Social Media Marketing

Questions: Regardless of intent, should SMM be considered unethical? What are the ethical considerations that should be taken with SMM? 1. Should SMM have regulations put in place on its usage? 2. When would something that appears on social media be considered as manipulative? 3. Are there any ways to detect the validity of information on social media? Answers: Introduction Online conduct of business has become a common phenomenon in the 21st century. But there are certain ethical considerations associated with Social Media Marketing. The first and foremost threat which it causes is to the privacy of individuals; secondly, the information which is given to the consumers through social media may be not so reliable. Thus, consumers may get deceived in this way. These are serious ethical concerns entangling SMM. (1). There have to be some regulations on the usage of social media marketing. First of all, the social media platform should not be allowed to be used by a brand which does not have a good reputation in the community. Brands which have either caused harm to the community in the past or which have indulged in unethical practices should be restricted from the social media. Secondly, the brands which are allowed to use the social media have to comply with certain regulations. Few of such regulations may be as follows: Reveal of Identity: The brand which promotes its products online has to reveal its true identity. Hiding behind a veil in order to deceive the customers should not be allowed in the social media market (Xuand Whinston 2014). Appropriate use of the market: The brands should not be allowed from running a promotion which would require a user to open a new tab or interact with a story or become a fan in order to enter (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi 2012). Cyber security and fraud: The users of the social media shares a lot of their private information with many brands. These information are private and should not be allowed to be shared by a brand without the permission of the users. Many brands also use the social media market to cause fraud upon the customers. Many companies run false promotions and a customer without verifying the authenticity of such promotions shares crucial information including their bank details, address, etc. There have to be regulations on cyber fraud and cyber security (Von and Van 2013). Regulation on One-way dialogue: Customers get satisfied when they are indulged in conversation in the social media. A brand must give ample opportunity to the customers to give their feedbacks and let them correct any mistake done by the Company (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi 2012). (2). Social media has tremendous potential to manipulate the feelings of a community. Most of the users of social media form an opinion or a perception of the things which are shown in the social media. It is not true that every story shown in the social media is manipulative. Some stories are true, and they can be relied upon for formulating a perception, or those stories may be used in various studies and research. But there are certain things which reach the users through social media marketing which have the potential to mislead and manipulate the users in different directions. Few of such examples are as follows: Propagandising: When an advertisement tends to influence the public or tends to draw the attention of a public towards a position or cause by showing only one side an argument, the advertisement is said to have created a propaganda. These propagandas have the potential to manipulate the users to a great extent sometimes these also create hatred among the minds of the users which consequently ends up in causing violence in the society (Svec 2015). Psychological warfare: Some advertisements have the potential to target various organisations, governments, and groups. These forms of communications may alter the entire ideology of the users of the social media and lead the users to form a negative opinion about a nation or a particular group or organisation (Klausen2015). Hoaxing: A hoax can be explained as something which intends to deceive the public. Whenever a false story is shown to defraud the public, it is known as a hoax. A false bomb threat, a false story of business scams, misleading public stunts are all examples of hoaxes. These hoaxes have the potential to manipulate the thinking, attitude, and behavior of the users who go through these false stories in the social media (Ting 2015). (3). Validity and accuracy of information are important for every user. False information has the possibility to mislead the users and leads them towards forming wrong opinions and perceptions. Therefore, it is important to check the accuracy and validity of the information available in the social media. There are certain steps which need to be followed for checking the validity of information and all the users of the social media should be aware of these steps. The first step is to check the sources location and verify whether they are really in the place from where they are posting or tweeting. The second step is to check out their networks i.e. the persons who are in their account and their followers. It makes it easier for the users to identify whether he knows the account or not. The third step is to check the contents of the information which was posted or tweeted. The contents can be corroborated from other sources. The fourth step which a user must take to ensure the validity of i nformation posted by a person is to check whether the person often posts or tweets on such kind of informative topic or not. If a person tweets or posts on any other social media on an informative topic for the first time, it is more likely that the information is misleading and should be immediately corroborated from other sources. The fifth step would be to check the age of the accounts. Information emanating from the newly and recently created accounts are more likely to be misleading and deceiving. The last step to ensure the validity of information would be to check whether the source from which the information has emanated is reliable or not (Bakshy et al. 2012). Conclusion Social media has become a part of life in the 21st century. Almost everyone in today's world has an account on social media. There is no doubt that using social media adds knowledge and information to an individual but at the same time, the users need to be extremely careful and cautious while surfing the social media because of the risk associated with the use of the social media. 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