rileyoneill

[rileyoneill]

Social Media Ethics

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

The current state of social media ethics is quite a disaster, and it does not seem like it will improve anytime soon. Over time, more and more negative trends in social media ethics have developed and continue to get worse. These trends include misappropriation, ignorance, manipulation, and more. Misappropriation is one of the biggest ethical social media issues I have personally witnessed, as it has become extremely popular. Misappropriation is the act of brands/influencers/etc. involving themselves in discourse about topics they should not be discussing, and the first example that comes to mind for me personally is Tesla/Elon Musk. Over the last few months, Elon Musk has become more involved in politics and it has hurt his brand's reputation. This article explains a little more in depth as to how this example of misappropriation is harming Tesla. Misappropriation and ignorance can definitely overlap in terms of social media ethics, but an example of ignorance would be when Justin Beiber shared a post that had a picture of the damage done in Gaza, with text over it that said “Praying for Israel”. To viewers, this is seen as ignorant since he clearly did not do his research before sharing a post. Manipulation is another very common trend with social media ethics, as everyone is competing for the same end goal; attention. Brands and influencers will often try to find ways to increase their following; in some cases, this includes using their current followers to recruit new ones. I often see ‘giveaways’ that follow the same manipulation tactic of “anyone who wants to enter this giveaway needs to share the post, follow the account, and tag 3 friends”, such as this one. There are a few more trends happening right now in the industry, but these three are the ones I see occur the most.

What are two current cases related to social media ethics?

On the topic of social media ethics, two popular cases involving social media ethics that are happening currently include Kanye West and his Twitter/X controversies, and Enya and Drew from the podcast Emergency Intercom and their comments about Malala and Greta Thunberg. Over the last few months or so, Kanye West has progressively gotten more problematic, especially online. His recent outbursts include transphobic rhetoric, but he was previously in controversy for his tweets about the holocaust. Another current case involving social media ethics is the Emergency Intercom ‘drama’ that is happening right now. Emergency Intercom is a popular podcast run by two influencers, Drew and Enya, and they’ve become popular for their unique sense of humor and relatability. They recently took a hiatus, and in their first episode after their hiatus, they made some comments about Greta Thunberg and Malala that upset viewers.

Outline the current code of ethics for social media by a professional organization you would be interested in joining as part of their social media staff.

I would be interested in becoming a social media staff member for the pet supply company, Chewy. Their code of ethics was very easy for me to access, and I found it very easy to understand. It is broken up into sections, the first one being purpose and scope, and the second one being honest and ethical conduct. The purpose and scope section outlines the purpose of the code of conduct, which is to deter wrongdoing and promote honesty, compliance with laws, and adhering to the code. The next section goes in depth on specific details of many policies, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality, anti-corruption, respect for employees, etc. I agree with everything they discuss in their code of ethics, therefore I would be very happy joining their social media team.

What brands are utilizing proper social media ethical practices?

Two brands that come to mind that are utilizing proper social media ethical practices are Chewy and BarkBox. Chewy is well known for their top notch customer service, including sending painted pet portraits to customers randomly, sending flowers to customers who lost a pet, and overall being extremely fast with their responses. On their socials, they post a lot of pictures that were sent to them by customers, as well as engaging in the latest trends. BarkBox is another pet related brand who is utilizing proper social media ethical practices; they also keep up with the latest trends and engage with their audience, but both brands also know to stay out of topics that do not involve them.

Are there any professionals that you feel practice strong ethical behavior on social media?

One professional that I believe practices strong ethical behavior on social media is Harry Styles. Over the last few years, Harry Styles has moved from using social media to represent himself as a person, to using it to represent himself as a performer/artist. His socials contain an abundance of pictures of him from his tours, as well as advertising new music/tours. They are very brand focused, although he will still find ways to speak up about things that matter to him in a very respectful way.

What are some takeaways you can bring forth in your own practices?

Some habits I can take away from this to bring forth into my own practices are to stay out of any discourse, and use social media as a way to uplift myself/others. Although I mostly use social media to keep up with my friends and family, there have been times I have found myself involved in discourse, and it is not fun for anyone involved.

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

The main concepts I think are necessary to adhere to for my own personal conduct online are being respectful, staying out of conflict, and always doing research before spreading any information. I believe it is important to be respectful of others, especially online as things can be easily misunderstood when communicated through text. Staying out of conflict is good for myself as well as others, since arguing with people is not really enjoyable. Lastly, I want to always make sure I fact check anything I share so I am not spreading any rumors or false news.

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

I will always strongly avoid manipulation and ignorance on my social media. I find it very frustrating when accounts I follow use manipulation tactics or post something ignorant, so I want to make sure I never make my audience feel the same way I do when I see that content.

List 5-10 core concepts that you will follow as a practicing social media professional.

