Blog Post 3

            Marketers in today’s society are faced with a lot more bumps in the road as opposed to those in the past. The introduction and growth of digital marketing has proved to be more difficult to manage than previous methods. Marketers are faced with a new ethics and responsibility question when it comes to marketing through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This responsibility question was brought into discussion, particularly, during the 2016 Presidential Election.

            It is up to the social platform to make sure that there is no misleading information being displayed on their sites. Those in the marketing team for those social media sites should do extensive research on who they are advertising for prior to displaying those ads. If research is not done and information is proved to be false, it comes back to the social media site for not being able to identify truth. This only becomes more important when it comes to more nationwide and serious topics such as the issues that arose during the election. The same type of responsibility should be present in possible divisive or racist content. Social media should be used as a neutral site to represent one’s own opinion but when the site itself decides to post possibly racist or divisive content, it splits its user base.

            When it comes to who purchases advertisements, I also believe that there should be full transparency. Those who click on certain ads should be able to know who it was purchased by and who they are representing, even if it is in the fine print of the advertisement. Full transparency should be provided to the public when it is being advertised on a public site with the potential of millions of people that can see it. Particularly in the case of Facebook, for example. Facebook should make their ads public to those besides Congress because it informs the public of who purchased the advertisement, clearing up any potential controversy before it can even begin. It would help with the public’s reception of these social media sites and prevent possible problems that could put the blame directly on the site. When it comes to the regulation of these policies, it should rely directly on the governments. Governmental regulation is the only way to get a standard and get everybody to follow along. Putting responsibility on the advertiser would result in many different ways of interpretation and could lead to more issues later on down the road.