Is “Social Media Manager” a good title and job description, as David Thomas, of Cary, NC software giant SAS, suggests here: Why I am right and Chris Brogan is wrong, or is it, as Chris Brogan suggested, ” …a scary thing. Why? Because it’s like being the fax manager or the email manager. You’re naming yourself after a tool.”

I ask this because a tweet came across this morning that got me to thinking more about this. The tweet went like this, “@maniactive Soon, ‘Social Media Consultant’ will sound as quaint as ‘Email Consultant’ or ‘Fax Expert’.” Substitute “Manager” for “Consultant” and you get the idea.

Clearly, this is something a number of people are talking about. A good working definition of Social Media would go a long way towards eliminating these types of discussions I suspect. But what would be the fun of that?

I think what we need to determine is this. Is Social Media a tool? And if so, what is it a tool of? Sales? Communications? Marketing? PR? All of those? Just exactly who owns it within an organizational structure? Or is it that Social Media is something other than a tool? And that Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, YouTube, Flicker and the rest are all tools of Social Media?

Could we say that email and fax machines are communication tools? I’ve never known or heard of an Email Manager or a Fax Manager. And that’s most likely the point Chris Brogan is making. Social Media Manager could very well be headed for the graveyard of job titles.

Or, could Social Media Manager be the description for that person who manages all of the tools of Social Media? I’m leaning towards the latter one. I see both sides but I think that a manager of one of the “tools” of Social Media would be the one considered quaint. I can imagine the cocktail party conversation now. “And just what do you do?” “I’m the Tweet Manager.” “Excuse me, the what?”

What are your thoughts? Have you got a good working definition of Social Media? If so, could there be a Manger of it?

(Image credit: biojobblog.com)