The Ethics of Social Networking

What is social media, and where does it fit in the corporate world? The user-based, personalized and interactive nature of social media sites give them a friendly and harmless appearance. But the reality is that these web sites are real companies, some even multi-billion dollar corporations, whose primary purpose is to make a profit and please shareholders. These corporations lead an entire industry and set their own rules.

So what are the rules? In the fairly new industry, there is no precedent or standard for how the company should be run in terms of ethics. Are these sites just fun places for users to interact online? Or are they deceitful corporate giants, lacking a standard for business ethics and taking advantage of the many young, naïve consumers in the social media world?

This blog will focus on the business ethics issues that arise daily in the social media scope. It will focus primarily on Facebook and Twitter, with discussions of Myspace and LinkedIn as well.

...You know you want to keep reading now..