As we visit with chief communications officers at Fortune 100 companies, it’s becoming more and more obvious that a confrontation of sorts is brewing over who should “own” the online channel for direct communications with customers and constituents.  Marketing is laying claim, suggesting it is the next wave in efficiently communicating with current and potential customers.  The early attempts by many marketers focused on familiar tactics from traditional media: things like banner ads and well timed “pop-ups” that aimed to capture the consumers’ attention at just the right moments.  The problem is that the people they were trying to engage largely viewed these tactics as commercial intrusions on a sacred social space.  The techniques have evolved greatly over the past eighteen months, as recognition of some of the unique characteristics of the online channel are better understood by advertisers.  Still, even the latest and greatest attempts fail to fully appreciate how to engage consumers in the online channel — on their terms.

This is where a big opportunity presents itself for the public relations practitioner.

Fundamentally, we have an advantage in this era of social communications. Our years of having to contend with the filtering of the media channel to get our messages to key constituents has created the discipline required to really dig deep into what will resonate with consumers.  That’s not to say that marketers did not have their own deep knowledge and understanding.  In fact, many would say that they were much better grounded in research than those of us in PR.

But we were forced to focus on both the end consumer of information and the channel filters.  As a result, we put an extraordinary amount of emphasis on things like credibility, authenticity and relevance.  We established a more direct connection with the consumers of our information.  We had to in order to “sell” our ideas to the media.

So, who owns the new channel?  There is probably room for all of us, but if public relations practitioners miss the opportunity to lead on this, shame on us!