Social Media for Humans

Can you use social media ethically?

May 27, 2022 Alexis Bushnell Season 2 Episode 13
Social Media for Humans
Can you use social media ethically?
Show Notes Transcript

With many people leaving social media and a lot of those who are sticking around struggling with the ethical issues around it, I'm sharing my thoughts on whether it's possible to use social media ethically and where I draw the line.

Links mentioned.
The Ethical Move: https://www.theethicalmove.org/
Social for good and #ReclaimSocial with Tereza Litsa: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1709287/8471875
Ethical small business ownership with Nancy Hyne: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1709287/8295629
The power of community for ethical business with Katie Skelton: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1709287/8862133
Ethical business roundtable: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1709287/10484134

Alexis' links.
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Support the show

Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlexisB

Alexis' links.
Me on Toot Wales: https://toot.wales/@alexisbushnell
Or on Calckey Social: https://calckey.social/@AlexisBushnell
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bushnellcs/
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Hake:

Hello and welcome to Social Media for Humans, the podcast that empowers you to do social  differently. Your host, Alexis Bushnell, and her guests discuss their experience of social media  as business owners, users, and ultimately humans. With insights and advice to help  you find an effective and ethical strategy that works for you, grab yourself a drink  

and join the conversation. Alexis:

Hi, hello, hi. Welcome to another quick tip episode of the  Social Media for Humans podcast. I am not sure this is a great topic for a quick tip  but I'm going to give it a go! So today I want to chat a little bit about whether you can use  social media ethically. So a lot of the people in my circles, I imagine a lot of you listening, are  interested in being more ethical, in making your life more sustainable, in not being a dick, so  social media is kind of in pop culture now the big baddie. It's not run especially ethically by  the people at the top, we know all of the many, many, many bad things about various different  platforms, so is it really possible? Can you honestly say with a clear conscience  "I run my business through social media, I use social media but I am still an ethical person."  Very very quick answer, I believe yes but I will explain that's not where it ends! I will explain  why. The way I see it, it is not possible for every single decision you make, for all the  ways you live your life to be 100% ethical in the current society that, I assume most of us live in.  It's not feasible, you can't do it, so we have to, day to day, make decisions that choose  the lesser of the evils and, to me, social media, using social media ethically and using it  to support ethical businesses, to support charities and causes and social justice movements,  that is the lesser of two evils because yes, you can just leave social media, you can choose and  not to use social media at all, delete all your accounts, not be involved in it, but a lot of  people are still going to use social media and it will be just the people who don't care and that,  to me, is a much bigger problem. So as someone who works in social media,  and I will also link to an episode I did with Tereza Litsa which was about using social for  good and the Reclaim Social movement, I promise you it is not just me saying this!  I am very aware that users have a lot more power than we think we do and how we use social media  makes a big difference. So if you run an ethical business it is  very powerful for you to be on social media to use these platforms to get to a bigger audience,  to grow your business faster, to get to a point where your business is sustainable faster,  so that you are drawing in customers you are drawing them away from the unethical alternative,  and also you are educating more people about why bar shampoo is better,  about why ethical marketing matters, about why living plant-based is important. These are the  things and the conversations that need to be happening and they need to be happening loudly and  everywhere because not everybody knows this stuff and we can make a lot of noise on social media.  So if your business is run sustainably, pays a living wage, is aware of the supply chain  and makes sure that all that is ethical, if you are making ethical marketing decisions,  if your business is doing all those things and you bring in more people to your business,  that is a win ethically. And if you are a consumer and you don't have your own business,  even if you do but just bear with me here, if you're a consumer and you are using social media  to share the ethical businesses that you know and love, to spread information, to support charities  and things like that, again, that is a win because more people are finding out about those things  and that's a big deal. I will say that, for me, the line is on paid advertising. For me, and I  will stress this, for me, I will not pay for ads on social media platforms because, again, for me,  that is where the line is. I don't want to fund financially, in that way, any of these platforms.  What I want to do is use them to get out there to people, to grow my own business,  and to grow and help grow the business of other amazing ethical small businesses. I personally  choose not to financially fund those platforms, that is a personal decision. There are plenty of  people who run ethical businesses who do run ads and they run ads because it helps them get further  faster, it helps them make more sales, and if that is good for you, great, do it! But my choice,  this is partly why I only teach organic social media, is because that is where the line is  for me. So I'm just gonna break down a handful of things that, to me, define using social media  ethically. One of those things is just abiding by ethical marketing principles, in the show notes I  will put links to The Ethical Move who have some great resources on ethical marketing generally,  so things like not using FOMO to market, not using really negative feelings like fear and  anger and stuff like that to market your product, not creating false senses of scarcity. It's also  things like not using clickbait or engagement bait. It's obviously not buying followers,  not buying engagement, not joining engagement pods, not doing any of those very sketchy things.  It's also not trying to beat or hack or get around the algorithm because basically all of  those methods are very unethical. So it's being aware of what you're doing on social media,  of how you're using it. So yes, I do absolutely think that you can use social media ethically  and I personally think that small ethical businesses, all ethical businesses, should  be using social media to grow your business, to reach new people, to find collaborations  and other ways, and to get PR opportunities and things like that as well. So it is a really,  really great way to get out there and make more ethical businesses successful. So  I will leave several links, I also spoke to Nancy Hyne about running an ethical business, and I also  spoke to Katie Skelton on a previous podcast about ethical businesses and community, so I will drop  all the links to previous episodes where I have spoken to other people about these things so you  can check those out if you are interested in a a more rounded, intense discussion about this topic.  I would really love to hear what you think because I know this is something that a lot of people are  struggling with, like can you really use social media ethically? So I would love to hear your view  whether you agree with me, whether you disagree with me, I don't care, I just want to hear  how it makes sense in your brain basically. Tell me, you know, where are you on this issue,  do you think you can use social media ethically? Do you think it's absolutely  not possible? Do you think there's some kind of middle ground like I do, kind of where it's like  yeah, it depends how you use it? Let me know, I would absolutely love to hear your opinions.  If you are a small business owner and you would like support to use social media ethically and  effectively for your business you can come and join the Social Media for Humans Club,  it is 30 pounds a month and we have all sorts of trainings and, key, lots of support, places to ask  questions of other people who care about this stuff and are also overwhelmed by this stuff,  so we would love to have you. You can also support podcast on Patreon where you will get  early access to these episodes and also guest episodes. Yay for the upcoming guest episodes!  So yes, okay, I will see you for a guest episode next week, take care of yourselves. Hawke: If you  want more regular reminders to find your own way to use social media, follow Alexis on your  social platform of choice, all the links will be in the show notes. Until next time, be a human.