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Ethics in Social Media: What Has Happened, What Is Happening, And What Will Happen

The current state of social media ethics: what trends are happening in the industry? (5 pts)

What are two current cases related to social media ethics? (5 pts)

Outline the current code of ethics for social media by a professional organization you would be interesting in joining as part of their social media staff. (10 pts)

What brands are utilizing proper social media ethical practices? (5 pts)

Are there any professionals that you feel practice strong ethical behavior on social media? (5 pts)

What are some takeaways you can bring forth in your own practices? (10 pts)

What main concepts do you think are necessary to adhere to for your own personal conduct online? (20 pts)

What main concepts do you feel strongly against and want to make sure you avoid on social media? (20 pts)

List 5-10 core concepts that you will follow as a practicing social media professional. Include citations that you used (20 pts)

There are a number of new and interesting trends emerging within the sphere of social media ethics. As outlined in this article from SproutSocial, social commerce, brand transparency, and the emergence of AI as a customer care tool are all growing trends in 2024. While these new movements are all topics of interest themselves, their application in social media and widespread use beg questions of ethics that haven’t been explored. How far removed can you be from the customer while still providing good service? Should brands have to explain more than is legally required?

Courts in the United States have been faced with many questions of the same vein. Back in June, the Supreme Court overturned a couple of rulings that addressed complaints that the government has been pressuring social media companies and threatening the First Amendment. After the Supreme Court found that many, if not all, of the claims in the previous cases were unfounded, they determined that a causal link must be present to determine if any government worker had gone too far, which should lead to interesting developments.

There was another case back in March where the courts ruled in favor of government officials protecting their private social media pages. The court determined that government officials are not always acting on behalf of or because of the state, and therefore have the right to enact the First Amendment to block people from posting dissent on their pages.

NPR has been a pillar of journalistic integrity for years, which is only confirmed by their publication of their code of ethics. Their social media section includes many sections addressing the importance of publicizing accurate information and fighting over generalization, speaking to their viewers in tones that foster communication, transparency in why they report and who they get their information from, and taking accountability for what comes out of their organization.

As a former Vermonter, if I were to pick a brand that really embodies a code of ethics in their social media presence without it feeling forceful, I would certainly pick Ben & Jerry’s. Ben & Jerry’s had been advocating for different issues, like the environment and marriage equality, long before it was ever considered a trendy or viral thing to do. I personally think that they have shown that they actually care for the issues that they speak out about online, and they stick to their lane otherwise. They’re quite good at marketing their ice cream in new and engaging ways, and they are just as good at conducting themselves appropriately online.

If I were to pick an individual that conducts themselves with a strong code of ethics, I would have to say GaryVee. GaryVee has built his entire brand on trying to help people better themselves and use social media to help them with their goals. It would then be pretty silly if he was preaching these ideals and turning around to do the opposite. Instead, he uses his platform and reach to inspire individuals and give them ways for them to succeed as well. His language may get a little harsh at times, but I don’t think that this should be seen as immoral, especially when he has so many followers and hasn’t given into gratuitous brand partnerships.

Some takeaways I could apply into my own use on social media could include the importance of only reposting things with explicit and credible sources. That could also lead into the importance of posting unique content, so as to avoid engaging in any sort of copyright infringement. While these concepts are also necessary to adhere to in my own personal conduct online, it is also important to me to refrain from any sort of cyberbullying or attacking of individuals. If I wouldn’t say it to their face I won’t say it on their walls. Further, transparency and authenticity are very important to me, I have no interest in being fake and creating a facade of a personality to drive up online engagement. Lastly, I have no prospects for any sort of sponsored content at the moment, but it would be important to me to have it clearly labeled and have it be a brand that I would feel good talking about if I were talking to say, my grandma.

For concepts that I feel strongly against in social media use, I would say that trendjacking is pretty abhorrent. Trendjacking makes me lose a lot of faith in brands that I like, as it shows tone deafness and a lack of understanding about whatever issue they are trying to sound trendy about. I also feel strongly against the presence of goals for likes and follows within a brand’s community. If people like what you are saying and they actually resonate with your message, then they will continue to engage with your content. There’s no need to bait people if you are being genuine and producing good content.

If I were to outline some core concepts that I would adhere to, I would start with a ban on trendjacking, for reasons previously stated (Freberg 37). Since we’re already talking about ignorance on social media, it would also be important that I understand the guidelines of the different platforms that I am interacting with (Freberg 43). I would make sure that however I do interact on these platforms, I refrain from cyberbullying and creating discourse by just putting people down (Freberg 47). I would make sure that however I do repost and use content that I did not create, I will properly credit and source the creators to avoid copyright infringement (Freberg 49). If I take any sort of endorsements, I will make sure that I maintain a form of integrity in what I am promoting and care about the product and the brand’s stances on issues (Freberg 51). I will have a contingency plan for how to deal with any sort of backlash that I may receive from having a public profile (Freberg 52). Finally, I will refrain from interacting with extreme and incendiary attacks on character, as have been shown in the epidemic of cancel culture (Freberg 48).

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Supporting the Matthew Shepard Foundation in Times of Distress

If I were to choose a foundation that I feel innately passionate about it would be the Matthew Shepard Foundation. I feel as though this touchstone of the LGBTQIA+ community needs to be at the forefront of people’s minds now more than ever. While they are consistent and well-supported in their mission statement, there are numerous improvements that could be made to their messaging and create more consistent communication with their community.  In this blog post I will break down their different social media presences, but I want to make clear that I do not do this with any sort of malice. I instead hope to provide some constructive criticism with the goal of bettering their media outreach. 

