Ethics of Blogging

I present to you... the blog that inspired me to start one: DulceCandy.com (pictured above).

As I had mentioned in a past blog post, I wanted to work in the fashion industry, with a passion, in middle school and high school. So I would constantly search fashion related topics on the internet. One of the very first blogs I visited was DulceCandy.com. I had stumbled upon Dulce Candy's (yes, that's her real name) YouTube channel and through her channel I found her blog. I loved everything about it, so I decided to make my own blog. I created a simple, yet original, blog domain: stacyascencio.com. Okay, maybe it's not creative, but it was the start of my blogging experience.

I soon realized how hard it was to maintain a blog. What makes a good blog is its content and the consistency of it.

I deleted it a few years ago since I quickly became inactive on it. Thankfully, now that I'm in college, my Public Relations class required me to create a blog and get back into blogging. It's been a challenge to stay consistent, but enjoyable nonetheless. StacywithStyle.blogspot.com has been a mixture of what I'm learning in terms of PR and my interest in fashion.

This week I was reading David Meerman Scott's book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and discovered 5 important points of maintaining an ethical blog.
It is very important to share your thoughts through a blog but also be respectful/ethical with what you post.

Here are 5 points to pay attention to when blogging, according to Scott:

1. Transparency: Make sure you let people know who you are. I am Stacy Ascencio on my blog and I am transparent to what I am interest in with my posts.

2. Privacy: Respect others privacy. I make sure I don't post what people have commented to me, whether it be through email, in person, text, etc., unless I asked them for permission. When I post public pictures like clothings brand's instagram/website content, I make sure to cite them.

3. Disclosure: Acknowledge conflict of interest. Being clear as to what your relationship is to a person or company that you talk about is important. It lets the reader clearly know the relationship you have with them and if it is a conflict of interest. 

4. Truthfulness: Be honest. Always. White lies can be so easy to write and succumb to, but honesty is what makes whatever you write trustworthy. Lies are never good, whether they are big or small. Like Mark Twain said, “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.” And like Friedrich Nietzsche said, "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."
It's tempting to say I've ALWAYS been interested in fashion and make up stories that can surely spice up my posts, but there's no honor in that.

5. Credit: Don't steal content and make it yours. A perfect example of that is how I made sure to let you, the readers, know that the above picture is Dulce Candy's blog. Also, I made sure I gave David Meerman Scott the credit of this vital information I'm sharing with you.

All in all, these 5 points all relate to each other and are equally important.
I hope this pushes you to strive to be/continue to be ethical when posting!

Happy blogging!

Xo,
Stacy.

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