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Kyle Denson: Social Media Ethics

Social media ethics are just as important as creating consistent engagement on platforms and gaining beneficial sponsorships. Every brand or organization should have a thorough code of social media ethics to understand the appropriate ways to act, respond, and contribute in the realm of digital platforms. These codes can be considered the brand’s moral guide for sorting through right and wrong while maintaining a professional and classy online mindset. With how technology and humans function, it is very common for situations to quickly grow out of hand and become unfixable. Social media users are spreading information in an instant and always have something to say when they are unsettled by a comment or post that is gaining traction or becoming trendy. Today, ongoing cases related to social media ethics are plentiful, but a couple of examples include drawing the lines between free speech and hate speech (Supreme Court Revisioning Free Speech on Social Media) and deciding whether influential workers of a brand can have their social media limited by said brand (a case involving Hayley Paige has set a precedent of brands taking control of workers accounts).

I would like to focus on Walmart and its code of ethics, which covers its actions on social media. Walmart is instantly recognizable and has a lot to lose if they do not uphold an acceptable reputation, which makes them very intriguing to me. The company places a big emphasis on respecting others. This includes but is not limited to being available, showing effort, responding efficiently, giving support, etc. Walmart aims to give its all in every moment of interaction. They want their audiences to understand the level of commitment they have to solve disputes and honoring mistakes. Beyond the company's efforts at excelling in communication, they also make claims that they strive to acknowledge and embrace individuals that come from different cultures, religions, and backgrounds. They understand that placing such emphasis on such an important topic can only lead to an improved media atmosphere, open up learning opportunities, and make room for new experiences. I enjoyed reading Walmart’s code of ethics and seeing how such a large brand needs to create its own set of morals to be followed. It is useful for someone just starting out like I am to take note of.

I believe a good example of a brand that practices good social media ethics is NewsGuard. Throughout their coverage of deciphering headline news throughout the pandemic, they were met with many false rumors and stories to sort through to get to the facts. One article they posted about myths surrounding COVID accidentally included misinformation surrounding the already inaccurate claims. The company did not make an excuse or try to cover up its mistake. Instead, they added a claim with updated information and an apology. On Twitter, they are constantly sharing updated claims, making sure their audience is updated with reliable insight. I feel as though this has to be the best way to form a reliable connection through the screens that connect us. I also appreciate how they consistently "like" posts that mention them; it shows that they are interactive.

I believe that it is important for me to adhere to an honest and open connection with any audience that I go on to form on social media. Building a relationship that is built on trust in a situation like this will enforce the security I want to be felt on any platform that I end up on. Many individuals try and sugarcoat their brand value or make excuses for unfortunate circumstances, which only adds barriers to gaining followers. I hope that anyone interested in what I have to say or promote will see my dedication to honesty and understand that is what they deserve from someone they support.

I feel very strongly against the practices of cyberbullying and hate speech. I feel as though belittling someone through a social platform is one of the worst things you can do as a person. Not only does the practice involve making innocent people feel bad about themselves or even threatened, but it is also fulfilled from behind a screen, where the person likely doesn’t have the confidence to say their hurtful words face to face. The world is filled with hatred, and sometimes social media can be one of the largest contributors. I also would like to do my best to avoid misinforming others with the content I post on social media. I most certainly will never intentionally spread knowledge that I know is wrong, but if I am ever accidentally in a situation where I have, I will make sure to act upon it quickly and do my best to correct the mistakes. I won’t stand for these behaviors in any way, shape, or form.

Essential Professional Practices on Social Media:

Respect the private information of others.

Research and accommodate the audience

Learn what is working and why it is working.

Form a consistent and recognizable social media style.

Listen to the audience's feedback.

Respond efficiently to questions and direct messages.

Be authentic and sincere.

