cbroph24

[cbroph24]

Social Media Ethics and Core Principles

Cara Brophy

Current State of Social Media Ethics:

With new trends, apps, influencers, features, and other components constantly emerging on social media, it is constantly changing and evolving. There are several current trends happening in the social media world right now. Such as broadcasts, chats, and live videos. Live video has been so successful for apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and other businesses are looking into it because of the positive outcomes they have given. Ephemeral content, which refers to short-lived content that vanishes after 24 hours, is another trend that is extremely successful and popular. The use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies, which enables buyers to see items in 3D before making a purchase, is another trend. Influencer marketing is really taking off, which we know is marketing that collaborates with businesses, groups, and agencies to work with influencers. These are just a few examples of some current popular trends that are happening as of right now.  

One case that relates to social media ethics is the clothing company Brandy Melville. This extremely popular brand is loved by Gen Z and is accused of being sexist and racist. The brand is under criticism for their betrayal of the “one size fits all” statement, when in reality the size is equivalent to a small. They are also under negative reviews for their models which are majority all white, thin, and blonde hair. This company shows little to no diversity or equality and seems to discriminate towards heavy set females that are of different races. This relates to social media ethics because the company lacks in supporting others who are different and has made minimal to no changes towards their company's behaviors and actions on and offline.  

Cancel culture is a different circumstance that has to do with social media ethics. This is the act of ceasing to promote, read, advertise, or support a person's or a brand's work. Because it occurs every minute of the day, the phrase "cancel culture" is becoming well known across the world. It happens frequently for people to tweet senseless messages or post offensive comments. These days people can be so cruel and ruthless online because they are able to hide behind a screen, and it is much more common now. These are not online ethical behaviors, instead of treating each other with kindness and respect, we are putting each other down and tearing each other up.  

Snapchat is a company that I would be interested in working for as a member of their social media team. They strive to include kindness and empathy into everything as one of their core beliefs. Their code of conduct is based on the tenet that "when our stakeholders succeed, so do we!" They consider kindness to be a motivator in their pursuit of treating their stakeholders fairly. Building an inclusive and diverse staff at Snapchat and promoting mental wellness takes priority in their company.  

Brands With Strong Social Media Ethical Codes:

Apple, a firm with a 28.8 million-strong following, is one company that appears to have a strong social media ethical code. Their profiles demonstrate an extraordinarily strong, diversified collection of individuals with individual histories. Everyone has a story to tell is one of their guiding principles, and they do an excellent job of presenting that idea. This company's enthusiasm for the technological world contributes to their success. They put forth a lot of effort to maintain their online personas of fairness, humor, love, and support. They are able to portray themselves in a positive manner on social media. Another brand who shows strong ethics is Nike, with a following of 244 million. Nike has numerous connections with teams and athletes all over the world and makes sure not to be prejudiced. They also exhibit diversity online, as well as their individual backstories. Before publishing information online, the company performs fact checks and peer reviews to ensure that it is correct and accurate. Both these brands have great ethical practices online and strive to always work hard and be the best.  

There are several professions that both ought to and do keep to high social media ethical standards. For instance, athletes who must project a positive, responsible character due to the possibility of having millions of fans. Actors are another because they frequently have millions of followers and must act professionally online. Public figures like artists, musicians, and models. These folks typically behave ethically online and provide a good example of it. Some takeaways I can take from this and use in my practices are to be kind to others and refraining from hateful mean comments. To be real, authentic, supportive, and loving. And overall, show a fun-loving person who enjoys themselves. 

Key Concepts and Issues:

Use of courteous language is a fundamental principle for my own online behavior. This is crucial since verbal abuse can be quite painful, therefore it is important to be courteous to one another and avoid demeaning one another. Likewise, avoiding exclusion and making sure everyone feels loved and included. Another, not spamming someone, it can come across quite annoying and irritating. Respecting people's privacy online too is especially important and a courtesy habit to get into. It's crucial to respect people's privacy online and doing so should become second nature. To make sure we are putting accurate information out there by fact checking and reviewing before posting. These are just a few concepts I adhere to my online practices.  

What to do and what not to do:

Online cruelty, such as leaving cruel comments, excluding people, and displaying hatred for one another, are some ideas that I strongly oppose. I also want to make sure I do not look fake online, meaning I show all aspects of my life instead of just the fun happy moments. Also, spreading fake news and inaccurate information. Overall, just representing a positive light of myself and remaining drama free.  

Concepts to follow as practicing social media professional:

Build a presence on the right platforms  

Respond promptly to DMs and comments  

Content approval process  

Use tools to achieve more  

Evaluate trends before jumping aboard  

Check accounts daily  

Post at the right time  

Try different posting frequencies

[cbroph24]

Cara Brophy Who doesn't love animals?

