marketing – Media, Ethics and Society Blog

7 Fundamental Ethics of Social Media Marketing

Tahir Akbar works in marketing at IQVIS, a Software Development Company that has found success in their clients through projects in web, mobile, cloud, AR/VR and machine learning domains. Akbar compiled “7 Fundamental Ethics of Social Media Marketing” in a Business 2 Community article back in 2016. I thought it would be a good idea to list them for us to discuss and analyze in future blog posts. My question is, what happens when a social media influencer does not follow these guidelines? Is it the brand or influencers ethical responsibility to ensure these standards are met?

Know Your Audience
Stay Away from Biases
Never Compromise on Privacy
Be Transparent
Speak Truth
Think Before you Tweet
Imagine the Impact

Obviously these 7 fundamentals are meant to be used by social media influencers 24/7 and not just when a sponsorship is being promoted. Some of these that stick out to me include Know Your Audience, Stay Away from Biases, and Be Transparent. I believe that these three tips closely relate to social media advertisements. The cool thing about influencer marketing is that the product your favorite influencer is promoting is something that they actually use and genuinely enjoy. But, if the influencer promotes a product or brand they have never used before or don’t truly enjoy, that is when the influencer becomes “fake” and disingenuous. An influencer’s audience will be fast to call them out if they are not transparent about being paid to promote a product or if there is no disclosure to a partnership with a brand. These are all details that go into social media marketing that cause audiences to believe that influencer marketing is a dishonest form of advertising.

A pro to using these fundamentals would be increase in trust and reliability between the influencer and their audience. A con to using these fundamentals could be hardship on the influencer. Some creators are drawn to YouTube to create an altered life than their real one. So, to ask them to be 100% truthful or to consider the impact of their skits can be challenging for them. They might believe transparency isn’t necessary for their end goal of making money or escaping reality. An Ethical solution to this dilemma would be a clear understanding of the purpose of each platform. Maybe “speaking your truth” is not the same for Facebook as it is for Instagram. Instagram might be a social media platform used to create aesthetic and show only the highlights of your life. Where as Facebook might be how you connect with family members and friends. Causing your posts one each platform are very different. Maybe even your persona is different on each platform. So, it might be helpful to understand each platform and its purpose before you decide how to use these fundamentals.

I want my next blog to be about social media influencers and celebrities promoting political candidates in light of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. I think it will be interested to discuss these 7 fundamentals in relations to politics, specifically when it comes to biases and impact.

Connection to Media Ethics: Issues and Cases Ninth Edition
by Philip Patterson, Lee Wilkins and Chad Painter: In chapter 10, “The Ethical Dimensions of Art and Entertainment”, the question – Just how much truth should the audience expect from entertainment? – is asked and discussed. I think this applies to the deceiving perception of influencers. Some believe that an entertainer is not required to be truthful at all and others believe full disclosure is necessary. The book says, “The audience doesn’t care when the lines of truth and entertainment are blurred”.

The Current State of Advertising

In this article, Media Insider discusses the current state of advertising by describing advertisers as “sneaky”. Due to the increasing rejection of ads, advertisers have gotten very creative by using native ads and influencer marketing to sell a product without outright selling a product. This creates an ethical dilemma. How “sneaky” should advertisers be allowed to be? Is it ethical to sell a product to an audience that doesn’t know they are being targeted? Throughout this semester, I am going to be digging into these questions and see if we can come to an understanding of native advertisements and influencer marketing.

In the Media Insider article, two year-old identical twins, Taytum and Oakley Fisher who have 2.4 million followers on Instagram are up for debate. These twins are paid up to five figures for a single branded photo. Of course the brains behind the two year-old’s Instagram is in fact not them but, their parents. Is it ethical for these parents to use their children to gain a buck? Well no matter what you think, this is becoming more and more common. Kids, adorable kids, are a huge market for influencer marketing and are making anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion.

If you are still wondering what the problem is in this scenario, let me explain. Influencer marking causes an issue of transparency for the fact that there is none. Traditional advertising is very black and white! There is a fundamental exchange for consumer attention and in return there are dollars. There have been defined rules and measurements of effectiveness for years. The whole point of influencer marketing is to present advertisements as something other than advertisings. Influencers are meant to appear as genuine fans and users of the products they are selling and they push these products on their social media feeds.

But, there is definitely an upside to the current state of advertisement. Native advertising has proved to be incredibly successful and this new wave of influencer marketing is way more interesting and exciting then regular TV commercials. It perfectly matches the younger generation and how they communicate.

The ethical solution to the current state of advertisement is to counteract the perceived notion of influencer marketing being “sneaky” and ensuring transparency on all sponsored advertisements. I think disclosure of partnerships and sponsorships can seem like a negative thing. But, the way influencers captivate their audience by allowing them to see inside their everyday life can cause the disclosure to be very positive. They trust influencers and take their recommendations to heart, so to put the name of a influencer and a brand together, loudly and proud, can be very impactful for the brand.

Connection to Media Ethics: Issues and Cases Ninth Edition by Philip Patterson, Lee Wilkins, Chad Painter: I think it is interesting to look back at chapter 1, “An Introduction to Ethical Decision-Making” and compare/contrast how ethics were used by philosophers and how ethics are seen by influencers today.