360DigitalInfluence

Our friends and trusted partners over at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association recently posted a few ethical questions on their Ethics Review Blog and asked word of mouth practitioners to weigh in. One of the questions that really struck a chord with me asked:

Is it ethical to create and maintain multiple online identities when engaging in digital of mouth of marketing?

No.  It’s not okay to maintain multiple online identities or, what I like to call: lying.  There can only be ever one of you and, by definition, multiple identities rely on some degree of intentional truth-altering distortion.  The social media highway is littered with failed WOM campaigns built on this sort of transparency-damaging deception.  Our own Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics that governs our work online spells this point of view.

We encourage our clients to maintain their own identities online.  While we often point our clients in the direction of a relevant conversation or network of influencers, they speak for themselves.  That’s not only ethical, it’s effective; brands that can authentically talk with their consumers can succeed in social media.  Those that can’t tend to flounder and fail.

For reference, I checked into Facebook’s terms of service.  They clearly prohibit multiple identities.  When you created your profile, you agreed not to “register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity.” That’s pretty a big “no” head-shake from one of the largest identity building sites on the web.

Twitter gets a bit more murky as individuals may have one personal handle and also tweet on behalf of a group handle.  If it’s clearly explained in the Twitter bio that this is a group handle, does that count as multiple identities?  I don’t think so, and I certainly don’t think that’s unethical as long as it’s transparent.

I’d argue that the current WOMMA Code of Ethics is pretty clear on this too.  Under the heading of Honest of Identity states: 

“Clear disclosure of identity is vital to establishing trust and credibility. We do not blur identification in a manner that might confuse or mislead consumers as to the true identity of the individual with whom they are communicating, or instruct or imply that others should do so.”

Word of Mouth marketers beholden to this line of the code would be hard pressed to create and maintain multiple online identifies in a way that does not blur, confuse or mislead consumers as to their true identify.   What do you think?  Is it okay to have multiple identifies online?  What about group participation?  Does the WOMMA code of ethics needs to be revised?