Page 130 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Practicing Socially Responsible Marketing

In addition to thinking about your commitment to different stakeholders beyond
your customers, consider what it means to be a socially responsible marketer.
Fundamentally, socially responsible marketing is defined as taking moral actions
that encourage a positive impact on all the company’s stakeholders from the cus-
tomers and the employees to the suppliers, shareholders, and communities in
which your company operates.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) has designed a statement of ethics
that governs marketers’ actions. The statement includes six ethical values that
marketers are expected to uphold:

» Honesty: Be forthright in dealings and offer value and integrity.
» Responsibility: Accept consequences of marketing practices and serve the
needs of customers of all types, while being good stewards of the
environment.

» Fairness: Balance buyer needs and seller interest fairly, and avoid manipula-
tion in all forms while protecting the information of the consumers.
» Respect: Acknowledge basic human dignity of all the people involved through
efforts to communicate and understand and meet the needs and appreciate
contributions of others.
» Transparency: Create a spirit of openness in the practice of marketing
through communication, constructive criticism, action, and disclosure.
» Citizenship: Fulfill all legal, economic, philanthropic, and societal responsibili-
ties to all stakeholders as well as give back to the community and protect the
ecological environment.

For more details on the statement of ethics, visit the American Marketing Asso-
ciation Statement of Ethics at https://www.ama.org/codes-of-conduct/.

A commitment to the truth

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that the truth can be highly con-
troversial. Whether it’s politics, business, or even within local communities,
sometimes separating fact from fiction, truth from lies, and information from
falsehood has gotten incredibly difficult. Finding the truth feels like searching for
a needle in a haystack.

114 PART 2 Practicing SMM on the Social Web