Sources:

Brittain, B. (2022, January 26). Dressmaker can block designer Hayley Paige from using her own name trademark, court says. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/dressmaker-can-block-designer-hayley-paige-using-her-own-name-trademark-court-2022-01-25/

Freberg, K. J. (2022). Social media for strategic communication: Creative strategies and research-based applications [Yuzu]. SAGE Publications. https://reader2.yuzu.com/books/9781071826881

Gregory, J., & McDonald, K. (2020, June). Special Report: COVID-19 Myths Trail of Deceit: The Most Popular COVID-19 Myths and How They Emerged. NewsGuard. https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/covid-19-myths/

Martin, M. (2022, June 15). 21 Social Media Best Practices to Follow in 2023. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-best-practices/McCabe, D. M. (2023, January 19). Supreme Court Poised to Reconsider Key Tenets of Online Speech. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/technology/supreme-court-online-free-speech-social-media.html

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A Helping Hand Goes A Long Way - Kyle Denson

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a nonprofit organization that is meaningful to me because I have gone there my entire life. I was born with a limb deficiency that left me without the majority of my left arm, and Shriners has consistently supplied me with a prosthesis for the last 18 years of my life. I was once a child ambassador for the organization when I was 12 years old, and I spoke at functions of theirs as well as participated in parades.

Shriners Hospitals for Children goes by the name Shriners Children’s on all of their social media platforms. They have a varied following on all of the platforms that they utilize for promotion. Their vanity metrics include 659k followers on Facebook, 45.8k followers on Instagram with 4,400 posts, 25.9k Twitter followers with 23.3k tweets, 12,127,023 views on YouTube, and about 15.0k likes and 2,000 followers on TikTok. I believe that even though these stats might not mean much in terms of engagement, they align with who I believe their primary audience to be, which is parents and or adults invested in the improvement of treatment available at hospitals for children.

Shriners already utilizes real children with unique backgrounds and differences that relate to promoting their end goal as an organization, which, as their website states, is to "provide the highest quality care to children with neuromusculoskeletal conditions, burn injuries, and other special healthcare needs within a compassionate, family-centered, and collaborative care environment." To improve its social media metrics, Shriners Hospital should focus on strategies that appeal to each platform rather than posting similar content on each in hopes of it sticking. Instagram, for instance, offers video-sharing features, but in my opinion, they are not favored by users over the long-standing photo and story-based content. Posting the stories and photos of willing child ambassadors for the company consistently would be a good idea. They could host a weekly child spotlight on their Instagram story; maybe the child has some photos posted with some facts about their life, or if they are old enough, they can answer questions sent in by users about Shriners and how it has changed their life.

Twitter is primarily known for written text-based posts with one eye-catching photo added to draw attention to the tweet. Shriner's media controllers already do a pretty good job of this and also promote their website's articles with links at the end of each tweet, but they should consider being more interactive with other users on the platform. They are prone to liking and retweeting their own content as well as that of other verified accounts. Nothing is wrong with this, but it doesn’t help create a sense of community and can be a slow way to raise interaction rates. They should seek out some people in need of their offerings and make that public connection. People on Twitter enjoy seeing a story unfold and an organization assisting those in need.

Facebook is a platform now known for its consistent adult and older user audience. It has the most users of any platform (according to Statista) but tends not to appeal as much to younger generations such as Gen Z. Established Facebook users seem to have an interest in video content even though videos are not necessarily Facebook's strong point or intended use. Heartfelt stories of young children struggling with their disabilities and then finding some normalcy after their time at Shriners Hospital will fit this market very well.

TikTok has a fast-paced video format that relies on an algorithm in the form of each user's "For You" page. Unlike Facebook, it is very popular with younger generations, and the platform has been known to affect music charts, pop culture moments, and more. Doing popular trends here with the hospital's mascot (Fezzy) or interacting with willing patients, in the same way, could go a long way. While the platform is not always perfect, it has a supportive network of users at its core. There are many different ways to evaluate how effectively an organization's time, money, and resources are being spent on social media. Different metrics such as advanced, channel, and behavioral are part of these determining factors. Advanced metrics relate to how an audience is reacting and responding to posted content. In Shriner’s case specifically, advanced metrics would include their engaged users on Facebook. The social media giant offers a feature that showcases a page’s most devoted and active users each week and ranks them with a point system based on activity. In the most recent week (February 12th–18th), there were over 30 members on the list. Another instance of the hospital's advanced metric would be the number of views received on one of its videos, or "reels." The reel I am speaking of in particular has almost 15k views, which is very good for their page. Channel metrics specialize in specific channel alignment and continuity. On Shriners' Facebook, an example of this could be the number of shares on their most recent post, which was 20, and they typically get around 40 when considering their other posts. The organization's Instagram gets a varied amount of comments on each post (usually under ten), so they should focus on watching their Story views and completion because that will easily be shown to all of their followers with every story post. The last metric on which we focus is behavioral, which emphasizes the end impact of user engagement and whether the content available leads them to do what the organization intended. A behavioral metric on Facebook that should be followed would include how aware page visitors are of the hospital's goals and if they understand why they are important. On Instagram, the metric is not as evident as on other platforms, but monitoring people who support Shriners by turning on notifications to stay informed could be seen as such.

