Blog #4 -- Ethics Code

After watching the video, I find it very surprising that no clear ethic guidelines have been defined for social media, that a FTC approved guidelines have only been released recently. I feel that social media has been around forever, but if you think about it, social media has only been around for 6-8 years. Thinking back and looking at the video, I realized how new the field of social media advertising really is.

The ethics guideline itself is pretty sensible in my opinion and pretty much follow on the same concept as regular business ethics. Honesty, as always, plays a big part in the ethics code. The video also gives examples of real life situations where ethics might come up as a choice between short and long-term benefits. Where companies that chose not to follow the ethics code are only looking at the short-term benefits and not at the consequences in the long run. I can’t help but feel that these companies are making some simple and ridiculous mistakes that otherwise would have been avoided if only for some sensibility and common sense.

All in all, I feel that it is better to follow by the guidelines despite the short-term benefit as the long-term benefit outweighs it. In the long-term, I feel that, those companies who abide by the ethics code benefit more by gaining their customers trust and improving their reputation and credibility.