accustomed to producing the kinds of metrics that the CSuite needs (and wants) to see.”

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