Personally, I feel as though their dedicated website (https://www.matthewshepard.org/blog/) is a perfect amalgamation of everything they are trying to achieve. This is a perfect headstone of information, relatability, and course of action. I feel as though they could spread the thoughtfulness that they have put into their website into their social media accounts to reach a larger audience. 

 Their X engagement has been lacking as of recent years and that is a basic vanity metric as is defined in this Hootsuite article. They have posted infrequently, the most recent three dating to the years 2023, 2020, and 2018. Therefore, the platform has not taken the  opportunity to post regularly and reach out to new potential audience members. Posting additional and recent content will drive up the engagement of the followers they previously obtained, currently have, and furthermore influence new followers to expand their messaging and contributions to the organization. Their message is one that the general populace needs to hear, as it supports a marginalized societal group which benefits from both their financial contributions and positive messaging.

In a previous post by the Matthew Shepard Foundation, they featured a photo at a recent gala including widely known actor Kal Penn. In this post, the foundation did not tag him which leads to a lack of engagement which could have been achieved by attracting his own fan base. If Kal Penn were to be tagged, it is reasonable to presume that the post would have been shared more widely across a further diverse fanbase expanding their message and driving up engagement. Furthermore, this simple action would then lead to more “click-throughs” for this organization and inspire more community outreach. While their outreach on X has left a lot to be desired, the foundation has grown to significant lengths which is not reflected in their social media presence. 

The Matthew Sheapard Foundation’s posting efforts on Facebook is also an area which requires improvement. The “shareability” of their posts as of late leaves little to be desired. They have chosen to lean on dry, text filled posts that do not inspire the reader or draw in attention. The detriments to this marketing tactic have been outlined in this post from Hootsuite and identify the main issues that I take with this marketing tactic. I feel as though if they were to take a more broadly appealing method of posting, then they would have the engagement that they are wanting to achieve. By posting photos of their employees, outreach efforts in the community , and events they attend as opposed to text based posts, they have the opportunity to create more eye catching media.  This would then drive up their shares and increase visibility on their platforms. Furthermore, more visibility on social media platforms will increase the awareness they are trying to spread through their efforts. If they were to engage in more broadly appealing posts, with more uplifting messages, it would increase the “shareability” of their posts as well. With more shareability that tugs the heart strings of their audience and feeds into their messaging and mission statement, you then obviously hit the behavioral metric of more click-throughs and awareness of the cause you are using these platforms to promote. 

Overall, I love the Matthew Shepard Foundation with all of my heart. It is this reason that I am choosing to identify it as the focus of my posts. If we are silent in this day and age then there is nothing but hard times coming our way and that is something that I will not stand for. Therefore, it is my goal to help the foundation find the flaws in their current media strategy and improve their social media messaging from the state it is currently in. If done correctly it is my hope that they can increase followers, engagement, and interactions to make the next turn-out a landslide and continue to support a community that I love and support. 

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Week 1 Blog Post: An Intro to Social Media and You

I would define social media as outlets for people to share ideas, communicate, and create various types of content. This is a very vague description because of the way different sites have evolved to incorporate all aspects of personal and professional relations. There has been a different site and app developed to meet the ever changing needs and interests that people come across, so of course the definition of such a far reaching aspect of society will be vague. This is obviously a very important development for society, on par with that of the Silk Road, and it should be studied and understood on as many levels as possible to prevent it from being misused.

If I were to characterize myself as a social media user, I would probably call myself a “consumer”. While I have helped my firm create a podcast to highlight their use of a holistic mentality (focusing on referrals to better serve the customer), I was more of a facilitator rather than a leader or participant. I do have some idea of how algorithms and demographic targeting work because of this experience, but I do not create any sort of content in my personal time. Quite contrarily, I am happy to scroll through different apps in my free time and disseminate things I find entertaining to people in my circle. This isn’t to say I don’t think about the different ways in which social media can be implemented for marketing and branding purposes frequently. I originally started my degree in Vermont with a focus in programming, so I find the ideas and implementation of algorithms and how they curate feeds to the users specific interests extremely interesting. I suppose I’m just lacking in something to promote that I feel passionately about and am happy to consume media until I find that passion project. Another challenge I run into is having my finger on the pulse of virality. Understanding a target demographic and what that demographic is attracted to isn’t very hard, but finding something that will appeal to multiple markets and the mass population is infinitely more difficult.

I aim to gain an understanding of the different ways in which social media can be used to further a brand's image and profit. I believe this class will help me narrow my path forward and inspire me with different ideas about which professional fields would appeal to me. I am also quite excited about having some integrated certifications included in the class, as I enjoy having a reason to pursue different avenues to help with motivation. I’m not lazy, but I do often find myself thinking about so many different options that I get a bit lost in the possibilities and having responsibilities that make me focus on a specific target is very helpful. It is also quite fun to be on the other side of programming. Instead of focusing on how to make a product usable and actually work, it will be interesting to explore the different ways I can interact with features that have already been implemented and find new ways to use things I am already familiar with. Overall, this class is quite exciting to me and I’m looking forward to what’s in store.