My ethical dilemma!

I'm new here but to me its seems like a pretty bad idea. Obv you are having some issues with it so I think you know better.

Saeed,

Welcome to the forum.

What you're describing is bordering on ewhoring in my opinion. You have to ask yourself how you would feel if you were on the other side of the conversation. Would you feel that you were dealing with someone who was ethical, honest and trustworthy?

Regards,

Lolita

oh... err... (ahem)

Nigel

Then stop doing it.

Is it ethical? Yes. Ethics are a community consensus. There are more than enough marketers doing this, and more than enough marketers who don't see a problem with it, to create the consensus that it's okay to do this.

Is it MORAL? Not in my opinion. Morals are personal. You get to make up your own mind whether something is right or wrong, and whether it is ethical may form part of your decision process - but it shouldn't be the WHOLE process.

I believe it is wrong to lie to people so they will buy things from you.

Now, from an ethical standpoint, lying to them about who you are is not an issue because it's all about what you are selling. If you tell people your name is Bob when your name is Eric, that doesn't change what you're selling or what it costs. In the ethical world of marketing, you cannot lie about what people are buying and what they have to pay for it.

But when you use this kind of system - the "Personality Cash" method, as Brad Gosse calls it - you have to ask yourself whether people are actually buying what you are selling, or something else. Most of us have, at some point, bought a product from someone we like simply to show that person we like them.

We didn't want or need the product; we wanted the attention and approval of that person. It's like buying drinks for people at the bar. You don't actually want the drink; you want the attention and approval of another person.

And we all know at least one person who goes to bars and pretends to like people for free drinks, right?

That's who you are when you put up female profiles to get attention. You're pretending you like people for free drinks.

Is that the person you want to be?

I won't judge you for it. It's a good system. It works. It's ethical. You've made no actual promises, so you don't actually have to deliver. If this is the person you want to be, then be that person.

But I personally will not do it, and if you're not sure whether you want to be that person, my advice to you is that you probably don't.

Note that Brad Gosse decided to be that person, made a boatload of money doing it, and I still think Brad Gosse is an awesome guy. Because, like I said, I will not judge you for your decision.

Hey Saeed

IMHO, the deeper you get into IM, the more of an ethical problem it becomes - at least for some people it seems to. Let's face it, there is a crap load of money to be made from doing things that your "experts" have told you. There's also a crap load of money to be made by emailing people and telling them you're the widow of a Nigerian Prince who has $150 million that needs to be tranferred to their bank account..... where do YOU draw the line???

I think it really comes down to what you're comfortable with. If this were a real brick and mortar business, could you look your customer in the eye and do what you're doing? Not preaching here, it's a personal choice and something you have to be comfortable with. As was said above, ethics should never be a dilemma......

Cheers
Stu
aka Filter

Nigel,

The question you're asking is one that should be directed at yourself.

If you think that taking an action is unethical, then it is. Regardless of what anyone else thinks.

So I ask you...

Do you think it is ethical to create fake facebook/twitter accounts and to top it off by creating some fantasy female character to get more attention/views and to gain more sales?

You answered your own question by asking it.



All the best,
Michael

To be honest I think it's pretty unethical, it's probably better to have multiple accounts for your business instead, yes it's still a little deceptive but at least it's not characterising a hot female just an opinion though :-)

That's your conscience ... listen to it.

Alex

My Dad always said:

"If you have to think about it, it's not worth doing"

Which means that if you are at the "will I/won't I" stage then don't

Well... you always could ask some female friend of yours to create the account for you! If this is unethical to you, why not outsource it?

I used to create a lot of flyers for Rap promoters back in the hey day of Myspace, and I would always notice that on their profile pictures they would have nothing but hot women and then when you clicked for more, only pictures of their events. They would even have guys leaving comments asking if the girls in the pictures were the one's that ran the promotions company. Now I don't know if those guys ever stayed 'friends' with those promoters, or if they ever went to a show (converted), but I do know that it served to get them a lot of attention. I think one think you can do (and I've seen some rap promoters do this) is to have a female spokesperson. It works for GoDaddy.com doesn't it? And it's not dishonest. It's listed right in their bio...company spokesperson. She doesn't have to do anything but let you use her face, you can compose all of her tweets and messages.

Some people don't use their real name in their marketing. How is a false name any less ethical than using the opposite gender?

i always wondered why random cute girls added me lol now it all makes since. but yea, like everyone else said, if you don't feel right about doing it then don't do it

Forget whether what the OP is doing is moral or ethical. The real concern is, what happens when one of his competitors decides to run down the source of his traffic, and then puts up a blog post that says "My competitor is posing as young women on Twitter." Being able to honestly criticize your competition is a great way to put their name and their keywords on your site and steal their traffic. But it gets better -- you would also have journalistic license to copy the photos they are using and post them, to warn people away.

The days when you can do things anonymously on the Web are just about over, and if you establish any substantial business presence on the Web, you are going to be leaving traces of your operation everywhere. So why leave yourself open to attack by doing things dishonestly?

I don't even like it when FEMALES flaunt whetever to get you to do things.

I am seeing this done SO much now that I don't know how many I can believe. Eventually it will have some fallout.

Steve

Nothing that involves being dishonest is ethical. Granted, a lot internet marketers lie to get more business and more money. But is it ethical jsut because it gets them more business? No. Still people do it.

The problem with being dishonest, besides the obvious ethical part of it, is that being dishonest often comes back to kick one in the end. They get caught being dishonest and their good reputation is tarnished, among other things.

Being honest is always better, in my opinion. Granted, you might not make as many sales with being honest and ethical, but honest most certainly commands more respect than dishonesty and being unethical.


Cindy

Ethics and marketing don't mix well.

I have hear the same thing, but, I honestly, can say, I don't know anyone who has pulled that stunt. It sounds like it would more of a hassle than a benefit. Plus, we learned as children that if you tell one lie, you more than likely will tell another to cover the first. I would not want to find out the damage it could do with my business.

I say DON'T do it. I think it is a very bad idea to lead people on and deceive them. To do this is neither moral nor ethical. Only someone with a seared conscious could do this comfortably.

And it makes me SICK to think of all these guys hitting on girls, many of whom don't know how to handle this attention properly in the first place.

Can someone tell me how to post a thread. This is the only way I can communicate. lol.

No, it is not ethical to have an account that portrays you as someone you are not. Moreover, what is a person going to say after his/her death concerning earnings gotten from this technique?