Invite colleagues
In ePR (online public relations) and social marketing, our primary goal as the agency working for an organization is too move the needle in some way. In ePR, that might be press mentions or in social marketing, leveraging blog, SNS, BBS posts or contributing on micro-blogs but all these activities relate to getting some brand sentiment/perception/engagement to move.
However, there are choices about how we, as Marketers and communication specialist can go about doing this. The right way or the wrong way....
At SinoTech Group we follow a code of ethics that outlines what is acceptable practices and what is not. However, by definition, ethics are not usually illegal activities but rather a violation of a trust relationship or a corruption of the channels of communication.
For example, if your client is a tobacco manufacturer and they want you to set up a third party citizens' group called "citizens against tobacco", I would suggest that any ethics code says this is NOT an acceptable practice.. or at least ensuring there is a level of transparency that reveals the funding for this group or that the tobacco manufacturer is paying your bills to run it.
I guess this is where the Dilbert strip came in... It brought the ideas of ethics in social media into my Saturday morning... so over a latte I reflected on just how close to the mark this Dilbert strips comes to reflecting some of the social media firms I see out there...
So as a parting thought.... It is true that the only consequence to violating the code of ethics is to have a loss of reputation and trust. Let's face it, our industry is just too small sometimes and other PR/Marketers in our networks will know what's going on. I think that if an agency or a marketer practitioner starts to go down the path of shady practices then you will risk loosing your reputation and once that's gone you've lost it all.
So if you are working in an agency... reflect on the Dilbert cartoon strip and ask yourself... is this us? Please give me your ideas and thoughts..
Written on Saturday, 30 October 2010 19:49 by Matt McDougall