Comments on: Burn the Ships! Should Social Media Specialists Jettison Their Backgrounds?

By: To Blog or Not to Blog (And Other PR Blog Jots) « Media Bullseye – A New Media and Communications Magazine

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:15:59 +0000

[...] Report to the Social Media Department Immediately Social Media Explorer In a terrific follow-up to the recent post by Jason Falls exploring who should “own” social media (an ongoing debate in some circles, but he says PR), Kat French wonders if it shouldn’t just be its own department, since so many different facets are involved from across many levels of a company. “So I’m wondering, is there a time when you need to burn the ships? Because the truth is, social media does have too many implications for too many different parts of the business to be relegated to any existing department’s “pet project” status.” [...]

By: Kipp Bodnar

Kipp Bodnar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:28:09 +0000

Thank you for the mention in this post. I think you have brought up a great point and an aspect of social media that really excites me. We our fortunate to be apart of an industry that is in its very beginning and because of that, we will work with people that have vastly different types of backgrounds.

We don't need to throw away are past experiences and disconnect with folks in those industries, but instead we need take the best practices from our past and integrate them into social media principles. We also need to work and educate others in our industry to reduce the types of bad practices that impact everyone in an industry.

By: Kipp Bodnar

Kipp Bodnar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:28:09 +0000

By: Jonathan Trenn

Jonathan Trenn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:22:18 +0000

It seems to me the desire to pigeonhole social media and where is should reside and what who should lead it ends up creating yet another silo. At least a silo in the mindset.

This and Jason's posts have inspired me to write two posts of my own.

http://marketingconversation.com/2008/07/30/soc...

http://marketingconversation.com/2008/07/30/so-...

To paraphrase social media types, I'd say that if one first “listens” to the “community” of social media types to see what they're saying, and then “engages” them in “conversation”, and does it with “authenticity”, they would probably be “genuinely” equipped to embark on social media. To me, that's “transparent”.

By: Jonathan Trenn

Jonathan Trenn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:22:18 +0000

It seems to me the desire to pigeonhole social media and where is should reside and what who should lead it ends up creating yet another silo. At least a silo in the mindset.

This and Jason's posts have inspired me to write two posts of my own.

http://marketingconversation.com/2008/07/30/soc...

http://marketingconversation.com/2008/07/30/so-...

By: KatFrench

KatFrench — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:01:00 +0000

Jim –

That reminds me of a conversation Jason and I had last week about the fact that social media seems to attract folks who are “jacks of all trades.”

Maybe we're the “anti-specialization specialists.”

By: KatFrench

KatFrench — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:01:00 +0000

Jim –

That reminds me of a conversation Jason and I had last week about the fact that social media seems to attract folks who are “jacks of all trades.”

Maybe we're the “anti-specialization specialists.”

By: Jim "Genuine" Turner

Jim "Genuine" Turner — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:21:27 +0000

I come from the legal department where I worked for 22 years but I got into social media consulting because i had a knack for it. The hats i wear on a daily basis vary from advertising, to PR to SEO to trash taker outer. Yeah Social Media consultant has far more hats than many department heads can even imagine.

By: Jim "Genuine" Turner

Jim "Genuine" Turner — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:21:27 +0000

By: 10 social media blog posts to read this week « Emerson Direct Marketing Observations

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:14:46 +0000

[...] blog, How we are made great and then lastly on Jason Falls blog, KatFrench has a great post on social media specialists chucking their backgrounds that basically asks the question, who’s running the ship for social media? Possibly related [...]

By: KatFrench

KatFrench — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:48:21 +0000

JasonFalls – I'm still not convinced that reeling you in is a one-person job.

Metz – You know. your comment reminds me of a blog post I read earlier today about the fact that even the Pope is now using social media. Yeah, when you're making the Pope look like an “early adopter,” it could be a sign you are not keeping up with the times adequately to do your job.

Jim – That's a smart strategy–diversity is never a bad thing.

Martin – So you're saying you've evolved out of your old role and mindset entirely? That's interesting.

Thanks for the comments, folks.