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sk 10 different CMOs what social media is, and you’ll get 10 different answers. They’re not wrong; most people just don’t realize how broad social media is. To compound the issue, most companies have political infighting over which division owns it. They all should, in reality, but for different reasons.

The chart below illustrates how many divisions social media has, and which corporate divisions should own each section. This is subject to endless debate and of course, we welcome your opinions on the matter. Please comment below with your changes, additions, opinions and hate mail on the chart. We will revise as we see fit. Or when we get around to it.

Note: This list purposely does not include social media agencies (like Buzz Lounge) and social media freelancers as all of these are performed by decent social media agencies. This was to highlight how social media is divided up internally and externally by their immediate vendors.

Division	Ownership	Likely Platforms and Tactics
Social Media Relations	PR Dept., Corporate Communications	Twitter; CEO blog; Pitch Engine; monitoring of CEO’s name and brand mentions in press
Social CRM	CRM Dept., Call Center, Ad Agency	Company blog; Company Facebook, YouTube and Flickr profiles, Content Seeding, monitoring of brand everywhere
Social Marketing	Marketing Dept., Ad Agency	Company blog; Company Facebook, YouTube and Flickr profiles, monitoring of brand everywhere
Widgets, Apps and Tools	Developers, Ad Agency	API integration, invention, mashups
Cause Marketing	Non-Profit Group, Ad Agency	Social Networks, Tungle, Mobile apps, monitoring of topic and influencers
Employment	HR Dept.,	Twitter, LinkedIn, Second Life, Facebook

Where do you think social media belongs?

Creative Commons image via webtreats

Popularity: 25% [?]

Fantastic new post from Brass Tack Thinking entitled, 4 Things You Need to Know About Influence. We couldn’t agree more.

“And you’ll likely never really know who they—the real influencers—are.”

So true. The Web is so full of unsung heroes and even well-knowns who, for whatever reason, have few followers. For example, Tim Berners-Lee has—at the time of this writing—less than 30,000 followers on Twitter. Surprisingly low, considering he invented the World Wide Web.

Popularity: 17% [?]

A free infographic for you to download and use as long as you do not remove the colophon or CC notice. Feel free to use this for meetings, classrooms, presentations, etc.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Here’s a free idea for Starbucks to increase their sales. You listening, Annie Young-Scrivner? Here’s the idea: Starbucks Reserved. A business class-only Starbucks location. It should be near or above existing Starbucks locations. Charge for entrance. $500 a year, for example. I know I’d pay to be in a business-only environment with your coffee and music.

Other additions to add value:

1. Conference rooms that can be reserved for meetings
2. Plugs for laptops at every table
3. Make the gold cards we get now do more. Let them become the swipe cards to enter the business class locations.
4. Nix the cozy chairs in favor of cubicles, like those in most airport world clubs
5. Wifi-based printers
6. Calendar integration with Tungle for scheduling the conference rooms

Popularity: 14% [?]