Ethics Video

From Andy's video he gave us 3 keys we can all walk away with:

1) always require truthfulness in social media

2)monitor the conversation and correct mistakes aka clean up messes you are responsible for

3)Create some policy and training programs regarding the use of social media

There were a few key takeaways that really stuck with me from his video, he compared truthfulness to lying to your mother. If she came on the website and saw it would you really want to be lying to your mother? Also the fact that Email is so annoying now, and that half of it is junk. We cannot let social media get on that level. Say something when there is a situation that is wrong, if you don't and you are affiliated with the company you will humiliate the brand or company or agency and you will get fined and or fired!!

The other thing was how easy disclosure was. He began by saying all it takes is a brief to say "and now a word from our sponsors". The three steps to disclosure are really pretty easy, simple, logical and common sense for us ethical people. The first is to tell people who you are! Are you an employee, an ambassador, a fan? Just tell people who you are and the relationship you have with the company and let them put whatever amount of weight on your post as they want to! The second is to tell them if you were paid. Were you paid in samples, vacations, trade out, money. Just tell people and put it out there. Nothing bad will happen from you doing this! Finally give your honest opinion based on real experiences. Do not fabricate some experience or your opinion. BE HONEST!

The final thought I have on the video is the impact that training failure can have on the company. It only takes one second and one post to embarrass the company. I know I certainly do not want to be the one going to the CEO and saying that I got us in a predicament because of a post I made! Andy also said that lately a lot of companies will just have an intern do their social media, but they haven't been trained. This is so true. Several of my friends and I have had, or currently are doing social media work for companies and none of us have received any type of training. We have business ethics at SU, when will we see a portion of that be on social media ethics? I like the fact that there is a template available to create your own social media policy and tailor it to each company, and the fact that it is "very lawyer approved".

A final word for thought with companies having the power to hack in and see peoples facebooks even though everything is set to private, isnt that violating ethics also?