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Quick Summary: My take on the PR vs marketing debate in social media circles — nobody owns the social media sandbox.

There’s a debate going on in search, marketing and PR blogs on what is Social Media Marketing, how does it relate to Search Marketing and Social Marketing, and who owns it.

On one extreme are the SEO/ SEM experts who primarily focus on the role of social bookmarking, social news and other social networking sites in driving traffic to websites (The Search Marketing Purists) –

Social media is easy to hype because there is a lot of traffic on social media sites. But if you try to do anything with social media traffic to convert it to revenue, you will be hard-pressed — unless you are selling CPM-based advertising. (Aaron Wall)

On the other extreme are the not-for-profit social workers who primarily focus on the role of marketing in influencing social behavior and bringing about social change (The Social Marketing Purists) —

Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society. (Nedra Kline Weinreich)

I’ve noticed numerous references on blogs and podcasts that mislabel social media marketing as simply social marketing, probably for reasons of shorthand. Let’s not shortchange the real social marketers who’ve been working hard for years to change the world by confusing the two disciplines with an incorrect shorthand. (Jackie Huba)

In between are the many shades of marketers and PR practitioners who now make a living as social media consultants.

The PR purists primarily focus on the “social media” part of social media marketing and insist that the basic role of social media is in enabling conversations and community and enabling brands to connect with consumers and citizens in a human way. The PR purists have a tendency to approach social media marketing from a self-righteous, almost non-commercial pedestal and they are very vocal about their unhappiness with marketers using social media tools for commercial purposes –

3 months ago - hardly anyone in my little neck of the woods had heard of Social Media - now there are “Social Media Gurus” popping up all over the place. I’ve been working in New Media for nearly 7 years and in web design for nearly 15 years. I started my first blog in 2001. I know a lot of the people who created the so-called “Web 2.0″ tools that are popular today - and I’ve private beta tested more applications than I can even begin to count. But guess what? I’m NOT a Social Media Guru. (Erica O’Grady)

Some respected (search and social media) experts are advocating launching social media marketing programs solely for the purpose of influencing search engines, rather than with the intent of fostering collaboration and genuine communication. This represents a clear and present danger to the fabric of the community. If you care about the social web, then you should be alarmed. SEO, like word of mouth, should be a byproduct outcome, not a primary objective. Any brand that plays in this space should be aiming to create value. Do that and the other stuff will follow. But the SEO shenanigans for the sake of SEO has to stop. If you’re going to play in our sandbox, follow the community’s (unwritten) rules. (Steve Rubel)

While some of us viewed it as an opportunity to empower people to discover and contribute valuable and helpful content, others are cashing-in on Social Media by hawking their vision and strategy, or lack thereof, on unsuspecting businesses looking for genuine help. Instead, these impressionable companies are getting the very “marketers” Social Media should have inspired to engage and evolve in the first place. (Bryan Solis)

My PR purist friend Rajesh Lalwani and I have discussed the merits and demerits of a PR vs. marketing approach to social media many times, and it was his tweet today that prompted me to write this post.

- No one discipline — including, and especially, PR — owns social media. Social media has implications, and applications, across departments. Marketing, corporate communications, market research, product development and HR — all disciplines and departments have a role to play in leveraging social media for companies and brands. I repeat, nobody owns the social media sandbox.

- Nobody has all the answers on social media. It doesn’t matter how long you have been working in a related field (marketing, PR, website design, SEO/ SEM). In fact, it doesn’t matter how long you have been working. The learning curve in technology, and social media, is really steep and the only thing that matters is whether you “get it” intuitively. The founders of some of the most respected technology and web 2.0 companies today — from Microsoft/ Apple to Google/ Yahoo! to Facebook/ Digg — were not exactly industry veterans when they formed these companies.

- The people who really get social media — I’m thinking of Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang — approach it from a totally discipline or platform agnostic perspective. They understand that there is no one right approach to social media, that there is no one right social media tool, that there is no one right application of social media tools. By allowing themselves to play around with the social media sandbox, they play a part in changing the sandbox and add true value and understanding.

Also see Joshua Porter), Jim Tobin, Rajesh Lalwani, India PR Blog, Jeremy Pepper, Jeremiah Owyang.