Ethical Social Media

For my topic this week I want to take a look at what role social media is being used by brands to engage in or promote ethical activities, and what impact it may have on the brand. Marketing’s purpose is to demonstrate value and provide differentiation however some brands cause related marketing is actually doing more harm than good, the opposite in fact of corporate social responsibility. Take for example Bing which was brought to our attention in our lecture, it is a prime example of a brand trying to be socially responsible but in fact trying to attach brand recognition which is deemed highly unethical. We have this terrible tragedy going on in Japan, and although Bing seems to be trying to do their bit for raising donations by donating a dollar for every retweet on twitter, what they should have done was make the donation regardless. Their cause related marketing back-fired, they came under criticism for trying to use the quake as a branding opportunity and their use of social media to promote ethical activities’ back-fired.

I found this useful website that ranks the worlds most valuable brands based on how well they leverage social media to interact with customers, one that came to my attention is Starbucks (ranked first in 2009). Starbucks’ take on corporate social responsibility is by being responsible, acting ethically and doing things that are good for the planet, and donating to corporate philanthropy. Research shows that consumers will pick a brand with a good cause opposed to one without. However as all brands seem to be doing “their bit” it seems laughable.

Take breast cancer research, during the months of October every brand seems to be pink. The reason why most brands attach themselves to a good cause is to make them stand out from their competitors and so that the consumer will choose them. However if every brand is the same then where’s the differentiation? With technology how it is I believe that the key to engaging consumers with causes and the promotion of ethical issues lies within social media.

According to brand republic twitter are looking into having facebook style brand pages, however even if a brand has how ever many fans does not mean these fans are engaged with the brand. Brands should work towards making their own strategies to make the most of networking platforms, and this is what the brands that are ranking most engaged are doing.

http://www.engagementdb.com/Report