Guest Column- Take this Survey: Social Media and the LGBT Community

Leone Kraus is a candidate for a master’s degree in Corporate Communication from New York University, she writes on social media, marketing, and public relations for her own blog KrausNotes, The Bilerico Project, and Advertising Week. Leone works as a business development manager at Blue State Digital.I'm certain it's no surprise to readers that there isn't much research available on the LGBT community, and there certainly isn't much that pertains to the LGBT community's usage of social media or how those in the community may be negatively affected by it.

Leone Kraus

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- About a year and a half ago, I took a social media class as part of my Master’s degree program at New York University. The class was intended to teach us how social media has transformed how people communicate and how social media is leveraged by corporations and nonprofits to get their message out and to also how to engage both consumers and constituents.

As part of the class, we were required to maintain our own blog. Each week, we were required to post a blog on a topic that interested us within the communication and public relations sector. I choose to focus mine, krausnotes.com, on the LGBT community’s usage of social media, both by individuals and organizations and the theory and ethics behind this.

There's no doubt that social media has given us the tools we need to reach and engage people at scale with our message and that social platforms have provided the opportunities we need to easily connect with likeminded people, such as those within the LGBT community. The It Gets Better Project, Equality is My Middle Name, and #spiritday are excellent examples of how the LGBT community can and do leverage social media to get the word out.

But what about those who have been negatively affected by these platforms? What about those who have had their sexual identity or gender identity revealed when they didn't want it to, costing them their job, home, and even risking their general safety and security? What about those in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, West Texas, New Mexico, and the Dakotas, where the safety and security of the LGBT community is so far from a reality.

Since social media's inception, in particular Facebook, people have become accustomed to sharing just about anything, not only about themselves but about their peers too, on these platforms.

As these platforms advance, there's been little in the form of guidelines that encourage people to question whether or not what a person shares may negatively affect someone else in their network. I hope that my research brings a voice to those who may be affected so that we can begin to consider the ethics that should come into play when using social media.

To help me, please take a moment to complete this survey, which will close on Friday, November 11.

I encourage you to share it with your broader networks.

Thank you!

Connect with Leone Kraus on Twitter.