Ethical aspects of Social Media Marketing

This essay will focus on the topic Critically evaluating the honorable aspects of brotherly media merchandising in the United States and the principal question assessed passim this writing will be Have genial media selling acted honest or not? According to Nielson Report (2013, p. 3), societal media merchandise typically refers to two practices involving social media- the use free tools and paid media.According to Gaski (1999 cited Smith 2000, p8), merchandising ethics is defined as standards of conduct and moral judgements applied to market. In relation to social media, these ethics guide the operations of marketing on social media plat prepares such(prenominal) as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube (Eagle, 2009). With the quick growth and adoption of social media, the honorable concerns on social media has as well as signifi dejectiontly increased. (Mutula, 2012).The condition foster examines the following categories 1. 1 favorable Media Research According to Smith, (2001) , -be truthful, protect privacy, dont model inappropriate behaviour, dont be offensive, be fair and balanced, avert stereotyping and protect children are the seven basic ethical standards for marketing, which are applicable to the present social media marketing. However, all businesses has a legal responsibility to stick with with the legislation of their outlandish.In the United States it is the Federal handle Commission which regulates publicizing and marketing laws in the country. (Smith, 2001 Federal Trade Commission, 2013) Social media question is the initial demonstrate of marketing a technique or an approach utilise by the marketers to conduct market research on social media plat numbers. The foremost emergence that has commenced is the ethical aspect of using social media for market research purposes the garner of data and conducting research on consumers and competitors. (Patino et. al).In addition, it is the fundamental responsibility of marketers to protect cons umer individualised data by ensuring that the data is only used for research purposes and makes trustworthy that they adhere to the social network guidelines and regulations of the order. (Mareck M, 2011) However, companies violate these rules and steal customer tuition without their consent for research and marketing activities, which is unethical and against the FTC turn of events.Evidently, it was reported by the FTC, in May 2011, 32 legal actions were taken againstorganisations that have failed to maintain certificate for consumer sensitive data thus breached consumers privacy rights. For example, in February 2013, a social networking app generated by Path. Inc. , acquired consumer personal information without their consent and settled FTC charges for infringing Consumer Privacy Act also in the meantime the same association was charged for violating the Childrens Online Privacy aegis Act, from approximately 3000 children personal information was collected without acquiri ng parents consent which was claimed to be highly unethical.(Federal Trade Commission 2013).Moreover, social media has aided companies to monitor their employees on social networks. Many reports and cases have been lodged against those companies for unethical practices, by involuntarily retrieving personal information of employees. Such cases involve companies use specialise softwares or access employees user name and password of Facebook and Twitter accounts, to characteristic tweets and posts of what employees post on social networks.As a result, in regard to the newly imposed social media privacy legislation, companies were seized to make settlements on the charges of violating Employee Privacy Protection Act. (Eaglesham, J. and Rothfeld, M. , 2013) Furthermore, social media marketing has become a major threat to the competitors since the abide of social media, and with the aid of market research it has become a rationalize for disfigurements to practice unethical and unla wful activities such as creating invent accounts, fake endorsements, fake blogs, fake community groups and tarnishing competitors blade reputation on social platforms.(Ray, 2011)1. 2 Viral Marketing and advertise Viral marketing is the bed covering of information between users on social media and it has become the defining marketing trend techniques used to promote company product/ service and brand name on social media. For example, viral campaigns are marketing techniques wide used to spread the Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) and it sens be in the form of viral videos via Youtube, Facebook statuses/posts, or blogs on social media.Thus, viral campaigns build sense and promotes the company product and image on social media. (Fergusan. R, 2008) For example, ASDA has effectively used this strategy for their promotional campaigns, like the Christmas doesnt just happen by magic Video 2012 which went viral on Youtube. However, viral marketing scum bag be an adverse affect to the company and unethical too.For example, Celeb Boutique sight of implementing the viral marketing technique of trending hash tag on Twitter, quite of a overbearing brand recognition it caused a negative impact to the company brand image and was humiliated virally. (Smeets, 2013) In terms of ethics, such cases include companies that attack other companies indirectly, being dis honest unprofessional and dis regardful on their campaigns.For