Lara Kretler’s blog

Social media was designed around conversation, connections and information sharing. The socialsphere can also be a great place for competitions, arguments and debates. Today, as part of my ongoing Friday Five series, I give you my five favorite social media rivalries. Choose your side:

1. Personal branding vs. The Community (aka Jason Falls vs. Geoff Livingston). On Thursday of this week, I caught sight of these two well-respected social media gurus duking it out on Twitter over a commonly discussed topic in social media - that of the individual vs. the whole. As a longtime reader of both blogs, I was well aware of the differences in opinion between Jason and Geoff on the topic of personal branding – Geoff in particular seems to have a real aversion for that phrase and phenomenon – but it was still intriguing to “listen” to their at-times heated debate on Twitter. I even checked in with them both to confirm that it was a friendly debate (they reassured me) and to ask permission to share their spirited sparring here (they said go for it). The conversation is well worth a read. Where do you fall on the topic of personal brand? I’m probably closer to Jason’s view than I am to Geoff’s, though I can certainly see both sides. In fact, I like Todd Defren’s take on personal branding best: it’s essential for any PR professional these days.

2. Who Owns Social Media? (aka PR vs. Marketing vs. Advertising vs. Interactive). This is one argument that you really can’t win because there are good points on all sides. Ultimately, it comes down to who’s doing social media well, who’s measuring it, and who’s showing great results. I don’t think it’s hard to figure out where I fall in this debate – social public relations FTW – and I’m proud to see so many amazing, smart PR people leading the way in social media. Even Charlene Li, whose fantastic Altimeter Group Wiki is shaping up to be a top resource for social media pros of all stripes, includes a special section for social media PR firms. The jury’s still out on this debate but I think as time goes by, we’ll see PR continuing to take the lead on social. After all, it’s all about relationships.

3. Paid Posts vs. Purists. I’ve posted about this topic before, but it continues to be a hot one in the blogosphere. I envision the WalMart ElevenMoms on one side, with their prolific giveaways and sponsored posts, and the true purists on the other side refusing to even take part in a free cupcake tasting. It’s a big, wide, social world out there – good thing there’s room for us all.

4. Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer. It’s hard to imagine anyone who didn’t hear about the great Daily Show smackdown this week of CNBC’s Jim Cramer by the victorious Jon Stewart. The battle may have started on late night cable TV, but it continues to play on in social media. Jon Stewart was a trending topic on Twitter for days and Twendz, the new Twitter sentiment measurement tool released this week by Waggener Edstrom, even featured Stewart vs. Cramer on the front page at launch. Poor Cramer… did he ever even have a chance?

5. Rick Liebling’s March Marketing/Social Media Madness. Clever writing, great bloggers and a posse of social media rockstars form the basis of this March Madness-style virtual competition. There’s not much to debate here, since all of the bloggers included are worthy of big wins, but it’s a fun rivalry to watch nonetheless. Check out the follow-up posts on Eyecube and we’ll see who ends up the big winner.

That’s the Friday Five for this week. Be sure to catch up on the rest of the series. Do you have a strong opinion or two on any of the rivalries above? What would you like to see in future editions of the Friday Five?

Oh, and TGIF!