Business Management

1. Digital Marketing Tools and Channels –
Introduction Assessment 2 and Social, Political and
Ethical issues with social media
DR. MATTHEW HUTCHINSON – LECTURER IN SPORT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

2. How does social media
impact society?

3. Dictionary definitions
• Society: the aggregate of people living together in a more or less
ordered community.
• "drugs, crime, and other dangers to society"
• Societal: relating to society or social relations.
• societal change/concerns/problems/values

4. What has impacted societal change?
• GDPR
• Cookies
• Sharing data
• Brexit
• COVID-19
• Content creation
• Politics

5. Is social media good?

8. Societal issues with social media

9. Societal issues with social media

10. Social, Political and
Ethical issues with
social media

11. Societal issues with social media
Social Ethical Political

12. Social issues

13. Political issues

14. Ethical issues

15. Assessment 2
40% – Essay – Students will be asked to write a 2000-word essay
analysing societal issues around the use of Social Media
Marketing.
Essay question:
• Your task is to evaluate the issues of using social media in
marketing to teenage audiences.
You can also consider a variety of additional elements
surrounding society, including political and ethical issues.

16. Introduction to assessment 2
• You should use and apply various forms of literature
• Academic theory
• Empirical data
• Come up with a conclusion on your own views and thoughts on
this, based off the evidence
For next week’s seminar…
• Bring in an essay plan for your assessment
• I will review it whilst you and your group undertake your task

17. Social issues with
social media marketing
(SMM)

18. Misinformation and Fake News
Privacy Concerns
Online Harassment and Cyberbullying
Body Image and Self-Esteem Issues
Addictive Behavior and Screen Time
Social Comparison and Envy
Filter Bubbles and Polarization
Influence of Celebrities and Influencers
Cultural Appropriation and Insensitivity
Public Shaming and Cancel Culture
Digital Divide

19. Social media and photo editing
• One-fourth of the participants edited >40% of the total photos posted
in social media (Agrawal and Agrawal, 2021)
• Hiding skin lesions was the most common reason (36.3%)
• Fifty percent of the respondents felt the need to look better; repair skin
damage; be able to look good without make up; look younger; feel happier and
improve total quality of life as a “lot and top” motivation for using the cosmetic
dermatological procedures.
• Higher investment in social media and photo-editing practices might be
associated with increased non-dermatologist seeking behavior.
• Increased social media investment and the use of Instagram photo
filters and/or photo editing applications = increased consideration of
cosmetic surgery (Chen et al., 2019)
• Use of social media platforms such as YouTube = lower self-esteem
(Chen et al., 2019)
• The use of photo editing features to alter facial features = increased
consideration of surgery (Chen et al., 2019)

20. Social comparison and envy
• In 2023, researchers from the University of Oxford have found
there is no evidence to suggest using Facebook is detrimental to
wellbeing
• "In fact, our analysis indicates Facebook is possibly related to positive
well-being”
• Positive reviews may encourage social comparison and trigger
feelings of malicious envy, thereby negatively influencing
purchase intentions (Feng et al., 2021)
• “Keeping Up with the Joneses” – what impact can it have?

21. Fake news and misinformation
• TikTok is now the most popular single source of news for teenagers in
the UK, according to research by Ofcom.
• Across all age groups, Facebook continues to be the most used social media
platform for accessing news.
• Motivations for sharing information
• Self-enhancement (Tellis et al., 2019)
• Social (Oh & Syn, 2015)
• Altruistic (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Lovett, Peres, & Shachar, 2013)
• These motivations may also apply to benign agents spreading fake
newsabout political misconduct (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017), health
issues (Li & Sakamoto, 2014) or firms’ malicious activities (Obadă,
2019).

23. Celebrities and Influencers
• Influencers talked about COVID-19 frequently on their platforms
(Lookadoo et al., 2021)
• Those who care about others’ perception of them and those who
are not confident in themselves engaged in social comparison
with influencers, which led to envy (Chae, 2017).

