Tamar Weinberg has a fascinating post on her blog entitled, Zicam and the Reputation Management Fiasco that made me think of the ethics of social media. In it she recounts using Zicam, which was recommended by friends, and then realizing her taste sensations were extremely dulled. Being a good social media junkie (as I am) she searched for some information on what was happening.
The first result she received was a negative one. Which lead her to ponder the ethics behind reputation management:
What would you do if you have a client who wants you to change their rankings but their mission conflicts with your interests? What if they are trying to push down rankings that you feel are important for public safety? While I've asked a doctor for his opinion on my particular case (and he said it happened to him too!), if I lost my sense of taste forever, I'd want other people to know about the dangers of the medication and not to have someone who is paid off to push the results down so that people who are doing solid research will be misled.
What is more important to you? Top dollar or public safety?
As someone who not only gets paid to work in social media, but enjoys social media I can see the dilemma. On the one hand you want to do right by your client, on the other you want to do right. Now, if the accusation wasn't correct or factual, then it would be easy to say we're going to help our client push this result down.
If only life were that easy. Then possibly the WGA strike would be over and I wouldn't be bored to tears and desperately waiting for my next Netflix envelope.
I have a strong moral compass and I believe that Social Media users do too. The more transparent and honest you are - the more people respond. Digg users HATE stuff that's made sensational just to get Diggs. I've seen more than one article buried because the users sniffed out the linkbaiting. And it's becoming more common for users to be saavy if you're real or if you're false.
Reputation is everything. Not only for your clients, but for yourself as well. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would take Zicam's "problem" on and succeed and do very nicely for themselves. Maybe I'm alone in feeling that there has to be a line on what I do and don't do. And, I'm sorry Zicam, I won't help your reputation when you're the ones that screwed it up.
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