Years ago, Groupon was sued by a San Francisco-based tour company for “allegedly running misleading ads on Google”. Groupon was accused of running ads for tourist attractions, but not actually offering any coupons that related to the ads they were using (BusinessInsider). This is an example of false advertising, which is not only illegal, but also ethically corrupt. False advertising is “the use of false, misleading, or unproven information to advertise products to consumers” (Wikipedia). By using false advertising, Groupon was able to direct traffic to their site for consumers to scroll through their pages of deals, but the deals that they used to bring in the traffic were not actually available. Bait-and-switch advertising is illegal to prevent customers from “getting lured by false promises” (Reuters). Bait-and-switch advertising is when companies advertise an amazing deal, but when the consumer clicks on the link for the deal, they are re-directed to a different deal and the initial advertised product or service is not available. Additionally, in the same lawsuit, Groupon was accused of purchasing keywords that would elevate their page, while pushing down page placement for companies that actually sell the products Groupon claims to have.

Ethical SEO is often referred to as “White Hat SEO”. This consists of strategies that companies use to boost their pages, but they ensure that their campaigns follow the rules and regulations set forward by the search engines. There are a lot of ethical SEO practices, but the main strategies are “legitimate keyword optimization, adding keywords in appropriate places, links to internal and external web pages, the use of images and videos, the inclusion of a sitemap and privacy statement and regular, high quality content publishing” (Pingler). Following these ethical SEO policies will allow your companies page to rise naturally through search engines to place your website towards the top of any search for your products or services.

On the other hand, unethical SEO policies are termed as “Black Hat SEO”. These questionable techniques are used to trick search engines and they typically get a company banned. The most common unethical SEO strategies are “unnatural linking to a website, spamming, creating scripts that are designed to fool the search engines and keyword stuffing” (Pingler). Unethical SEO policies are used to grab the attention of consumers, but they do so by lying and using false advertising to draw in the traffic. The use of these unethical policies will lead to your site being banned by search engines and give your site and your company a negative reputation.

While ethical SEO practices take longer to show results, they are the best bet for growing your business and will result in long term results. Using ethical SEO builds a strong foundation for your company and will allow for your website to have long lasting, positive growth.

There are a multitude of ways that businesses can use SEO/SEM to their advantage in unethical ways. One way is to use paid links, which is when a business pays another site to write an article about their product or link to their page to get high rankings. Another is to use invisible text, which directs people to the business site based on keywords that are hidden in white text somewhere on the page. Business can also use fake comments to add their links onto other sites without context. Additionally, businesses will copy and paste duplicate content. And the last way that businesses will use SEO and SEM to push traffic to their sites is cloaking. This technique shows the Google Bot one thing and a completely different thing when an actual user visits the website. All of these actions are used by businesses to increase their traffic and their ranking for SEO, but in the long run, it is better to use ethical practices to grow your online presence.

If a business uses ethical ways to increase their SEO and SEM, their traffic will improve and increase over time. It is a longer process, but in the end, it will benefit the business. This is because if a business is caught by Google using unethical practices, they will have a significant drop in ranking and be listed as an unreliable site by Google. That causes their SEO to drop dramatically and it is hard to regain that reputation. Ethical SEO/SEM practices include paying for SEM to put your site at the top of the search page and promoting your product through other sites in a way that is sustainable and honest.

Businesses benefit from using ethical SEO/SEM practices because their businesses will experience sustained growth. Expensive, unethical practices may bring quick traffic to a business site, but in the long run it is better to use ethical techniques to grow your businesses online portfolio. Practiced SEO growth can be time consuming, but it’s better for your business in the long run because the growth will continue. Additionally, using ethical ways to grow your SEO/SEM will prevent your site from being ‘black listed’ by Google as an unreputable site. Using an ethical approach to SEO/SEM is a longer approach to growing a business, but it will benefit the business in the end.

Ethical vs. Unethical SEO/SEM. (2018, December 5). Retrieved from https://harrisonwaller.org/2018/12/05/ethical-vs-unethical-seo-sem/.

Gupta, S. (2016, March 15). Benefits of Ethical SEO or Digital Marketing – SEO Tips, Guidelines. Retrieved from https://www.seotechexperts.com/blogs/benefits-of-ethical-seo-or-digital-marketing.html.

I have followed a fashion influencer on Instagram since before she became insta-famous. Her name is Anna, but her Instagram handle is Glitterandlazers. Anna started as a fashion blogger; taking pictures of her outfits and helping plus-sized women feel more comfortable in their bodies. The basis of her popularity is that she is a large woman who is not afraid to wear bright colors, bold patterns and clothes that are generally labelled as “not for fat women”. Anna recently quit her job as a successful IT manager to become a full time influencer and write a book to profit from her Instagram and YouTube fame.

Anna tends to be very choosy when it comes to who she will post sponsored content for and she is very upfront with her audience when it comes to advertising. Anna posts pictures of a perfectly styled outfit and then tags the brand in the picture. She also writes witty, engaging captions to draw the audience in to learning a little more about the brand. Anna always tries the clothing out before she chooses to post a sponsored post to Instagram because, as she says, she will never push a product that she doesn’t use often and believe in wholeheartedly.

Whenever Anna posts a picture of a product that is particular bold or daring, she pushes her constituents to try out wearing something similar. Buy the sparkly dress! Wear rainbow pants! Own that jacket with fringe! When she does this, she causes a rush of similarly sized women to go out and purchase the item she is wearing. The item typically sells out within hours and the company then begins suggesting similar products. In this way, Anna is a huge influence on the marketing for the company. She leads to higher sales with every sponsored post because her fan base knows they can trust her when she says a product is worth the cost.

