I read a thought provoking article today in Ad Age entitled “P&G Digital Guru Not Sure Marketers Belong on Facebook.”  It’s an interesting discussion about whether it’s possible to “monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend.”  While the article’s scope deals mostly with Facebook banner ads, applications, and the like, the potential of Facebook is not merely limited to pay-per-click ads and kitschy games.  These social media networks are helping us find organic ways to communicate messages to target audiences.  But the possibilities raise many questions.

As a PR Agency owner, I’m concerned about not only what is possible with social networks, but also who is responsible, both internally and externally.   (i.e. Who has overview and responsibility for the budget, and who will eventually own the space – PR agencies or ad agencies ? Neither? A mixture of the above?)

At 5WPR, we spend a considerable amount of time debating, internally, with consultants and with clients, about how to best maximize a client’s brand via social media. While I am not vested in advertising, this P & G expert is certainly raising some interesting points on where Facebook and other brands go.  A few things I am sure of:  there are few agencies with a real strategy to help brands monetize online, and even fewer companies out there with real fluent plans to succeed online.  Surely that will change in the near future.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Tags: MARKETING, PR, Public Relations, Social Media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pm and is filed under PR, SOCIAL NETWORKING. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.