In the Digital Age Advertsing and Social Media Teams need to merge into one Digital Team

Very good and true examination by Jennifer Polk from Gartner. The borders between paid, owned and earned media are getting porous, I wouldn’t say transparent (yet). Take ibmexperts.computerwoche.de, a German language platform on important IT topics. This is a perfect example of a platform sponsored by a vendor, enriched by professional copywriters with independent quality content. It is around the IBM growth initiatives Analytics & Big Data, Mobile, Social Business, Commerce and Cloud offering IBM Subject Matter Experts as sparring partners for customers interested in these topics. Prospects and customers can get engaged through live chats or forums asking questions. IBMers are adding content (by the way nor official language press releases). The content is being distributed through social media through the platform channels, e.g. Twitter, official IBM channel and personal accounts from individual IBMers. And obviously tweets and comments are being earned from independent people on the web.

Who is running or should be running it? The department in charge of Social Media? The classical advertising department? At the end it doesn’t matter, who is paying the check. It all comes from IBM. But it matters to understand that Social Media and classical advertising converge and need to converge in the Social Age. In our case the Advertising department took the initiative and was heading down this path the lead. THANK YOU! We are in the age of Digital Marketing changing the roles of the last century. Social Media and Advertising teams need to merge into one Digital Team!

Social media managers and community managers—the hosts at the social marketing party—are really good at managing earned social media. … But they aren’t exactly experts in paid media. They haven’t had to be. …

On the other hand, digital advertising and media managers—experts at generating impressions—are really good at managing paid media. They can define the target audience, … and guarantee (sort of) that the right people are seeing the right message in the right place and at the right time. …

… Now those two worlds are converging colliding because success in social marketing requires paid advertising to ensure your compelling content actually reaches enough of the right people.

… If media managers and agencies want reach, they need social networks, but it’s not just about designing ads and buying slots. Success in social media requires an ongoing engagement.

…  Or do we see an emergence of a third, hybrid role that combines skills needed to manage both paid and earned media? Comment and tell us how your company manages these two silos and the convergence or collision of two worlds.

via Will paid and earned social media converge or collide? | Jennifer Polk.