Damn! I Wish Social Media Ethics Video Case Study

Before I watch this video, I thought disclosures are long, boring, and meaningless, like the ones after a pharmaceutical commercial. I also thought that disclosing the true self will lower the trust of readers. I may be writing great things about the company, but no one will truly believe in the words I say because I am under the influence of the company. I realize I was wrong.


Now I learn that disclosure is honest and necessary. It can be short, and to-the-point. It should be easy to read, and easy to understand for an average reader. I can be honest about who I am, instead of waiting for somebody to find out about who I really am. Once people find out that I was not being truthful, no one will trust me, or the brand, or the company, anymore.


I learn that disclosure is easy to implement, if the company sees the importance of doing so. For example, we can make it a policy that everyone in the company—employees and agents alike—write this sentence before they write or comment on any social media sites, “I work for xx company, and this is my personal opinion”. Yes, this is a disclosure, but it also gives an "insider perspective" feel to it.


Here is a real life example how disclosure is not so bad afterall. I recently visited zappos.com and something looks really interesting. It says, “Find out what our employees is doing right now!” I want to know! I clicked on it and it leads me to an employee tweet page. The employees of Zappos are writing nice things about the company, the products, the deals; they are replying to customers’ tweets. Overall the page shows a great company culture, everyone is happy and working hard to get those great deals for us. Zappos is being truthful about the origin of those tweets. They are not trying to hide them, or pretending to be someone else. Do I believe that Zappos is a great place to go to for good deals on classified apparels? Maybe, because I think its products options are still quite expensive. But do I believe that Zappos is a good place to go to for a trustworthy online shopping experience? I have to say yes!