Additional Resources to Help or for more Information:

Make a Donation

Find a Shriners Location

100 Years of Shriners Video

[kyledensonblog]

A Helping Hand Goes A Long Way - Kyle Denson

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a nonprofit organization that is meaningful to me because I have gone there my entire life. I was born with a limb deficiency that left me without the majority of my left arm, and Shriners has consistently supplied me with a prosthesis for the last 18 years of my life. I was once a child ambassador for the organization when I was 12 years old, and I spoke at functions of theirs as well as participated in parades.

Shriners Hospitals for Children goes by the name Shriners Children’s on all of their social media platforms. They have a varied following on all of the platforms that they utilize for promotion. Their vanity metrics include 659k followers on Facebook, 45.8k followers on Instagram with 4,400 posts, 25.9k Twitter followers with 23.3k tweets, 12,127,023 views on YouTube, and about 15.0k likes and 2,000 followers on TikTok. I believe that even though these stats might not mean much in terms of engagement, they align with who I believe their primary audience to be, which is parents and or adults invested in the improvement of treatment available at hospitals for children.

Shriners already utilizes real children with unique backgrounds and differences that relate to promoting their end goal as an organization, which, as their website states, is to "provide the highest quality care to children with neuromusculoskeletal conditions, burn injuries, and other special healthcare needs within a compassionate, family-centered, and collaborative care environment." To improve its social media metrics, Shriners Hospital should focus on strategies that appeal to each platform rather than posting similar content on each in hopes of it sticking. Instagram, for instance, offers video-sharing features, but in my opinion, they are not favored by users over the long-standing photo and story-based content. Posting the stories and photos of willing child ambassadors for the company consistently would be a good idea. They could host a weekly child spotlight on their Instagram story; maybe the child has some photos posted with some facts about their life, or if they are old enough, they can answer questions sent in by users about Shriners and how it has changed their life.

Twitter is primarily known for written text-based posts with one eye-catching photo added to draw attention to the tweet. Shriner's media controllers already do a pretty good job of this and also promote their website's articles with links at the end of each tweet, but they should consider being more interactive with other users on the platform. They are prone to liking and retweeting their own content as well as that of other verified accounts. Nothing is wrong with this, but it doesn’t help create a sense of community and can be a slow way to raise interaction rates. They should seek out some people in need of their offerings and make that public connection. People on Twitter enjoy seeing a story unfold and an organization assisting those in need.

Facebook is a platform now known for its consistent adult and older user audience. It has the most users of any platform (according to Statista) but tends not to appeal as much to younger generations such as Gen Z. Established Facebook users seem to have an interest in video content even though videos are not necessarily Facebook's strong point or intended use. Heartfelt stories of young children struggling with their disabilities and then finding some normalcy after their time at Shriners Hospital will fit this market very well.

TikTok has a fast-paced video format that relies on an algorithm in the form of each user's "For You" page. Unlike Facebook, it is very popular with younger generations, and the platform has been known to affect music charts, pop culture moments, and more. Doing popular trends here with the hospital's mascot (Fezzy) or interacting with willing patients, in the same way, could go a long way. While the platform is not always perfect, it has a supportive network of users at its core. There are many different ways to evaluate how effectively an organization's time, money, and resources are being spent on social media. Different metrics such as advanced, channel, and behavioral are part of these determining factors. Advanced metrics relate to how an audience is reacting and responding to posted content. In Shriner’s case specifically, advanced metrics would include their engaged users on Facebook. The social media giant offers a feature that showcases a page’s most devoted and active users each week and ranks them with a point system based on activity. In the most recent week (February 12th–18th), there were over 30 members on the list. Another instance of the hospital's advanced metric would be the number of views received on one of its videos, or "reels." The reel I am speaking of in particular has almost 15k views, which is very good for their page. Channel metrics specialize in specific channel alignment and continuity. On Shriners' Facebook, an example of this could be the number of shares on their most recent post, which was 20, and they typically get around 40 when considering their other posts. The organization's Instagram gets a varied amount of comments on each post (usually under ten), so they should focus on watching their Story views and completion because that will easily be shown to all of their followers with every story post. The last metric on which we focus is behavioral, which emphasizes the end impact of user engagement and whether the content available leads them to do what the organization intended. A behavioral metric on Facebook that should be followed would include how aware page visitors are of the hospital's goals and if they understand why they are important. On Instagram, the metric is not as evident as on other platforms, but monitoring people who support Shriners by turning on notifications to stay informed could be seen as such.

