According to the results of a survey conducted by email marketing company StrongMail, only 9% of respondents feel social media responsibilities should be owned by PR departments. Almost a third believe it's something that should be shared across multiple departments. Those who answered direct marketing should own it edged out the multiple people by 35% to 29%.

This was conducted with a small sampling of StrongMail's lists, so naturally it leans in that direction.

If you're a student of infomercials, I'd posit that social media isn't the sole domain of PR, rather it's a "football and a phone" (an early infomercial pushing football-shaped princess phones). It can do both and as such will eventually span multiple marketing disciplines.

PR people may bristle at the idea that Twitter and Facebook work fine for push-marketing, as well as for social interaction with stakeholders. Twitter can be, after all, partially an RSS feed for the user, or something much richer.

PR departments, in theory, are places where marketers can listen, learn and adjust messages longer term.

For those with messy in-boxes, take note of the second finding in the press release: 83% will increase spend in email marketing, followed by social media at 62%.

[Pie chart via Webponce]