Natalie Malaszenko has always loved pets. A 31-year-old resident of San Diego, Calif., she has a dog named Sarge and a cat named Leo. Years ago, when she lived in Texas, she took care of cows and horses and even a stray emu. In recent months, however, since beginning a full-time job at the pet retailer Petco, she has taken on the additional responsibility of tending to a breed of notoriously unruly carnivores, capable of scaring off even the most patient caregiver—namely, online commenters. So far, Malaszenko says she loves them, too.

Earlier this year, Petco executives appointed Malaszenko to a new—and trendy—job: director of social media and commerce. Across the country, companies like Petco are going through a two-step process. First, they scramble to hire social media officers. Second, they figure out what it is, exactly, that social media officers do. Blending departments—promotion and marketing, customer service and support—and requiring the ability to be shameless boosters while maintaining a light, self-aware tone, the job category is experiencing a boomlet as companies try to keep up with the new media world. The chief social media officer may be supplanting the chief branding officer as the zaniest human resource innovation in memory.

Malaszenko's initial assignment was to envision and articulate Petco's social media strategy for the future. "How do we take the great passion that people have for their pets and do something with it in social?" she asks, using the corporate shorthand for social media. "As a team, we figured out that for us it means being a part of these discussions, regardless of where they're happening." To that end, Malaszenko now curates multiple Petco fan pages on Facebook, several Twitter accounts, and the company blog, called The Petco Scoop. "Raising pets is really challenging," she says. "Dogs pee on the carpet. Cats scratch furniture. How do you help people through it and not necessarily say, 'this is the expert advice,' because we all have different opinions. We're just bringing the opinions together and harvesting [them] into a community."

The ultimate goal of her social media team, says Malaszenko, is to help the bottom line. "It's about having a conversation," she says. "But it's also about using social to influence purchase decisions....For us, it's about making money, as well."