Who should own social media strategies: Advertising, Marketing or PR?

Who should own social media strategies: Advertising, Marketing or PR?

Perhaps it's not ad agencies or corporate advertising/marketing teams that should "own" a company's social media presence. AdWeek proclaims, "Learning Twitter? Don't Take Your Cues From These Agencies." Think about it: social media is for creating one-on-one relationships...relationships with members of the public.

Sounds like Public Relations to me.

Social media strategies should fall within public relations (and, of course, be further aligned with business, brand and marketing strategies.) Social media give us a platform for the most fundamental of all public relations disciplines -- grassroots communications -- based on genuine conversations. We need to start thinking of things more holistically, and integrate and escalate public relations into our marketing, branding, advertising and promotional plans.

Marketeers may have managed o.k. before without a strong PR component but in this new era of democratised communications and relationships made possible through technology -- they cannot live without it.