It's hard to remember what a world without social media looked like, even though it's not that long ago. 2005 was the year it went mainstream. The Facebook dropped the ‘The’. LinkedIn and YouTube launched. A year later Twttr, soon to be Twitter, came online. Instagram and Pinterest followed in 2010. By 2012, Facebook was celebrating its billionth user.

When the internet moved off of the desktop and went mobile via the smartphone in everyone’s pocket, it became fully integrated in everyday life. The social web has changed everything. It's not just how we interact with friends and shop, but also how we consume news, find information and think. It has revolutionised our personal lives, business and politics.

Social media is an indispensable part of the marketing landscape today. It represents opportunities that are too big for businesses to ignore. Unlike the one way transmission of traditional media, the blended nature of social media has brought brands and consumers into conversation in unprecedented ways.

However, it has also given rise to a host of complex questions that our rapidly changing societies, and we as businesses, can't ignore. For instance, how should free speech, censorship, cyberbullying, data protection, and misinformation be handled by brands? And what are the responsibilities of tech giants like Facebook and Twitter?

These questions are regularly headline news. They’re also fuelling a backlash that brands can unwittingly find themselves caught up in.

The Benefits of Considering Ethics

Many people perceive marketing as having always had a predatory edge. Some might consider it counterproductive or limiting to behave ethically.

But the point of marketing is to promote a brand to its target audience and connect people to products or services that fulfil their needs. Making that connection doesn't have to be sleazy or emotionally exploitative. In fact, a growing body of research and case studies suggests it’s more effective when it isn’t.

People are increasingly viewing organisations in a sociocultural context and holding them accountable for unethical behaviour. They want to work with businesses that are having a positive impact on their communities. This is true for business buyers as well as for consumers. Brands who are transparent about their efforts to operate ethically do well in the long run.

Companies that don’t align with their customers’ values pay the price. One study found that 53% of respondents who were disappointed by a brand’s words or actions on a social issue complained about it. In the UK, 37% walked away from the brand, with a quarter of them never returning. The social media controversies detailed below are potentially why we're seeing a generational shift, with a backlash against social networking sites in Gen Z and teens.

Social Media Controversy

So, what can we do as digital marketers to ensure that our social media use aligns with our brand values? How can we encourage ethical marketing? To start, it helps to understand the problems surrounding some of the major social media platforms.

TikTok – Data Privacy and Censorship

This short-form video app has quickly become a pop culture classic, particularly for users under 24. When it comes to marketing, most of the focus on TikTok has come from B2C. However, forward-thinking B2B brands are also paying attention.

TikTok has increasingly come under scrutiny. One area of concern is around user privacy and the app’s potential for harvesting personal data. In February 2019, TikTok settled with the US Federal Trade Commission after it was revealed the app had illegally collected personal information from children under 13. There are further concerns about what might happen if the Chinese government demands access to user data, via their national security laws.

There are also questions around censorship. TikTok’s most powerful feature is the For You content recommendation page. The exact way the curation algorithm operates is shrouded in mystery. However, when protests erupted in Hong Kong in the summer of 2019, users noticed a lack of content about the protests on the app. The Guardian later received documents confirming that the app was explicitly ordered to remove content covering topics the Chinese government found objectionable.

Facebook – Data Harvesting, Political Advertising, Misinformation

Facebook has been at the centre of multiple controversies in recent years. In 2018 it came to light that personal data for potentially over 87 million users was harvested and sold to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. This information was used for highly targeted advertising to swing marginal voters in elections – most notably by the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and the Leave.EU campaign.

In 2019, a government report found that Facebook had breached privacy and competition laws to maximise profits from user data.

Currently, the platform is the subject of the #StopHateForProfit advertising boycott. This campaign erupted in response to Facebook’s handling of posts and advertisements spreading hate speech, misinformation, and violence. For example, Facebook currently allows political campaigns to post advertisements without any fact-checking.

Twitter – Hate Speech, Harassment, Rise of the Far-Right

For much of its history, Twitter has argued that they are a communication utility, not a content mediator. However, this hands-off approach has allowed people to use the platform for harassment and cyberbullying.

Abusers have mastered how to use platform features to target women, people of colour, and other minorities. Twitter has been accused of being slow to make changes and that the “fixes” offered have often been problematic and socially tone-deaf. For instance, in 2017, Twitter announced that users would no longer be notified when they were added to a list. However, this would have limited the ability of users added to target lists to take action and block associated accounts. Negative feedback led Twitter to reverse this decision a mere two hours after the announcement.

In addition to harassment issues, Twitter has been used as a medium for far-right groups, such as QAnon. It took three years of the group spreading within the platform before Twitter announced it had removed thousands of accounts. Even more troubling, Twitter confirmed that its algorithms had been recommending and highlighting QAnon content to users – thereby playing a role in amplifying the conspiracy theory.