For myself, I have seen a lot of the companies Anna posts for on the fringe of my daily social media life, but have never paid much attention to them until now. Anna posting about these companies have lead to me perusing their websites and purchasing some products from them. Anna is very straightforward with her advertising and she is very honest about the quality of the products. If she doesn’t like something, she will tell you straight up that she does not like it. Additionally, she also posts reviews about products that she has not been paid to sponsor. She posts both negative and positive reviews about these products, which just leads to more trust from her followers she she posts an actual sponsored advertisement.

Anna works really hard and she shows all sides to being a social media influencer. Anna has her bad days and her good days; she posts it all. Her attitude and honest posting has lead to an army of followers that believe in her and support her throughout her journeys. Anna is able to influence the sale of products by her honest reviewing and her interesting styling.

The target audience in the case of Tiger’s Big Adventure was initially that of a young boy and his family who had forgotten their stuffed tiger at the Tampa Airport. Before the story was posted to social media, the intention was to return the tiger to the family with a picture book of his adventures at the airport. The story and the photos were then posted to social media, garnering national and international attention. This expanded the target audience to be anyone with families who may be flying and anyone in the Florida area who could potentially use Tampa as their home airport.

The social and consumer experience was addressed in the way the missing tiger situation was handled. It would have been simple, and effective, enough to place the tiger in lost-and-found until the family made their way back to the airport on their journey home. However, an airport employee went above and beyond to put the anxieties of the child to rest by showcasing how much fun the tiger had while the family was away. This attention to consumer experience is what reached such a large audience on social media. The masses were astounded that someone would take their personal time and money to make such a special memory out of something that could have been a negative situation.

Digital media followers retweeted and shared the post on social media thousands of time, but the airport continued to keep the story personal and simple. Although the story received national (and international!) attention, they continued to let the airport employees who were involved and the family speak on the subject. The airport simply provided a platform on which the story could be shared. The simplicity of the publicity kept the story as a charming, sweet scenario instead of a garish display of over-the-top customer service.

I personally hope that the airport shared the story with the families permission, but barring that small detail, the situation was handled beautifully and the airport gained thousands, if not millions, of view across all social media platforms.

After scrolling through Tampa International Airport’s Twitter, it is obvious that they have an affinity for connecting with their consumers. They enjoy posting pictures in support of local causes, celebrating victories with employees and airlines and even responding to tweets about their service. A recent example was the response “Ayeeeee, thanks Trev!” to a tweet about the time it took a consumer to get through security at the airport. The casual demeanor in which they responded to the tweet highlights a laid back attitude and a willingness to connect with consumers on a personal basis, rather than always remaining strictly professional.

Tampa International Airport has a great social media presence. To compare, I looked at the Twitter account of my local airport (MCI) and found that it was run the way a business tends to run their social media accounts. Mostly retweets of updates (new ID laws, a car show held at the airport, an informational post about parking updates) and basic tweets about the airport itself. Comparatively, Tampa’s Twitter seems much more personable and inviting.

As is true for most millenials, I grew up on Facebook (although, I had a Xanga and a Myspace previously). However, as I aged, I visited that site less and less frequently until I eventually deleted the application all together. Currently, I most often visit Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram is a photo viewing application where you can follow friends, family, strangers and celebrities and see what they post about their daily lives. Some people use Instagram as a platform for activism, politics, sales, etc. Snapchat is an application on which you can send quick pictures or videos to people on your friends list, but you can also view the stories of celebrities and, most recently, Snapchat has become a true media application. Their last update included Snapchat ‘shows’ that cover everything from breaking news to make up to fashion to sports. This also provided Snapchat with a way to advertise products, but additionally, Snapchat users with large followings can be sponsored by companies to use their products in their snap stories.

My experiences with most digital media is positive, but there are definitely negative experiences. This is the reason I have stopped using Facebook. I found myself scrolling through my feed and feeling negative and annoyed at all the people complaining constantly and the relentless stream of advertisements. It all became too much, too overwhelming, and I wasn’t feeling any sort of joy by using Facebook anymore. In the fall of 2016, I posted a status saying I would no longer be on Facebook and then deleted the application from my phone. Since then, I have noticed a marked improvement in my mood daily. I am able to follow my friends and family on other social media platforms, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything happening in their lives. I feel that the constant saturation of social media is damaging to people. The constant need to scroll through your Facebook feed is almost an addiction. I would definitely deem that as a negative experience with digital media. For these reasons, my needs are much better met using Snapchat and Instagram over Facebook.

A lot of the emails I receive in my spam folder are from companies that I have purchased from in the past. Torrid and Old Navy are persistent in their emails and, honestly, sometimes it pays off for them. The emails that catch my attention most often have something about a discount in the subject line. I am a broke college student; discounts are life. If a company sends me an email and the subject line says “30% off boots”, I’m going to debate purchasing boots, even if I don’t need boots. Additionally, LivingSocial and Groupon send me a lot of emails with weekly deals and I enjoy scrolling through those emails to see what activities in my area are discounted that week. If the subject line says something about an activity I’ve been wanting to try, I am much more likely to click on that email.

Digital media in marketing has completely saturated our worlds. It has gotten to the point where most people don’t even realize the advertisements are everywhere. Celebrities post sponsored pictures advertising hair supplements, weight loss tea, work out programs, clothing brands, etc. Social media is quickly becoming one big commercial and people are becoming wealthy off their ability to market products to the masses via social media.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton