Social media communication.

In June, I graduated from Umeå School of Business and Economics with marketing as my specialisation. My degree project was about Fair Trade organisations and their communication with consumers on social media sites. I discovered some interesting issues. The following is one of them:

Fair Trade orgs and consumers are at totally different levels when it comes to social media communication. There is a big gap between supply and demand of information. Consumers ask much questions about ethics and want proof that the Fair Trade System really works. Fair Trade orgs almost never provide answers, and especially not good answers, to these questions. Most questions answered are about technical issues on Fair Trade orgs' websites. Questions about ethical problems and such things are almost never answered. This creates a problem. Other consumers see that these questions aren't answered and it leads to negative word-of-mouth. Why can't they provide answers to these important questions? Don't they know the answers? Do they know anything about the supply chain and ethical standards at all? Does it work at all? 

Fair Trade orgs (All ethically oriented orgs - or all orgs) should really start taking social media and consumers' questions more seriously. If consumers don't receive answers, they will think Fair Trade don't know the answers. And then the whole idea with Fair Trade falls. 

A fair chance to know it's fair?