The nonprofit organization I choose to write about is called The Humane Society of the United States. This group strives to improve the lives of animals and put an end to their misery and abuse. The group campaigns against a number of undesirable and inhumane productions, including trophy hunting, the fur trade, puppy mills, and quite a few more. Every year, they are successful in saving thousands of animals, and they continue pushing to save as many as they possibly can. Their goals include putting an end to the cruelest treatment of animals, providing care for animals in need, and strengthening the animal protection movement. They have already achieved success in several areas, including having the largest team of animal welfare experts in the world, highly skilled rescuers and caregivers, passionate policy change advocates, and staff members who can immediately treat sick or injured animals, and these are just a couple of their great accomplishments. Together, they have achieved a great deal in the fight against animal cruelty, and plan to never give up on them.  

This organization is important and meaningful to me because I have always been such an animal lover my whole life. I love dogs more than any other animal, they are definitely my favorite, and I love how much this group is devoted to their care and safety. It's painful to see and hear about the millions of dogs abandoned, abused, and forced to live such gruesome and brutal lives in this world. It warms my heart and makes a tremendous impact on this world to learn about people who are working hard to aid these animals who are in need. 

Vanity metrics exist to make their audience feel good but do not actually tell us anything about them. For example, The Humane Society Instagram has 420K followers, with likes varying from hundreds to thousands and comments ranging from little-to-none to a hundred plus. Now on Facebook they look to be more popular with a following of 2.5 million, thousands of likes on each post, comments still on the low side, and shares ranging from hundreds to thousands. On YouTube it looks like they post videos often and have 772K subscribers with a total of 199,518,323 views. Lastly, on Twitter they hold 815K followers, with around a thousand views and little likes, comments, and retweets. In all, these four social media platforms show the vanity metrics of The Humane Society accounts.  

There are a number of ways The Humane Society can improve these metrics. Such as, making sure they are targeting the right audience, so they are getting higher views on their page. Another tactic is to ensure you have engaging content so that your users will be interested in and enjoy it. Also look over your profile, is it bold, unique, colorful, and different? These are just a few suggestions this organization could use.  

The first platform I will suggest these metrics to is Instagram. One advanced metric suggestion is to put top trending posts and videos somewhere on the app. A channel metric they could add is to see who specifically viewed and saw your post, because as of now we only know who saw your post by who liked it. A suggestion for the behavioral metric is to have awareness, for profiles, stories, and posts. The second platform I would give advice to is YouTube. An advanced metric I would suggest is also to highlight top trending videos or YouTubers. A suggestion for channel metric would be to add stories like the other platforms have and give accounts the ability to post something for the duration of 24 hours. Lastly, a behavioral metric they could include is to incorporate increased engagement. To conclude, these are the suggestions I would give to Instagram and YouTube.  

[cbroph24]

What is social media?

Cara Brophy

What is social media? I believe social media can be defined in numerous diverse ways. The most important part of defining social media is incorporating that it is some form of communication through technology. Whether it be a tweet, comment, like, share, etc. Social media allows an individual a platform where they decide what they want to share (if they do so) among who they want to share their account with, while at the same time given the opportunity to do so with other followers or accounts. But social media is also much bigger than that, it is used by billions of people around the world. Such as, businesses, athletes, artists, celebrities, restaurants, politicians, etc. Social media has such a wide range of usage, examples are, announcements, promotions, sponsors, give ways, and many other services. We’ve seen social media grow over the years and it has been and will continue to change and evolve in the future.  

I would characterize myself as a more mellow but active social media user. I love social media and scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, snapchatting with my friends, listening to Spotify (music or podcast), posting on BeReal, and watching YouTube videos. These apps are the primary ones I use and for the most part love. I would say I am a bit more of a mellow user is because I often do not post on these platforms. I have a couple hundred followers on Instagram but only have three posts on my account from 2020-Present time. I love TikTok and watching everyone's videos but I have never posted on the app before. And as much as I love to snapchat too, I am not on it nearly as much as my friends are. The majority of my communication and news, however, comes from these apps.  

I consider my strength in understanding social media is that it is not always what it looks like. Many users on social media who post, typically only post the good and happy moments in their lives. Never do we really see one's struggles, sad moments, and challenges. Typically, social media only depicts happy moments, even though these days it is quite common to fake a smile and upload it onto our accounts. My challenge in understanding social media is that my generation, Gen Z, has solely grown up in the world with social media. We have never lived without it, and it has evolved so quickly, and we’ve had to learn to adapt to its latest changes.    

What I would like to get out of this class by the end of the semester is to learn how social media has impacted us so greatly and how it has evolved enormously in such a short period of time. I feel social media has become a huge part of our lives and especially the younger generation. Research has shown how it causes issues of mental illness such as, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, etc. I find this to be quite interesting and would love to learn more about why it has such a significant impact on us all.