24. Filter Bubbles and Polarization
• The term filter bubble relates to the ranking of search engine
results and social media feeds would create “a unique universe
of information for each of us” (2011, p. 10)
• We might be shown more and more of things we like
• All of this could mean we see and hear different things about a
brand, product than someone else, then the more we hear about
it, the more polarized we become
• However, Bechmann and Nielbo (2018) found that less than
10% and 27.8% of their participants were in a filter bubble
• Those who were, were often in a self-created one

25. Spend 5 minutes with the person
next to you, researching…
•Body Image and Self-Esteem Issues
•Cultural Appropriation and Insensitivity
•Digital Divide

26. Political issues with
SMM

27. Spread of
Disinformation
and Fake
News and
Foreign
Interference in
Elections
Erosion of
Trust in Media
Online
Harassment,
Threats,
Trolling and
Cyberbullying
Digital
Campaign
Strategies
Echo
Chambers
and
Confirmation
Bias
Misuse of
Personal Data
Regulation
and Content
Moderation
Public
Perception
and Image
Management

28. Celebrities/Influencers and Politics
• Politicians recently have been employing influencers to push their
messages.
• As influencer management tools become more readily available
(Bishop, 2021), the relationships between political campaigns and
influencers are likely to become more professional (Stoldt et al.,
2019).
• They may be able to engage and mobilize voters that campaigns cannot reach
(Goodwin et al., 2023)
• Are influencers genuinely motivated to post about politics or whether
they are pressured into it? (Goodwin et al., 2023)
• Young voters use aspirational identification and attachment to a
celebrity to negotiate political messages (Nisbett and DeWalt, 2016)
• Risks of using influencers in the marketing of politics and risks to
influencers?

30. Regulation
• In relation to social media, GDPR means a number of things for
your social media campaigns:
• Remarketing on social media is prohibited unless a user has opted in for
such activity through an opt-in or sign-up.
• Users must agree to your privacy policy which can sometimes mean
agreeing twice if they are directed from a social media site to a landing
page or website.
• Tracking and ROI can be difficult using analytics if you cannot attribute
activity to a social media channel.

31. Regulation
• The California Consumer Privacy act aims to protect consumer
privacy rights, meaning tech companies like Google will have
less freedom and consumers will gain more power
• When it comes to social media, CCPA could impact the data that
platforms like Facebook and Twitter can collect about you.

32. Regulation
• In 2022 Australia introduced the anti-trolling bill
• It would formally classify social media service providers as
publishers of any comments made on their platforms in Australia.
• To avoid defamation, social media platforms would need a
complaints scheme that allows victims of defamatory comments
to make complaints.

33. Regulation
• UK Online Harms Bill
• The Bill will make social media companies legally responsible for
keeping children and young people safe online. It will protect children
by making social media platforms: remove illegal content quickly or
prevent it from appearing in the first place.
• Amendments made recently:
• Children to be better protected from content that promotes suicide, self-harm,
or eating disorders
• pornography companies, social media platforms and other services to be
explicitly required to use age verification or estimation measures to prevent
children accessing pornography
• new changes to make it easier for coroners and bereaved parents’ to access to
data from social media platforms
• updated powers will require Ofcom to conduct research into the harms arising
from app stores

34. Regulation
• Until July 2022, the Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA) did not
recognise content marketing as a form
of advertising.
• A study of more than 888,000 gambling
ads on Twitter found that around 40% of
those ads were content marketing, and
many were highly appealing to children.
• Social media regulation will have a
bigger direct impact on social media
platforms than the enterprises and
marketers that use them

36. Spend 5 minutes with the person
next to you, discussing…
•Whether unhealthy brands or brands for over 18’s
should be allowed to promote their products on
social media?

37. Ethical issues with
SMM

38. Transparency, Disclosure, Authenticity and Deception
Targeting Vulnerable Audiences
Microtargeting and Manipulation
Intrusive Advertising
Cultural Appropriation and Insensitivity
Environmental Impact
Exploitative Content
Addictive Design
Competitor Bashing

39. Environmental impact
Pro’s
• Can raise awareness for
sustainability, and establish
norms related to a more
sustainable lifestyle (Buvar,
2023).
• Influencers have the single
biggest impact on people’s
green choices today (78%)
(Unilever, 2023)
• TikTok’s ‘de-influencing’
movement
Con’s
• #Gifting and the problem with
packaging
• Travel influencing
• Fast Fashion
• Digital carbon footprint

40. Spend 5 minutes with the person
next to you, discussing…
•Should there be an environmental code of conduct
involved in influencing and what would it look like?

