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Social media ethics

The current state of social media ethics: what trends are happening in the industry? What are two current cases related to social media ethics? 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.

Brands/professionals with strong social media ethical codes: what brands are utilizing proper social media ethical practices? Are there any professionals that you feel practice strong ethical behavior on social media? Support your choice with evidence. What are some takeaways you can bring forth in your own practices?

Key concepts and issues: what main concepts do you are necessary to adhere to for your own personal conduct online?

What to do and what not to do: what main concepts do you feel strongly against and want to make sure you avoid on social media?

Bullet point 5-10 core concepts that you will follow as a practicing social media professional. Include citations that you used for sources/supports for this.

A trend that I see happening is self love, body positivity, self care and anything in the genre of caring for yourself, being more confident and promoting mental health awareness. Sometimes as users we tend to see unrealistic lifestyles and compare our normal lives to this fantasy life with whatever the case may be. Sometimes it can be toxic and can leave one feeling upset.

One case related to social ethics is this clothing store called ‘Zeba’. Their sizes don't run by xs-xl but have sizes called “fearless”, “brave”, “inspiring”, “loved” and other positive affirmations to make one feel good about themselves. Another case related to social ethics would be  . A new social media platform called HERD focuses on removing the stigmatization instagram tends to have by removing the follower/following count and like counts (which instagram just recently made an option on whether or not likes show). Their social media ethics is originality, free form of posts without judgement, and treating people and yourself with kindness. I think it would be interesting to join their social media staff because of their goals and message.

A brand I think is utilizing proper social media practices is Aerie on instagram. They are inclusive, spread kindness, they don’t photoshop or retouch photos which gives a sense of authenticity. Their overall message of being ‘real’ would be a takeaway that I can bring into my own practices. I would honestly say just to treat others with kindness and treat others how you would like to be treated. I have said it quite a few times but I think it is something important because it is extremely easy to be a rude arrogant person through a screen. Words hurt, being mindful and being kind is free.

I would avoid giving my opinion on a topic I am not educated on or have not looked into or researched. Falling into that would also be being too opinionated online. People would pick and tear at opinions that don’t align with theirs.

Bullet point 5-10 core concepts that you will follow as a practicing social media professional. Include citations that you used for sources/supports for this.

Be respectful and kind to self and others

Use of nice words

Fact check and do research before sharing any information or giving opinion

Authenticity

Inclusivity

Kimberly Medina

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Young Voices RI

Kimberly Medina

Young voices is a nonprofit organization in Rhode Island that primarily focuses on empowering students to become advocates for their neighborhood/ city/state. They prepare engaging activities for the students that lead to the subject or agenda. They focus on issues students are passionate about, meet every other day with like-minded students, help build connections and also help them network,  and they give the students a platform to have their voices heard. Taking a look at all their social media platforms, there are some ways they can improve. Youtube: 31 subscribers, 36 videos and 3,110 views in total (last video 2 years ago, nothing exceeds 100, one video with 300 views). Twitter: 1,258 followers, 1,492 tweets, 456 photos and videos (not much retweets, likes or comments). Instagram: 248 followers, 44 posts. The platform they seem to be most active on is instagram with a following of only 248 which isn’t bad but could build on that a bit more. I think they need to reach their target audience which would be high schoolers 9th - 12th grade. They usually do recruitment at schools, posting about it on their social media will help gain more people to view and spread the word. Their twitter has the most followers being 1,258 followers using twitter to spread the word would be the best option. Young Voices should focus on their engagement and reach and again twitter can help them out with that. They should be more active on the platform they have the most followers on because their message is reaching a larger audience. They aren’t as active on their twitter as they are on instagram which is probably the reason their engagement on twitter is low. They aren’t making an appearance on the timeline. The more active the more visible.Hashtags are useful to find direct communities. They can use it to benefit more clicks and interactions. Their youtube has 13 subscribers,and a total of 3,110 views improvements can be made. More strategic  tactics to build more subscribers. A format for videos that are posted would clean it up visually while retaining all the information and points they want to hit. The last video posted was 2 years ago and views for each are low. Target audience needs to be acquired. Ideas for videos can be insights and what they actually do as an organization, what role do the facilitators play and what exactly are the youth achieving. Sharing on all platforms what other social media they have can get people to follow on each one. Young Voices is a small organization but they have been around for 15 years. And a struggle they tend to have is recruitment. Some are not aware that after being part of young voices, stipends are rewarded monthly. Promoting what they offer on all platforms which gain some activity on social media. Overall, the best way they can build on their social media platforms boils down to becoming more active and posting more to focus on interactions.

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what is social media?

I would define social media as a digital communication center used for all sorts of things and ways to communicate. It is a form of online communication that connects people globally. Social media can be used for entertainment purposes, to make and or join communities and to connect with companies and or businesses. I personally use social media for entertainment and to connect with mutuals. I love to scroll through Tik Tok and watch funny videos of animals and see what is trending whether it be an audio, clothing, or dance move, whatever the case may be.  

As a social media user, I feel as if I contribute as a consumer, I am easily influenced. If I see people raving about a product, I am already opening a new tab and checking it out and adding it to my cart. If it’s a useful tool or even something that looks atheistically pleasing, I am already scoping it out and wanting to see what the “hype” is about.  I also think I am more of the lurking type of user. I check comments a lot and read others' opinions. I prefer to see what is going on than to contribute to the conversation especially online.  At times, I would like to have conversations with people but nowadays it seems more of attacking and each other rather than listening to a different perspective. But it all depends on how you see it and interpret it as.

My strength in my understanding of social media would be having the ability to navigate through social media platforms. I think what helped was growing up while social media was on the rise and practically growing with it. Noticing what's trending, how fast those trends die, what's “in” and what's “out”. Being able to find people with same interests with a simple search or hashtag. Seeing how fast businesses can grow if they have a social media presence and being relatable to form a connection with their consumers. What I find challenging is continuing to understand what is going on pretty much. So much information gets thrown at us on a daily basis and it’s hard to keep up and to understand what is happening in the world. To be honest, I haven ‘t checked the news in months. If not most then all the information I get is what is posted by others which is not okay at all times since most of it can be bias and have one narrative. And that’s also why you cannot believe everything you see which I know most people know, you usually get taught that when using social media. It is best to do your own research if not certain about something.  

What I want to be able to get out of this class is how to join discussions more online. Like I’ve said I tend to lurk more than I would contribute to the conversation. Even when I want to, I don’t. Honestly, it’s beyond social media as I tend to be more observant and quieter in person also. Hopefully I will be able to be more of a contributor than a lurker.  

Kimberly Medina