What are some of the ethical implications of working with bloggers and other on-line influencers?

 

Working with bloggers and online influencers have a number of ethical implications. There has been a notion that media influencers work without any ethical framework and most of the online influencers operate at the edges of legal guidelines.

Step-by-step explanation

Influencer marketing is not unethical, but the ethical principles that guide the sponsored influencing content are not well understood.

The influencers use the concept of authenticity as a guiding ethical framework. They base their authenticity  on two tenets.

1)     By being true to self and the brand they are influencing and marking

2)     And being true to self and the target audiences

This framework helps in putting the influencer's brand identity and relation with the target audience at the forefront while benefiting from the content that was initially designed to benefit the brands and the audiences.

There has been issues of plagiarism in most bloggers. Even though there has been a code of ethics, especially in regard to plagiarism, most bloggers and online influencers have been plagiarizing content from other sources. This has put most sponsors on longer head with competing brands. Being true and original is a virtual every blogger should abind to.