41. Environmental impact
• The carbon footprint of our
technological devices account for
about 3.7% of global greenhouse
emissions.
• Minting a single NFT using a
proof-of-work blockchain uses the
same amount of electricity an
average American household uses
in about 47 days (Garnett, 2022)

42. Addictive by design
• Social media companies have designed their platforms in ways
that render their platforms addictive.
• No need to log on to sites through phones, tablets and
computers

43. Targeting vulnerable groups
• Gambling-related content was usually balanced against non-
gambling content, or operators focused exclusively on non-
gambling content
• Promotion of content on online sources (social media, YouTube
etc.) that is harmful to children (obesity, alcohol, gambling etc.)
• Filter bubbles and algorithms can mean vulnerable people
(addicts etc) may become more exposed to content

44. Societal issues with social media
Social Ethical Political

45. Social issues

46. Political issues

47. Ethical issues

48. Assessment 2
40% – Essay – Students will be asked to write a 2000-word essay
analysing societal issues around the use of Social Media
Marketing.
Essay question:
• Your task is to evaluate the issues of using social media in
marketing to teenage audiences.
You can also consider a variety of additional elements
surrounding society, including political and ethical issues.

49. Introduction to assessment 2
• You should use and apply various forms of literature
• Academic theory (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE!!)
• Empirical data
• Come up with a conclusion on your own views and thoughts on
this, based off the evidence
For this week’s seminar…
• Bring in an essay plan for your assessment
• I will review it whilst you and your group undertake your task

50. Exceptional Circumstances
• I, nor any other lecturer, can give you an extension
• You can either apply for automatic 7 day extension through their
account. This is limited to set number of extensions per year
• OR can make an EC claim with the evidence
• Find out more here

51. Next week
• No lecture or tutorial, but if you need me, I will be available to
discuss the assessment

52. Some references
• Agrawal H, Agrawal S. Impact of Social Media and Photo-Editing Practice on Seeking Cosmetic
Dermatology Care. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2021 Sep 27;14:1377-1385. doi:
10.2147/CCID.S322859. PMID: 34611419; PMCID: PMC8485851.
• Chen J, Ishii M, Bater KL, Darrach H, Liao D, Huynh PP, Reh IP, Nellis JC, Kumar AR, Ishii LE. Association
Between the Use of Social Media and Photograph Editing Applications, Self-esteem, and Cosmetic
Surgery Acceptance. JAMA Facial Plast Surg. 2019 Sep 1;21(5):361-367. doi:
10.1001/jamafacial.2019.0328. PMID: 31246236; PMCID: PMC6604085.
• Zicheng Cheng, Jin Chen, Rachel X. Peng & Heather Shoenberger (2023) Social media influencers talk
about politics: Investigating the role of source factors and PSR in Gen-Z followers’ perceived information
quality, receptivity and sharing intention, Journal of Information Technology & Politics
• Wenting Feng , Morgan X. Yang , Irina Y. Yu & Rungting Tu (2021) When positive reviews on social
networking sites backfire: The role of social comparison and malicious envy, Journal of Hospitality
Marketing & Management, 30:1, 120-138, DOI: 10.1080/19368623.2020.1775745
• Social media ads regulation: https://theconversation.com/social-media-ads-are-about-to-change-how-new-
rules-on-content-marketing-will-affect-what-you-see-and-share-189263
• Do digital echo chambers exisit? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47447633
• Social media benefit mental health: https://news.sky.com/story/facebook-might-actually-benefit-mental-
health-new-study-suggests-12936210?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
• TikTok News site: https://news.sky.com/story/tiktok-most-popular-source-for-news-among-teenagers-
ofcom-research-finds-12923950

53. Week 11 Seminar Task:
• You will debate the TikTok topic:
• What are the societal benefits and drawbacks of TikTok?
• You might consider (amongst other things):
• Should it be banned or not? Why?
• Societal issues with its use
• How it can be used in social media marketing
• Should brands be using it?
• One side will be for TikTok and one will be against!

54. Keele University
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG
+44 (0)1782 732000
Thank you
Thank you slide