Five core concepts I will follow as a practicing social media professional include honesty, respect, kindness, maturity, and organization. I will always be honest and respectful online, and when I engage with my audience, I will always treat them with kindness. I want to make sure I am being mature online as well, as I feel that goes hand-in-hand with not engaging in discourse. I also want to make sure my socials are organized so it is easier for people to engage with my content.

[rileyoneill]

VPR Social Media Analysis

Throughout my entire life, I have always loved animals. I have always had some sort of pet in my house growing up, whether it be my first cat Tiger, or my first dog, Molly. Now I have pets of my own, two senior rescue cats, one persian rescue cat, another rescue cat, and a senior rescue dog as well. Loving these animals has led me to become very passionate about animal rights and advocating for them, as well as supporting my local shelters and animal welfare organizations. Over the last five years, I have followed and supported Vintage Pet Rescue on Facebook as well as recently following them on Instagram as well, and I have enjoyed their content. Starting off with their Facebook, the first thing that stands out is their followers to following ratio. They are following 95 people and they have 44k followers. After scrolling down, you can see they have a perfect five star rating with 65 reviews and they are quite active in terms of how much content they post. The pictures they post of the dogs in their care seem to do better in terms of vanity metrics than other posts they make; just from scrolling for a few seconds, I observed the like count to be anywhere from 300-800. Some posts have more comments than others, but there are at least 3-4 comments on every post. On their Instagram, their following to follower ratio is drastically different with their following count at 1,773 and their followers at 60.5k. They have over 11k posts and a fair share of highlights on their profile. Depending on the picture and caption, the likes vary but are typically over 300 on every post, and for comments, those depend on the picture and caption as well. Their instagram feed is mainly pictures of the senior dogs in their care. After observing two of their social media platforms, the most obvious pattern I noticed was how the interactions seem to be higher when the posts are pictures of the dogs they are caring for, more specifically, pictures with multiple dogs shown. This post was posted 21 hours ago as of right now, and has 626 likes and 61 comments. In comparison, this post was posted 23 hours ago and only has 405 likes and 15 comments. Both pictures are of the dogs in their care, but the one with better engagement was a picture that shows multiple dogs at once. I would recommend trying to take and post more pictures that show a few dogs at a time, as well as tracking their audience engagement on their Facebook. Based on their comment sections, they seem to have a handful of loyal supporters already, but by looking at what posts have higher comments/likes than others, they will be able to tell what posts people enjoy the most. It may also be beneficial for them to check the statistics for the amount of profile visits they receive. I would also recommend looking at their amplification rate/how many shares they are getting on Facebook, as that number seems to fluctuate as well. On their Instagram, I would recommend trying to partner with influencers to help spread awareness for what they are doing, as well as checking their insights. Instagram allows users to see how many saves their posts get as well, so I would recommend they check that as well.

[rileyoneill]

Week One

As someone who has spent the majority of his teenage years on various social media platforms, my definition of what social media is has changed overtime. In my middle school years, I started off on Animal Jam, using the chat features to connect with other pre-teens about what items we had in the game, and other game related topics. My definition of social media back then would have been a place to discuss video games and animals, but now I would consider social media any app/website that allows you to connect with other *real* people. I put an emphasis on the word real because I would not consider anything involving AI social media; I believe the most important part of social media is being able to connect and relate to REAL experiences, pictures, videos, communities, etc. When I think about myself and my social media usage over the years, I definitely believe I have gotten better at not being as online. I will admit, it used to take up a majority of my time and I spent many hours on many different platforms, but I now have notifications off for all my socials, and I only check them in my free time. I am not sure how I would exactly characterize myself as a social media user since it has changed overtime, but I definitely can say I am not super obsessive about it anymore. I feel as if there was a lot of pressure in middle school and high school to have an active social media presence and it became very draining for me, although it did make me more knowledgeable in the long run. I believe my biggest strength in understanding social media is how much I have learned over the last few years while being on different platforms. I have been able to stay up to date with all the latest jokes, trends, celebrities, technology, news, etc., and that has led me to forming new connections through having shared interests/knowledge. I also consider myself a fast learner, so I have always found it very easy to join new platforms. My biggest challenge would have to be understanding the tone of certain posts. I find things are easily misconstrued when they are written in text form, and I have definitely interpreted things wrong because of it being written as a post or a text. I used to also struggle with taking things too personally/getting overly worked up over things I saw on social media, but overtime I have learned to not be too bothered. The only thing I hope to get out of this class is more knowledge on how to use social media as a business tool, not just for personal reasons. This would be extremely beneficial for the career I would like to pursue, as I would love to be a cat behaviorist and I would be working for myself as my own business. I also really enjoyed the last communications class I took and I felt like I learned the most I have ever learned in a class while taking that class, so I am very excited for this one and am already loving it.