Situation Definition
Last Thursday Alan Marcus gave a lecture on FCC Compliance in Public Relations. Marcus talked about how more companies are collaborating with social media influencers to promote their products. Two main issues that I found were failure to disclose paid sponsorship to viewers. The second ethical issue is online influencer bias when promoting products.
Analysis
What is a social media influencer? It is a person that shapes audience attitudes through their social media platforms including blogs, tweets and video sharing websites like YouTube (L. A. Freberg, K. Freberg, Graham & McGaughey, 2011). Online influencers offer something that traditional advertisers can’t. However, companies must follow guidelines enforced by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). Which states that the must mention that this is a paid advertisement. If they don’t then the company will be fined. However online influencers must follow this rule as well. Sometimes they don’t always do this. They will review a product but fail to mention that this is sponsored or they got paid to promote this company. This a form of audience deception. This breaks the trust between the online influencer and their audience. This can also be bad for the online influencer because this is their career and if the audience does not trust them then they will be less likely to come back. Which means this person’s reputation could be destroyed due to them not disclosing the sponsorship agreement. Online influencers should state at the beginning of their video or blog that they are collaborating with a company.
The second ethical issue is that the social media influencers might give bias product reviews. Consumers are likely to be interested in a product if it has a high number of positive views associated (Purnawirawan, Dens & Pelsmacker 2012). In Marcus’s lecture he talked about how Warner Brothers paid multiple YouTube gamers to review a new video game. The reviews were very positive so consumers went out to purchase the videogame. Customers later complained that the game had few glitches in it. I think that these social media individuals need to provide both negative and positive feedback. All products have at least one flaw in them. The audience has the right to know if this is an honest opinion. Or just another sales commercial to get people to buy the product.
Conclusion
This is an important issue because people use social media on a regular basis. Which means more companies are going to want to partner with social media stars in order to reach their target demographics. The first thing that companies should sit down with online influencers and lay down the rules beforehand so both parties do not face severe consequences in the near future. Audience members need to also be on the lookout to and make sure that the people that they follow online are being honest when they are reviewing products. Or at least mention somewhere they are being paid to do this review.
References
- Freberg, L. A., Freberg, K., Graham, K., & McGaughey, K. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90-92. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.11.001
- Purnawirawan, N., Dens, N., & De Pelsmacker, P. (2012). Balance and sequence in online reviews: The wrap effect. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 17(2), 71-98. doi:10.2753/JEC1086-4415170203