Being Ethical on Social Media

How does the law and ethics pertain to social media? Well let’s start with defining it. Ethics are a set

of moral guidelines and principles that influence our behaviors and interactions. There are many

things you need to know when it comes to ethics and social media. This can include searchability,

private accounts, accessibility to others’ photos, and awareness of the power it has. Most

importantly, you need to be aware of what is and what isn’t appropriate for a young professional

when it comes to social media. 

Steph Parker describes some of these inappropriate things as the “new deadly sins of social media”.

These include misappropriation, abandonment, manipulation, ignorance, monotony, narcissism, and

uniformity. I’m going to discuss three of these that I think are most important to avoid. The first is

abandonment. This is when you start a profile on a platform & then leave it before you even develop

it. The goal of being on social is to have a conversation with your audience. You can’t do this if you

leave before it starts. The next is ignorance. This includes knowing jargon, main terms, and legal

obligations. For example, a legal obligation would include live streaming for a college football team &

being aware of TV rights. The last is narcissism. This mainly includes buying followers for your social

media profiles. Doing this does not actually grow your audience (like you should want to), instead it

gives false pretenses. High following numbers will get you praise from people and at the same time

damage your brand. You want real followers, real people to be interacting with your pages. 

There are many other things that you could do with your social media pages that could cause damage.
Be respectful, be professional, and engage with your audience. Remember, social media is

a public space, even if your profile is private.