Topic 4 Reflective Summary

Following on from my successful interaction with an industry professional during Topic 3, I wanted to share an interesting article I’d found at the start of the topic, about Twitter Ethics in PR, as much of what is said is applicable to other fields. Also, because the vast majority of our interaction with course co-ordinators and course mates happens on Twitter, I thought it was apt to share something on the platform, about the ethics of its use.

I first decided to comment on Sophie blog because I wanted to discuss the point she made about misleading advertising and endorsement online, especially on social media sites. She talked about an interesting example of this – Wal-Mart sponsoring two bloggers. I had never personally heard of  sponsored blogs before. Sophie made a great point about how it should be important for those endorsing the products, that they would actually use them and so the discussion of authenticity reintroduced itself.

I also commented on Dom’s blog regarding misinterpretations of online text – something which I linked back to the comments section of my Topic 3 post as it was mentioned then so it was interesting to see the same point come up in this topic.  I also talked about the difficulty for businesses using Twitter to challenge the medium creatively without posing any ethical problems. Talking about creativity, I also enjoyed Anna and Catherine’s vlog exchanges, which were really creative ways to explore the topic.

I wrote about IBM’s approach to social media ethics, which shows the implications for a real business. I think it’s fair to say that companies are far more aware of their employees’ social networking than ever before – especially due to scandals such as #hasjustinelandedyet, which I also discussed.

I decided to do something different at the end of my post, including links to 3 Twitter accounts which I’d found useful in my research for Topic 4, and I will continue to use Twitter as a starting point to find useful articles for Topic 5.

My Comments on:

Dom’s Blog Post: http://uzoweblife.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/what-will-businesses-do-for-free-advertisement/#comments 

Sophie’s Blog Post: http://sophiecatherinecollins.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/social-media-ethics-for-business/comment-page-1/#comment-21