Instagram – Potentially A Negative Influence on Mental Health

Instagram is surrounded by many of the same concerns around data security and hate speech as its parent company, Facebook. A growing body of research also asks about the platform's effects on young people's mental health. For example, issues such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, bullying, inadequacy, and disrupted sleeping patterns.

Feeding into this is the intensely competitive influencer economy that has developed on the platform. Influencers are not a bad thing, in and of themselves. Like any type of celebrity, they can play an important role in spreading awareness of issues. For instance, promoting body positivity or speaking out against toxic masculinity.

However, to attract and keep followers, influencers often depict elaborate photoshoots as their "normal" life. Surrounded by carefully edited images, users perceive that their Instagram peers enjoy a better quality of life. This fear of missing out (FOMO) plays into their insecurities, making them feel as if their bodies, clothing, living situation, etc., aren’t good enough. The result is decreased self-esteem and increased anxiety.

Furthermore, some influencers promote their own ideas about nutrition, exercise, health, etc. – even when unqualified to do so. The widespread use of fake accounts and bots further compounds the issue of people not knowing what’s real and trustworthy.

How Brands Need to Be Thinking About Social Media Ethics 

Organisations need to live up to their values when it comes to social media marketing and consider ethics as part of their B2B digital marketing strategy. This means asking hard questions regarding the wider implications of their social strategies and campaigns. For instance, does using a platform amount to an endorsement of potentially worrying corporate behaviour? And what responsibility do businesses have to use their financial power as advertisers?

To help jump-start these conversations, here are three common ethical quandaries to consider when you create a social media campaign.

Personal Data Collection

Using personal information for marketing isn’t inherently bad. It lets you target people who actually want to see your ads and engage with your brand. Furthermore, research shows consumers often prefer this type of tailored experience.

What matters is how this data is collected, stored and used. Are platforms following data sovereignty regulations? Do they provide ways for people to control their information? Do users consent to these platforms sharing information with third-parties?

If these types of privacy safeguards are not in place than using that data for your marketing is ethically questionable.

Social Media Users

Another aspect of social media to examine is how psychological marketing techniques affect a person’s well-being. As previously discussed, research has found links between social media consumption and mental health. In their article about the intersection of marketing, technology, addiction, and habit, the American Marketing Association starts by asking “Where is the ethical line in marketing between hooking a customer and getting them hooked?”

We need to consider the impact our social media posts might have on the lives of our audience. To explore ways to use tactics like FOMO to motivate and engage without setting unattainable expectations or reinforcing negative mindsets.

Social Awareness

Part of being an ethical company is being socially conscious and taking action on relevant issues. However, it is important to make sure you take a stand in ways that are not insensitive or exploitative. In 2013 The Atlantic drew attention to marketing strategy advice designed to sell to women when they feel their most insecure and vulnerable.

This is especially important if the issue centres around oppressed groups of people. It is not ethical to use their pain and struggles to market your brand. Even if you mean well be mindful in how you portray the event and people involved. Your content must amplify the cause in a way that doesn’t hijack the issue to try and sell a product.

Then there is the role of the platforms themselves. To what extent is using a platform an endorsement of it? The Facebook advertising boycott is a good example of major brands using their power to attempt to bring about reform. As things stand, it’s hard for a company to claim to have corporate social responsibility whilst supporting a platform that is so widely criticised for causing social harms.

Putting Things Into Practice

Questioning how you use social marketing will help you create a better experience and navigate the risks inherent to social media. However, the work of creating ethical social marketing doesn’t stop at having a discussion. Rather, you need to take the results of these conversations and put them into practice. For instance, here are some ideas to help your team behave as ethically as possible when using social media platforms:

• Creating guidelines around what can be shared/endorsed by the social media team

• Being mindful of and reviewing content for triggers

• Using imagery that is representative of different groups

• Enforcing policies around data privacy and plagiarism

• Having a process for reviewing involvement in grassroots campaigns like #metoo, #blacklivesmatter, etc.

Ensure everyone on your team has a good grasp of your ethical principles when using social media. When planning a campaign, do your research and get input on ideas from a diverse group of people before going live. Most importantly, listen to your audience. If you do mess up, have open communication to learn from those mistakes. This will help you make a meaningful apology and change problematic policies within your own organisation.

Closing Thoughts

Difficult as it might seem, we firmly believe that the ethical use of social media platforms is a necessity for long term success. Your audience is watching; if your actions don’t match your stated values, you will lose their trust.

There are no easy answers. Like any new technology reaching maturity, issues are coming to light that no one could have anticipated. These ethical dilemmas will be difficult to resolve, requiring all of us to ask what sort of a society we want to live in.

1827 Marketing can help you develop an online presence that aligns with and promotes your organisation’s values. Contact one of our expert marketers to learn more.