Who owns Social Media in the Performing Arts?

The article "Which Department Owns Social Media?"  was published yesterday at Mashable by Christina Warren. I touched this question two days ago when I proposed that marketing and audience development professionals may have to merge their paths when working with social media. The "Social media ownership" is a tricky question because social media can have so many different goals and give different results. The ownership is important since many organizations tend to run into social media without a real strategy (because it feels so yesterday not to have a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account). It is not very smart to do things without thinking, so we'd better go for a strategy. But then, who should develop the social media strategy in a performing arts organization? 

 

Warren's article lines out different possibilities and problems when classifying Social Media into a specific department:

• Social media is a natural extension of MARKETING and PR. It is however difficult to decide if it should be owned by the Marketing or the PR department since it is proven to be "a solid marketing tool but also a great platform for public relations".
  
• Social media is technical so the responsibility for development of social media strategies could lie on the IT DEPARTMENT
  
• Social media is also increasingly used as a customer service tool by some companies, because customer service problems are more and more treated in the open. It could be CUSTOMER SERVICE.
  
• Some state that social media is a companywide affair that NOBODY should own
  
• Social media might have to be organized in a policy both for professional and personal social media use and therefore include the department for HUMAN RESOURCES
  
• Some people state that social media should start from the TOP
  

I think that:

• Since far from all theaters have digital marketing managers, it seems logical to me that Marketing and PR departments together take the main responsibility for social media strategies in performing arts organizations.
  
• The Social Media Strategy has to be coordinated from one or a couple of persons depending on the size of the organization. It could be the Head of Marketing or Head of Communication. This can however be a problem since it is not sure that the senior marketing and communication managers have the most updated knowledge in social media and might not see the full potential of a social media. So, they have to get updated fast!
  
• Social Media is definitely a "companywide affair" that will be best used if it includes the whole theater. This is why the coordination mention above is important since many different professional groups can be included.
  
• Social Media can only become a "companywide affair" it the theater direction is engaged in the implementation of the strategy.
  
• It could be a great benefit for performing arts organizations if Social Media was really developed to include Customer Service; more tickets are released for a popular performance, a performance or event is cancelled, how can service be improved? Accessibility? Ticket handling? etc etc… Out in the open with costumer service in the performing arts!
• A Social Media Policy is particularly important in an organization which employs many freelancers on short term contracts who most likely have their own personal social media activities – some with very strong personal brands and big groups of followers. No restrictions, but it is good to be aware of which social media are used, how, in what tone and what it can mean to the organization.
  
• A Social Media Policy is particularly important in an organization which is built on content. There are so many groups in the organization that can use social media, and add content to social media. There is even an example of how the Royal Opera House in London used Twitter to let their community write an opera. Great buzz for the theater, but each organization have to line out how they want to use social media.