Are you experiencing firsthand the struggle to find where social media “fits” within your organization? Companies are no longer so much doubting whether social media has value to them, but they aren’t sure who should own it, or even what to do with it.
Social media has value beyond consumer PR, such as for advertising and promotion (or for recruiting, competitive research, associate relations and corporate reputation/crisis communication just to name a few) and I don’t know of an organization yet that has landed on the answer. We’re all still ironing out how to approach social media in that broader perspective.
This is admittedly difficult and the resolution is not as easy as it may seem on the surface. Ultimately, social media can be a tool that is employed by various business functions to reach their objectives. For example, a human resources recruiting function would be deficient without employing the use of social media to target audiences and promote the organization’s brand as a leading employer.
But while I’ve spent the last couple years cultivating the idea that social media is meaningful to business in a variety of ways, we’re immature in knowing what that means for how we move forward. I can’t help but feel this is like us trying to figure out who owns the telephone. Who owns the telephone? Does HR, Marketing…Legal? Maybe I’m oversimplifying, but isn’t the answer that the phone can be a useful tool in many areas of business? Isn’t social media? Because social media didn’t just change Marketing, or PR… it has changed how we do business and how we interact with our associates and our customers.
It certainly doesn’t make sense to designate an owner who dictates all use of social media, just like we wouldn’t do that for the telephone. Who is going to know best the needs of recruiting, or loss prevention?
I’m idealistic, and I believe in letting subject matter experts be the subject matter experts. To some extent, each business function needs to evaluate the value of social media to their initiatives and determine what commitment they place on this tool. And each should govern how they use it and how they measure its effectiveness for their purpose.
The line can get confusing in particular for Marketing vs. PR, but if you keep in context the spirit of social media and the purpose of Marketing and function of PR, you can see where to restrict promotional/marketing messaging, and where communication leads the brand’s PR.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Beating the Heat
(from my blog at pets.com)
I live in Phoenix and it’s been hot here this summer, as always. But I’ve noticed that this year has been harder on Rosso, my nearly 8-year-old Vizsla.
As some of you may remember from an earlier blog, Rosso got Valley Fever earlier this year and he’s been on medication to eradicate the fungus. That’s been going well, and I’m hopefully he’ll soon be free of its grasp. But, I keep noticing how he’s getting old. He’s slowing down, and I worry about him.
Rosso started getting his old-man mask of grey hair around his muzzle about a year ago, and it’s slowing filling in and now the grey is creeping in-between his toes, as well. But otherwise there’s been no other sign of his aging until this summer. Now I can clearly see that the heat is hard on him. I have to remind myself that the vet checked him over thoroughly when he first got Valley Fever and at that time pronounced him very healthy: his internal organs, bone structure, hips, etc. all looked very good. But he’s achy and drops flat on the cool tile floor to cool down the minute I let him in.
I have usually kept my dogs outside in the summer. I’ve always hated it and, while I’ve made sure they have always had shade, grass, a doggie play pool and tons of cool water to drink from, I’ve never liked it leaving them out there to the elements. The main reason I have is because I seem to always be in a state where at least one dog isn’t mature enough to be loose in the house, cancelling out being able to leave them inside and/or having a doggie door so they can come and go. I really want a doggie door for them, but once again I have a young one that just a tad naughty at times. Besides, Rosso doesn’t really like using the pool at all.
I’m looking at options, such as getting the doggie door, but making it so they can come in to a designated area, but my house configuration is making that hard unless I use a kennel or play pen set-up in the living room. I’ve also thought about crating the baby (Molly) and letting Rosso have free reign. But I don’t like her being crated all day at this age. Someone suggested having the doggie door connect into the garage, but it seems at least as hot if not more stifling in there.
Help! Does anyone have any ideas? I need to get the both out of this heat.
Valley Fever: Here’s more info to check out on Valley Fever – important if you live or visit Arizona, New Mexico, southwestern Texas or central California: http://www.vfce.arizona.edu/Content/Documents/Valley%20Fever%20in%20Dogs%20for%20PDF.pdf
I live in Phoenix and it’s been hot here this summer, as always. But I’ve noticed that this year has been harder on Rosso, my nearly 8-year-old Vizsla.
As some of you may remember from an earlier blog, Rosso got Valley Fever earlier this year and he’s been on medication to eradicate the fungus. That’s been going well, and I’m hopefully he’ll soon be free of its grasp. But, I keep noticing how he’s getting old. He’s slowing down, and I worry about him.
Rosso started getting his old-man mask of grey hair around his muzzle about a year ago, and it’s slowing filling in and now the grey is creeping in-between his toes, as well. But otherwise there’s been no other sign of his aging until this summer. Now I can clearly see that the heat is hard on him. I have to remind myself that the vet checked him over thoroughly when he first got Valley Fever and at that time pronounced him very healthy: his internal organs, bone structure, hips, etc. all looked very good. But he’s achy and drops flat on the cool tile floor to cool down the minute I let him in.
I have usually kept my dogs outside in the summer. I’ve always hated it and, while I’ve made sure they have always had shade, grass, a doggie play pool and tons of cool water to drink from, I’ve never liked it leaving them out there to the elements. The main reason I have is because I seem to always be in a state where at least one dog isn’t mature enough to be loose in the house, cancelling out being able to leave them inside and/or having a doggie door so they can come and go. I really want a doggie door for them, but once again I have a young one that just a tad naughty at times. Besides, Rosso doesn’t really like using the pool at all.
I’m looking at options, such as getting the doggie door, but making it so they can come in to a designated area, but my house configuration is making that hard unless I use a kennel or play pen set-up in the living room. I’ve also thought about crating the baby (Molly) and letting Rosso have free reign. But I don’t like her being crated all day at this age. Someone suggested having the doggie door connect into the garage, but it seems at least as hot if not more stifling in there.
Help! Does anyone have any ideas? I need to get the both out of this heat.
Valley Fever: Here’s more info to check out on Valley Fever – important if you live or visit Arizona, New Mexico, southwestern Texas or central California: http://www.vfce.arizona.edu/Content/Documents/Valley%20Fever%20in%20Dogs%20for%20PDF.pdf
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