Tara’s Blog

As social media becomes a more prominent communication tool within the public relations industry, blogging is moving hastily to the front of the pack. As with anything new, people become very skeptic especially since there exists individuals out there who take advantage of the tool. 

The more people that use blogs, the more people abuse them. Some practitioners partake in what are know widely accepted as unethical forms of blogging, such as pay-per-post, flogs and fake social media campaigns. The public relations industry has quickly taken a stand against practitioners misusing the medium, imposing guidelines and codes of ethics, to maintain its authenticity. There is an ongoing battle taking place for greater transparency. 

Despite concerns of transparency, blogging is becoming viral and can not be avoided in public relations. As BusinessWeek said, “blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate…blogs are not a business elective. They’re a prerequisite.” With a blog being created every second, it is understandable that public relations practitioners are trying to take advantage of the medium. There are millions of individuals out there wishing to communicate their opinions, convictions and experiences and millions more willing to listen. When these opinions relate to your company or organization it becomes a necessity to partake in the conversations. 

Transparency, in the humanities, refers to openness, communication and accountability. It is believed that when transparency is present there is less opportunity to abuse the system for the advancement of one’s own self interests. Transparency cannot exist as a one-way conversation, but rather must take part between corporations, government, the media and the public. When this conversation is present, there exists, for those who are interested, many avenues through which a person can influence decisions at all levels in society. Ultimately, transparency is the opposite of privacy. When all information about an activity is readily available and open, transparency is present. 

But, as Maggie Fox says, transparency in public relations and the corporate world does not require “opening your books and executive office and secret R&D labs and inviting the world in, answering each and every question that is asked of you.” Instead, public relations practitioners need to be authentic in their writing, ensuring that the content they provide is heart-felt and honest. To maintain transparency, practitioners need to abide by a code of ethics, such as Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s ethics code. WOMMA’s ethics code is based on “building an industry based on consumer respect and fundamental ethical principles.”  

• Honesty of Relationship: You say who you’re speaking for
• Honesty of Opinion: You say what you believe
• Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity

There are codes in place to encourage the ethical and transparent blogging of public relations practitioners and marketers, but what about individual bloggers? Disgruntled customers have always existed, despite the quality of service they receive; they will always have something to complain about. Pre-blogging, customer service agents were given the task of sifting through complaints looking for viable ways to improve the organization and discarding unfounded charges. Now, this responsibility lies on the consumer. While I hate to make reference to the “uneducated masses,” when it comes to social media this term is not so far off base. With 62 per cent of internet users not even knowing what a blog is how do we expect them to determine the viability of a blog entry without more transparency?