vladimirherisse

[vladimirherisse]

Social Media Ethics: How We Can Help Each Other Help Each Other

The current state of social media ethics: what trends are happening in the industry? What are two current cases related to social media ethics? Outline the current code of ethics for social media by a professional organization you would be interested in joining as part of their social media staff.

As someone who posts on social media on a pretty consistent basis, I can sometimes tend to try out a trend on certain platforms to gain more followers and viewer engagement. For some platforms, the trends are a lot more ethical and clean than others. For example, Tiktok has had a terrible reputation for their trends and challenges leading to teenagers around the U.S. being hurt or even killed in some cases. There have been multiple court cases against Tiktok from families who have lost a child to the trend. If I were to join any social media staff, it would most likely be Youtube. Youtube's basic code of ethics bans any of sort hate speech, dangerous behavior, graphic violence, or malicious attacks on their platform.

Brands/professionals with strong social media ethical codes: what brands are utilizing proper social media ethical practices? Are there any professionals that you feel practice strong ethical behavior on social media? Support your choice with evidence. What are some takeaways you can bring forth in your own practices?

There are thousands of brands that utilize ethic policies to their advantage. Many charity organizations on Youtube and Instagram utilize their ethics, petitioning for people to donate to their causes. There are also many religious social media professionals that have a strong sense of social media ethics that I admire. For example, the social media manager at the church I go to displays admirable social media practices, and affects others around her positively through this.

Key concepts and issues: what main concepts do you are necessary to adhere to for your own personal conduct online?

Being a religious person, I like to convey my beliefs through my posts and stories to Instagram and Tiktok, and sometimes Youtube as well. I always like to quote Bible verses, and whenever I get the opportunity to talk to someone that is struggling, I am sure to give them reassurance in whatever positive sense I see fit, whether they are religious or not. I never bash anyone online, using any form of hate speech or malicious intent. I only look to spread the goodness of God.

What to do and what not to do: what main concepts do you feel strongly against and want to make sure you avoid on social media?

As stated above, I condone any form of hate speech or malicious practice against any other. Nowadays there is a lot of casual joking about age, race, sex, height, and hundreds of other characteristics that separate one from another. I don't like to see people practicing this sort of evil that has now made online personality a mockery.

Bullet point 5-10 core concepts that you will follow as a practicing social media professional. Include citations that you used for sources/supports for this.

Positivity in any sort or form at all times

Never practice hate speech or any sort of malicious speech

Hold religious values in-person as well as online at all times

Use the platform I am building to the glory of God

Find like-minded individuals online that I can speak with on my views and goals

Do not even be near others who practice hate speech or dangerous activity

[vladimirherisse]

Victory Church Rhode Island's Reckoning

Vladimir Herisse, Jr.

February 16 2023

Okay, maybe not a reckoning. But the nonprofit church's metrics will be stated and evaluated, and ways upon which the church's brand could be improved will be discussed. Suggestions of different sorts of metrics will be provided as well. Their Instagram and Facebook pages will be held under the light for today.

Because we are discussing a church, there won't be very many vanity metrics, right? The answer to that is difficult to discern. To start off, we will take a look at their Facebook page. They have 1.3 thousand followers, and a little over 1100 likes. They stream their church services every Sunday, which peaks at around 20 viewers per week. They also average around 200 people attending service in person every Sunday as well. Those numbers aren't too bad, especially since the church's capacity maxes out at around 250 attendees. Their Instagram page boasts 904 followers, which is an ever better percentage of users actually attending service. They average around 30-40 likes per post, so that percentage isn't as good. Most of their church population is people older than 40, so they aren't as tech-savvy as the younger generation.

Victory Church also has a five star rating on Facebook, with 70 reviews. It is a church, so there's virtually no negative things to report based off of quality and service. It still is a good metric to have on a front page. They have 478 posts on Instagram, which is a hefty amount. The church has been around for very nearly two decades, so they definitely do not post often. From my research I've seen they try to post picture from service every Sunday, and of course they livestream the service on Facebook every Sunday as well. A bonus metric they have in real life is the fact that their leadership makes up 10 different nationalities.