example As reported by The Economic Times, in April 2012, Nokia launched an aggressive viral campaign against Samsung, comparing its Lumia smart rally with Samsungs intentionally emphasizing that Nokia phones are invincible and fag end electrical shock away other smart phones, this campaign was highly unethical and against the FTC Advertising and Marketing Act of being dishonest and deceptive to stakeholders such as competitors (Mukherjee, W, 2012) According to FTC (2013), All businesses have a legal responsibility to examine that advertising is truthful and not deceptive.Advertising shouldnt target on vulnerable audiences such as children and should comply with the FTC standards regarding children privacy issues.For example Kelloggs company made false claims on social networks that its Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal grass benefits children and improves their immunity, this was done by giving false evidence that the attentiveness of children can be improved by 20 percent clinically, this advertisement was unethical as it infringed the standards of FTC (Federal Trade Commission, 2013) Furthermore, it was alleged that companies pay celebrities millions of dollars to advertise and promote their brand on Social networks.Recently, Snickers was suspected in promoting their brand on Twitter in the form of tweets through prominent celebrities such as Rio Ferdinand and Katie Price in 2012. As a result, the Fair Trade officers advised celebrities that advertisements that doesnt reveal as a promotion or an endorsement is a deceptive advertising and warned Snickers, it is against the FTC standards. However, the complaints accusing Snickers for deceptive advertising were forwarded to the Advertising Standards Authority to take further investigations on this unethical behavior.(Barnett, 2012 Federal Trade Commission, 2013)1. 3 appointee physical cultivate Social media enables companies to interact with customers more directly than any other forms. Engagement process is one of the major ethical challenge for companies as it involves the process of directly engaging with customers on social networks and has become a commonalty practice for companies. Social media is used by employees on behalf of the company and it can endanger the company reputation via social media by using it unethically.Even though, difference of opinion process is an important component for marketing and public relations it can still be treacherous if used unethically. (Institute of Business Ethics, 2011) In a survey carried out by the Ethics Resource Centre, 45percent of U. S employees witnessed mishandle at work in which 65percent from those reported to be immoral behaviour, in consequence was alleged for violating the workplace ethics law. The study reveals that social media appears to be a major contributor to this issue.(Ethics Resource Centre, 2011)In March 2010, Nestle Facebook sports cull out page was hovered with negative remarks from its fans after the palm oil campaign, in response, the employee who controls the fan page posted offensive comments which violated the company policies hence, led to detrimental forwarding and boycott activities from the public. (The Guardian, 2011) In 2012, many big brands faced sobering catastrophes on social networks. Such circumstances follows when McDonald tried to promote its brand via Twitter using hashtags, unfortunately the customers on Twitter posted untoward comments of consuming McDonalds food.Other examples such as the American Apparel and The fault faced a colossal de structive responses from its customers for posting disapproving ads at the time of Hurricane Sandy. (Anon, 2012) 1. 4 Ethical Social Media Marketing Vs. Unethical Social Media Marketing Conversely, a survey carried out by the IBE reveals, businesses that operate ethically on social media is significantly greater than the proportion of businesses that operate unethically.The above pie chart illustrates that 48 percent of the respondents say that businesses operate very/ moderately ethically. (Institute of Business Ethics, 2012) Nevertheless, IBE survey found that it was a decline from 58 percent to 48 percent of views that assumes businesses operate very/fairly ethical on social media. Therefore, the change in the percentage from 2011 to 2012 ascertains that the negative impressions on ethical business behavior have increased radically. (Institute of Business Ethics, 2012) ConclusionSocial media marketing has domineering and negative effects the importance for social media has incr eased tremendously callable to the immense benefits such as the increase in awareness, promotion, engagement and research if social media is used unethically, may lead to lead to bad publicity and tarnish the company reputation. The varied arguments evidences of statistics and cases from different organisations strongly condemns that social media marketing is unethical the unethical use of social media practiced by businesses outweighs the ethical use of social media marketing.All in all, the author finds social media marketing unethical hence, may create a huge impact on the company and brand image negatively. However, if social media is properly used, it will result positive outcomes for the brand if misused, the consequence will be a social abuse. Therefore, the author suggests to use social media vigilantly and consider the business ethics standards of their country before taking further steps