The Ethics of Social Media Influencers

Bailey Hays
bh665415@ohio.edu


If you have a phone, internet, social media, or even plain old television... you know what a social media influencer is.

Social media influencers are everywhere. They are on every social media platform available, they have meet & greets (like celebrities), they create makeup and clothing lines, and they have even become the faces of huge beauty companies.

They have completely changed social media and not made it just an outlet for creative content output... but a business.

According to this article from Media Kix, top influencers on Instagram can make $50,000 just from collaborating with a brand. A blogger named Danielle Bernstein supports herself and makes a living that's in the mid six figures... All from being a social media influencer.

We see #AD all the time on our social media feeds. It can be for vitamins, skin care, clothing, shoes. ANYTHING. But, lets be honest... do we trust these? Do we actually believe that these items work? Or are bloggers simply posting about products to make a buck?

Source: www.smartinsights.com

This is where ethics are very important. Since influencers are considered a business, I believe that they have to have some code of ethics to follow or they must be following some other organizations code of ethics.

Even though it isn't seen as a "typical" job, it's still a job that's bringing in their income. But more importantly, that job is impacting millions of people everyday... which is why it's crucial they have some kind of code of ethics.

For both PRSA and AAF, the first major principle deals with honesty. Which is, to me, the most important value. Truth is so vital because it's how they keep their followers. If they're promoting a product that is horrible and a follower buys it/tests it, they're going to realize that influencer only put it on their page to make money.

The AAF had two interesting principles that I believe are important for influencers. The first is principle 3, which is basically saying that "news or entertainment" people are viewing that is considered advertising... needs to be labeled as advertising. Without this knowledge, people can get confused and not be looking at posts with a business mind.

The other important AAF principle for influencers was principle 4, which is saying that payment or receipt of a free product needs to be revealed when advertising a product. I feel like this is important because it allows a viewer to see if the influencer actually spent money on a product or not, and how trustworthy the ad is.

This video does a good job of talking about the regulations and rules made by the FTC for influencers. With social media becoming more and more important, it's even MORE important for the FTC to update and regulate their guidelines.

I think all of the codes that are guiding advertisers and public relation professionals are very just. When you're in a position where you are influencing people and want to gain their trust, you have to have these ethics. It's essential to any kind of business that wants to have loyal customers or followers that will support them.

But whether or not these people are following these codes? It's hard to say. You never really know whether an influencer likes a product or not. That's the hard part of social media; you can't just straight up ask them to their face. What I have noticed, however, is that many social media influencers have been telling their followers straight forward that they only partner with companies where they like their products.

I think this is a good step for influencers in gaining their followers trust. After all, most of these people are influencing all the people on social media.