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Ok, battle might be overstating it. But last night at The Cabbagtown Boxing Club, a formidable group of social media folks duked it out in the ring. Really. Aside from being a cool event from a creative point of view – after a real boxing demonstration (with a real bloody nose) the social media debates took place inside a boxing ring - it was fascinating to hear smart people discussing the various points of contention about social media.

There were three bouts – here’s the summary and my take on the discussions.

Topic #1 – Is the blog dead yet? 

Contenders: Danny Brown, Social Media Strategist, Maritz vs. Michael Cayley, Principal, Social Capital Practice at Context Creative Inc.

This topic was chosen based on a Wired magazine article claiming that blogs are over. I don’t think either contender believed this to be true which made it a bit of a contrived battle.  Despite this some interesting points were made.

Blogs are evolving. Good bloggers are creating a destination for interesting content for their audiences. Their blogs are no longer just rants about the things they are interested in. They offer links to other blogs, video, discussion forums. As blogs evolve it is clear that the microblogging services like Twitter will never replace them because they simply don’t allow for enough high quality content.

Topic #2 Who is best to handle social media (PR, Brand…)

Goodwin Gibson, President, Maclaren MRM was pitted against David Bradfield, Senior VP and Senior Partner, Global Chair, Fleishman Hillard

Bradfield contends that social media at its core is PR and that conversation and the ability to engage and interact with a community are PR skills.

Gibson came out swinging saying that if you are looking at social media in isolation you are missing it.

One of the most interesting points came from someone in the audience who said “PR has always been about managing the message, how can it now be about letting go of it?” Hmmmm. I think part of the problem is an issue of control. Everyone wants to have it and no one can effectively prove that they deserve it.

I recently watched a MarketingProfs webinar where Sandy Carter of IBM talked about how the “Hub and Spoke” model worked for their organization. She explains that the hub is the cross functional team made up of multiple stakeholders across the company. She also asserts that their success is built on the premise that social media isn’t just about marketing – “it’s about sellers, business partners, product development, customer support/service in a holistic fashion, it also brings in market intelligence and all elements of marketing and public relations”. I think letting go of ownership and embracing organizational collaboration sounds like the key here.

Topic #3 Is Social Media the New Customer Service

Contenders: Tamera Kremer, Partner, Teehan+Lax and Daniel Debow, CEO, Rypple vs. David Jones, VP, Hill & Knowlton and Jesse Hirsh of the CBC

This was one of the liveliest debates. Hirsh was witty and over the top about the dangers of allowing customers to have a voice. He referred to responding to complaints in the public domain as incentivizing complainers: “rewarding the sycophants”.

Debow talked about how if you don’t respond to complaints they don’t just go away. And made the equally valid point that those who are loud complainers can also be loud advocates.

“They (your employees) have to be passionate about what they’re doing” was one of the points Kremer made noting that it doesn’t matter if they are communicating on the phone, online or via email.

Both Hirsh and Jones contended that the public space is not the best place to solve problems. That problems shouldn’t be ignored but they should be moved to a private forum. What I thought was interesting was they were making these comments shortly after a discussion on the United Breaks Guitars incident from earlier this year. But in that case, Dave Carroll apparently tried for a year to get United to settle in a more private forum. If United had have done what was right in the first place, the firestorm that ensued would never have been ignited.

What is fascinating too is that what was a critical customer service disaster for United, was a customer service opportunity for Taylor Guitars. Talk about a whole new world.

Well, there you have it. You had to be there to get the full weight of the discussion but I have to say The League of Kickass Business People organized a winner. Loved the event.

Kristy