Andy's Video Case Study

“It is the law.” It does not mean all the ethical problems are regulated by laws. It can mean wrongdoing and ethical issues may get you involved with laws OR it is the law for you to act in the certain way that is accepted by the mass and societies. Laws are created by us and will be changed if we change. Here are the few things that I want to talk about after Sernovitz’s presentation.

1.      Employee disclosure :

Clearly stating what you do for as a paid blog writer, social media marketers, or anything like that is a requirement for you to be responsible on what they should be responsible on. It is involved with how honest you are and how true your statement is on those social media. And while you are an agency of a company who has contact with the third party, perhaps through social media, you are acting as your company. And it is just an easy way for a company to set up in order to have a proper disclosure.

2.      Monitor the conversation and correct the misstatement:

It means to clean up your own mess and be responsible to yours. It is fair enough. While an agency in your company mess up the blogging and he is in a law process, your company will need to pay for the penalty. So it is important to make the employees to act with integrity and honesty with FTC rules to your customers and company. And it gives a little bit transition to the next point.

3.      Training failure is a big deal: 

      Before Sernovitz’s presentation, I never think about how important needs of solid guideline, policy, and training programs on word of mouth marketing in a company can matter that much. If I were working in a marketing firm as an intern who is on the responsibilities of social media, I would distinguish my own behavior and the speaking tone that I use on the personal blogs from the one I use at work. However, the problem is that “Is my ethical standard as high as the one company, or is it the way my company doing?” When there is any gray area on policy, no matter what field we are talking about, there must be a loophole. A consistent guideline and policy will clearly state what we need to and what we cannot do, and it has to go through proper training programs in order to apply the consistency well. (P.S. Perhaps I should ask Professor Barnes what the policy is of the SU Marketing 491 blog. )