Survey: More execs want PR pros handling their brand’s social media

The new darlings in the world of corporate social media are public relations and communications pros.

A growing number of U.S. advertising and marketing executives favor those specialists over other corporate departments for social media savvy, according to a new survey from staffing firm The Creative Group.

More than half (51 percent) of the 400 executives surveyed say PR and communications departments are best suited to handle corporate social media channels. That’s a 12 percent increase over the number of executives who favored PR and communications staffers for that responsibility in a similar study conducted two years ago.

This year, execs preferred PR pros over marketing departments (28 percent, down from 35 percent two years ago), customer service teams (9 percent, down from 15 percent), and CEOs and business owners (5 percent, the same as two years ago). Among the survey respondents, 7 percent said “other” or “don’t know.”