Ethics in Social Media

Social media has become such a huge part of every brand and almost all companies now use it. Companies can use it for such a large number of things like increasing web presence, sales, website traffic and many more things. According to this reading, many things have changed since social media has been introduced.

•  People have now become both producers and consumers of information
• Information has become immediately available
• The reader must now decide whether information is credible
• Readers have the ability to filter through the messages they wish to see

 Along with all of these benefits and new changes comes the responsibility of keeping things completely ethical. A brand, of course, wants to keep the most positive image for itself that it can. It is important to create a set of ethical rules for your brand to follow. Some examples include:

• Share information to give your brand a positive image
• Share information that is fair and credible, check your sources
• As hard as it is, be open to what your consumers have to say
• Respond to both negative and positive feedback you receive
• Be aware of current events impacting your audience and be sensitive to those

These guidelines seem obvious; however, there have been many times where brands have made mistakes on social media, which can be extremely detrimental and hard to manage. The bottom line, be smart and think twice before you post.. especially when it's in the name of a brand. Keep in mind the brand's identity and what they wish to portray. 

Check out another reading on how news organizations have implemented social media ethics plans. 

Management

Management, aggregators, analytics, tracking (alerts, URL shorteners, etc.), etc.

Social Media has become so important in business that community managers are now using tons of different management tools to track, measure and manage their social media platforms. This is extremely helpful because with so much money and time being spent on social media, brands need to be able to measure the usage so they know if certain strategies are working or not.

Something that has become pretty widely used in the past few years is link-shorteners. If you've ever seen bit.ly or tinyurl in a link, then the link has been shortened. There are tons of link shorteners out there, but those two are the most common. One good thing about a link shortener is that it cleans up any post, especially tweets.
 What looks better?

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2864306235701033867#editor/target=post;postID=5049591820560910424

or

http://tinyurl.com/a2hgcs6

The answer is pretty obvious, the second link looks a lot less stressful.
Another great thing about link shorteners are that they can now be linked with analytics. A brand can buy its own link shortener through bit.ly and shorten links through this custom shortener which allows the social media manager to check analytics on that one link. They are able to track how many clicks the link has received and where they are from. 

According to FastCompany, social media tracking is forecasted to be a huge trend in 2013. "This coming year we will see the emergence of new software tools to do just that. Using new wave social media command centers capable of tracking stats in real-time, from tweets and likes to customer sentiment, companies will radically be able to improve customer service and predict future buying patters. Not to mention streamline internal communication and increase productivity."

readings:
http://mediafunnel.com/social-media/link-analytics-url-shorteners/
http://www.fastcompany.com/3003473/cant-miss-social-media-trends-2013

Social Platforms

Social Media. Millions have joined, and few have tried to resist.. but with the way the world is heading these days people are almost being forced to join the social revolution. Some people join every possible social network while others stick to the basics like Facebook and Twitter.

When it comes to business and brand awareness, there are some obvious crucial players- Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (for recruiting purposes).  These social media top dogs are probably the most well known for individuals as well as brands; however, there are other platforms out in the webby world that are fantastic for brands.

1. Pinterest-

 

Pinterest is vastly growing for individuals (especially college-aged girls) everywhere. It's layout appeals to the user visually and features a series of photos that users can "re-pin" onto their own pinboards. It is essentially just personal curation of content. 

Pinterest can be used for brands, believe it or not. Many brands have found it to be extremely successful, with tons of traffic leading back to their sites. Brands like West Elm, Starbucks, and Uniqlo have found creative ways to engage users and spread content throughout the Pinterest world.

2. Spotify-

 

Spotify isn't usually the first social platform one thinks of when considering brand awareness. Truthfully, it isn't even one most people even think of when they think of the words "social platform." Spotify is becoming a big competitor with Pandora for discovering music. The plus side to Spotify over Pandora is that users can interact with their friends and see what they are currently listening to. They can also listen to any song they want, whenever they want. 

Brands can use Spotify by creating shareable playlists to share with customers and users. It also gives a personal feel to a brand seeing that they share music. It may not be the best platform to direct traffic back to a site, but it's great for brand awareness. 

3. Instagram

 

 Ahh, Instagram. The ridiculously-fast growing app for iPhone and Android devices where users can take and share photos while adding filters. Instagram has reached millions of users who religiously check their "instafeed" every single day.

Instagram gives brands the chance to get a little more personal with their fans. They can share office insights, previews of new products/services, and pretty much anything they want. Starbucks has 1.08 million followers with almost 36,000 likes on a single photo of a coffee cup shadow. It's a bit more of an informal way to communicate with followers and brands can do so much with the platform.

Those are just a few ideas of different options to try rather than the typical Facebook and Twitter. Social Media is the new Public Relations tool and every brand should jump on board or watch themselves sink.

readings-

 http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/top-social-media-sites-how-you-can-benefit-from-them/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2012/10/31/6-ways-brands-build-trust-through-social-media/