troybeetlestone

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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.

One trend of this year is the explosion of popularity with the platform TikTok. Facebook is still the number one social media site and 38% of people think that social media has a negative impact in 2022. A case of social media ethics, or lack of, is the personal information stealing and selling of big companies such as Facebook and TikTok. In terms of a positive out look on ethics there are sites such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Youtube. These companies are very straight forward about what they do and have not sold out their communities. On LinkedIn their code of ethics are “ To preserve your own trustworthiness and integrity as an Influencer, always state any relation - financial, personal, political or otherwise - to the subject or topic you are presenting. Bias, even if only perceived as such, discredits you and your content unless it is clearly stated.”

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?

As previously stated, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Youtube have high ethical standings in their operations. I would say that a professional who has a strong standing of ethics on social media is Gary Vaynerchuck, also known as Gary Vee. He seems to devote a lot of his time towards helping others build businesses. He also donates money to various charities. Some take aways that I have are the power of honesty, and the power of giving.

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

Its important to be honest with your followers. Be kind to them and make sure your being honest.

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?

On my own professional pages, I stay away from political discussion. I know it can be a controversial topic and its something that I’d rather not address.

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.

Honesty

Integrity

Independence

Humanity

Accountability

Gary Vee and his standing as an influencer is my source for these concepts.

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Feeding America and its problem with Social media

The non profit organization that I chose to talk about is “Feeding America”. They do great work for not just their community, but the entire country. What they do is provide food for the people that need it through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community based agencies. But in terms of vanity metrics the first thing that I noticed about them was that they don’t have a very high engagement rate (considering they have locations all across the country). I first noticed this on facebook, seen here https://www.facebook.com/FeedingAmerica. I don’t see this as a problem really but spreading brand awareness could grow this already flourishing non profit organization. It’s a simple matter of the fact that if they can get more people to interact with them, maybe more people would show more interest in their cause. One way that they could boost engagement with both their company and their cause is to use a behavioral metric. For example the November and December holidays. These are a time of peace and joy, nobody wants to feel like anyone is left out of that. So what they could do is start running advertisement campaigns before these holidays (Thanksgiving specifically) using basic consumer trends they could have a large increase in what they are doing. What they also need to do is gain more of a following on Instagram. Once again they are a national company with over 40 locations, it surprises me that they’re numbers are only in the hundred-thousands. https://www.Instagram.com/feedingamerica . Maybe one thing they could do is try to encourage more support from the people that work there or even the people who use what they have to offer. As for twitter they have a lot of followers, but just like facebook their interaction is low. One thing that they could do is start a possible hashtag for all their posts and followers to use spreading brand awareness and getting the word out. https://www.twitter.com/feedingamerica  As for improving their overall advanced metrics, one thing that they could do is consider getting sponsored by businesses or other financial organizations. The reason for this is that with a big sponsor working with them, they will have more money for an advertising budget. I would recommend long term commercial placements on TV. As of right now they are number 2 in Forbes top performing non profit organizations so I don’t see this as impossible, not to mention they could even sponsor other companies through events and it’s a win-win situation. As for Feeding Americas channel metrics, they seem to be thriving. They have a high ROI and like I previously stated they are the number 2 company on forbes non profit list (2021) https://www.forbes.com/lists/top-charities/?sh=1e0842745f50. So they are definitely doing most things correctly. This is just an outside point of view on how I think they could improve and possibly even get to that number one spot on the list. I am by no means a professional but I feel that with the correct moves to be made with social media and careful marketing this company could help many more people

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What is social media?

There are a lot of ways that a person could define social media. Some would say that it is a way for people to talk about their lives and how they’re feeling. Others would say that its a place for creative expression. Businesses would say its another advertising platform. I would describe social media as a way for all humans to connect with each other. That doesn’t mean that we always agree but social media allows each of us to share our perspectives on our experiences through life in general. Social media today can almost be used as a broad term. For some people It is a place to relax and unwind with your friends. Maybe share a laugh or a scary story. For others its an outlet to let their creativity find a place in this world- to give it life almost. Finally to business their social media is just that- a business.

For me I would almost characterize myself as a combination of these three archetypes. I use social media for personal use (friends and family) I use social media for creative expression (I am a musician) and I use it for business purposes (I market and sell some of my music to an audience). In general I like these three different approaches to bleed into each other naturally. For example, sometimes I’ll share my business news with friends or family, there will be times when I also share my more creative projects with my business side of things. I even share how I’m personally feeling, or what I’m going through on my business pages. (I am by no means a social media professional)

For me being this conglomeration of social media approaches I can say that it has taught me certain strengths that I use in every instance. The use of data and analytics is something that most people that use social media are not familiar with. These insights give me information on things such as, what type of content to post, when to post said content, how likely my audience will be to interact or appreciate a piece of content, and so on. However, it does come with its own challenges. Sometimes I find myself in situations where I’m not sure if my audience will care at all about what I’m posting based on the platform or whether I’ve been too personal/too business minded in situations where probably hadn’t been personal or business oriented at all. But a lot of social media is experimentation and seeing what your audience connects with, so it is what it is.

If I could choose what I want out of this class it would be to gain as much understanding of what is expected and where what type of sharing is expected in each facet of social expression. It sounds self-explanatory, but when trying to connect with people to let them know you aren’t a robot or faceless corporation it can leave you with too much information shared and not enough people that care about what you are saying. I’d love to connect better with my audience and increase interactions between me and my customer/fan base. I believe that this class will help me do just that.