Additional Resources to Help or for more Information:

Make a Donation

Find a Shriners Location

100 Years of Shriners Video

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"What is Social Media?" - Kyle Denson

Social media, in its simplest definition, is a connection-building tool used by the masses to spread messages, information, events, etc. instantaneously to a range of desired audiences. The use of these ever-changing platforms varies from person to person but assists all in the previously mentioned way. It can be utilized as a means to keep a grandparent connected with their family across the country through photos of their grandchildren and to keep quick, consistent communication with loved ones they rarely see. Maybe a brand is attempting to market itself to a new audience, one that requires its advertisements showcased to them in a relatable and accessible form. Social media can also reconnect individuals who have drifted apart at some point in their lives, reuniting people who would never have otherwise. No matter the intended use, social media has grown into a necessity, especially in the last decade, which has encouraged an expansion of careers, products, relationships, and cultures globally. Every user has access to the same landscape, but their desire, commitment, and engagement determine what their platform will become.

I am a very active user of multiple social media platforms myself. I consider my most-used platforms to be Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. In the past, I have posted on all four of these weekly, but that is not my habit anymore. I primarily use Twitter for access to quick information. I have found it to be the fastest spreader of the group of apps mentioned, as sending a tweet typically takes less effort than creating a video or a post. Most of my time on Twitter is spent replying to premade threads and retweeting other people's content rather than creating a personalized outlet to gain a following. I use TikTok in the same way many do, which is as a quick entertainment consumption appliance. I will admit that I am quite addicted to its endless curated content and easy usability. It is also frequently the source of my excessive screen time. On TikTok, I typically like, save, and comment on videos that pique my interest and will sometimes repost ones that I find extremely important or well-made. I think Instagram is the platform that I spend the least time with but care the most about my presence on. While I only spend roughly 15-20 minutes on it each day, I put a lot of thought into when I make a post, what I post, and the overall look of my account to others. There are both good and bad sides to this, with the good taking advantage of my attention to detail and creating an account that is pleasing to look at and makes me proud to have formed it, and the bad being how picky I am with what I think is "worthy" of being seen by others. Lastly, YouTube was my first introduction to social media years ago. I used to create videos and go live on my channel, and I probably had about 100 subscribers at my peak. All those creations have since been removed, but I continue to watch content created by others to which I am subscribed and recommended videos.

Social media is an essential part of my daily enjoyment and constant news intake. I believe I understand it very well and can tell the difference between what is real and what is not. The landscape is ever-changing, so another important aspect I have is keeping up with the latest trends, which is sometimes a difficult feat. One of the most important aspects, primarily as someone controlling social media from a business perspective, is being quick on creating content that is found relatable and funny before it turns into the trend of yesterday. Being aware of the people I’m trying to reach also instills this in me. The primary challenge that I face is being confident enough in my decisions and myself to get out there and build a platform. Though considering an audience is so important, I think that I need to come to terms with the fact that not everyone can be pleased. Sometimes it is better to take a chance on something being well-liked on Instagram rather than never letting it out of your drafts. I find that I need to open myself up to social media that I haven’t favored in the past, like Snapchat and Tumblr, and be open to new experiences in general. Balancing a life within and away from the digital world is essential. While both can benefit from the dedicated experience, spending too much time on one can have the opposite effect.

Joining this class was an easy decision for me as I’m majoring in communication and I feel like social media is only just getting started in its importance in that field. I still have a lot to learn about all of its uses and effects on different markets and audiences. By using various platforms in safe and controlled settings such as this course, I can continue to grow my knowledge and work towards mastering my online presence. I have a long way to go, but I’m very excited about the journey. Regardless of my major, the course also seemed like an interesting offering that I could not pass up. Building upon something I know a lot about and enjoy using is more than I could ever ask for.