Now we will discuss the ways that Victory Church could improve their metrics. To start, they could start posting more Instagram Reels to reach a larger audience. Photo posts don't make it into the feeds of new viewers unless it is sponsored, but making reels is like free sponsorship. If they made videos and posted less photos, they would certainly grow larger. The next thing that they could do is create a TikTok page and begin posting on there. TikTok is the second most actively used social media platform, right behind Facebook. If they made some content for the younger generation, their audience could reach new leaps and bounds.

There are also some sorts of metrics that can be used for their page that they don't use already. One advanced metric they could use would be a collaboration network. They do have pastors come out for events and speak on topics, but they never usually post any content when the pastors or speakers are in town. If they created posts for each pastor and tagged the church the pastor was coming from, they would be able to reach the people that follow that church. The next sort of metric they could use would be a channel metric, which basically is a metric that measures reach of a post or a whole page. It cannot be said whether or not they utilize these metrics to determine what or when to post, but it can be concluded that they most likely do not, seeing as they post at the same time in the week every week (there's nothing wrong with that, they are just a non-profit church, after all, they aren't business people). The last metric is a tough one to utilize, especially for a church. Because they aren't aiming to make money, rather asking for donations, it's hard to get any data on revenue or "lifetime usage" because they only have donations. They do have a café, but it's a very small source of revenue, and they only lose money giving out sizable coffee for a dollar or two. They could harvest revenue data from the coffees, therfore.

While Victory Church is a medium sized nonprofit church, there are many hidden gems that they can take advantage of within their sphere to increase their audience and improve their services for the better.

Credit: Victory Church Rhode Island on Facebook and @vitorychurchri on Instagram

[vladimirherisse]

Social Media: The Golden Age Outside the Modern Age

Vladimir Herisse, Jr.

As Generation Z, or "Zoomers" grow older, social media is becoming more and more forced upon our generation's day to day lives. Wherever I, as a "Zoomer" look, I see social media craning teenagers and tweens' heads downward to look at their phones for a substantial part of the day. My solid definition of social media is a versatile internet tool that you can use in millions of ways, whether or not they are beneficial or detrimental. You can use social media by either posting on a page, by scrolling on your feed, by putting opinions into Tumblr on your blog page, or hundreds of other possibilities. I characterize myself on social media as a musical artist, posting on my page nearly every day. I don' t consume the media anymore, I'm now the producer of the media that the other 200 million active daily social media users can consume. I did a good portion of research and discovered that the average 13-18 year old is on TikTok for at least 5 hours in the day. If the teen is awake for 18 hours, that's nearly a third of their day! If there are 100 million teens active on TikTok and Instagram per day, that's on average 500 million hours of undivided attention that I can take advantage of. After stumbling upon such evidence I have since given up all social media consumption. My screen time on TikTok has now decreased to a half an hour per week, and the only reason there is any on there is because of me posting some promotion for my music brand. The same applies to Instagram, but I have a little more time on there because I have to answer Direct Messages for my business. I don't have any other social media apps on my phone. No Snapchat, no Facebook, nothing that would keep me away from my focused state. I do allow myself a hour and a half of video games per day, if I do have the time. Going non-stop cleanse can lead to drastic burnouts and a huge relapse of bad habits if gone too far. But I have found that doing this permanent cleanse has raised my mental health, my physical appetite, and my spiritual well-being and relationship with God. Because I understand the effects of constant media consumption, it allows me to stay away from these sorts of attention grabbers. If I want any type of information, I will try to read a book on the information instead of going onto Youtube where other videos can catch my eye, leading to hours of wasted time. My challenge with social media that I face now is to find the content within me that have the "it" factor that I should be abusing to every degree. What I want to find within this class (Communication in Social Media) is a better understanding of the social media consumers' psychology. What leads them to be more likely to like or share one post, and not another? Is it because the post is funny? Is it because the post gives them comfort? Is it because the post gives them information they want to give to others in a more concise way than they can express themselves? These are all questions that I have been pondering, and will continue to find the answers to, for the rest of the year.