Learning Journal Entry #3: Advertising/Marketing & Social Media
For this assignment, I decided to focus on chapter six of Social Media Communication by Jeremy Harris Lipschultz. This portion of the textbook deals which is about advertising and marketing used on social media platforms. One part of this text that I found interesting is the mention of the four main pillars companies use when interacting on social media. Customer care must take care to deal with complaints, risk management must include the use of filters and disclaimers, content can be boosted by monitoring conversations and content recycling, and analytics can be a useful tool to stay ahead of the competition and amplify content.
I enjoyed examining these facets from the perspective of a user (or potential customer). To me, it feels like analytics and monitoring conversations/trends are becoming more and more significant in social media campaigns for companies, especially if they want to use social media effectively. For example, I am an avid reader and I follow a lot of the well-known bookstores on social media. I have noticed that when a particular book series or author “goes viral” stores will often advertise discounts on the books or the author’s body of work. From an analytics perspective, if the company placed an on social media, and would be able to see which of the followers interacted with it. Also, they would be able to see if a user followed through to purchase. It’s a small action in the scheme of things but I think it's successful overall. From my experience, interacting with customer care through social media is less stressful and more helpful than traditional methods. In my opinion, all of these pillars have the capacity to be ethically sound as long as the company is transparent about its use.
An ethically ambiguous aspect of advertising and marketing in social media is the technique of native advertising. This refers to adapting advertisements to mimic traditional journalism. Its main goal seems to be to blend the marketing in. This may be because, in general, journalism has a more positive connotation and advertisements are viewed more negatively.
I find this questionable because users and customers should have a right to know when they are being advertised to. There’s a difference between a friend recommending a product to you over a company’s marketing campaign. Once disclosed then users can make fully informed decisions as to whether to make a purchase or not. Thankfully, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already created policies that mandate companies provide disclosure for paid advertisements and content.
Hi Jewel,
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with a lot of what your saying, I think I'm unclear on what you mean when referring the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). When one signs up for these social media platforms or goes on a website, there are terms and conditions. You might recognize that on the bottom of many website a notification pops up asking you to allow cookies. And while the reading of “We are data: Algorithms and the Making of our Digital Selves” and chapter 6 both mention that data is commercialized. As one of my favorite quotes from the article says “…data itself had become a business" (Cheney-Lippold, 2019). It is not us who are at risk. We consent to these terms and conditions. I think that in many ways we are the cause of our own ignorance, but do you think the FTC should get involved?
Hi Jewel! Your closing point really hit me, I think it’s very important to know when someone is being paid to review or recommend a product because it can seriously influence someone’s opinion. I think this is especially important in regards to Influencers who often have paid videos or posts and large followings who would take those posts at face value if not notified that it is a paid response to a product. Additionally, companies who pay for these posts to be made have a strict say in how the product is displayed and spoken about by the person receiving the sponsorship.
ReplyDeleteHey Jewel , I definitely agree with the feedback you've already gotten. Some of the parts that really made sense to me are; whether or not a customers is being lied to, the price of protein, and whether someone has the right to know whether something is a paid promotion or not. I think more than just knowing the information, one needs to know where the information comes from, and who it was sourced through. This generation has so many people who believe the first thing they're told with no hesitation. But upholding certain standards and making certain things a requirement for all advertisements it would stop the perpetuation of back situations among black individuals and Caucasian acquisitions.
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