This month on Authenticities we're taking a look at ethics - an evergreen topic that certainly has no shortage of opinions. While much of the discussion in PR revolves around blogging or Wikipedia, I want to kick it off with a topic that I see as posing even more significant challenges in the months and years ahead - ambient awareness.

Ambient awareness, which was covered in detail in the New York Times last week, describes our growing fondness for posting and reading short status updates on social network sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendfeed and others. To me, the news feed, which Facebook popularized about two years, is in fact media. There's no delineation any more. Peers and pros create media and it's all influential.

By years' end, according to eMarketer, nearly half the US population will have a presence on a social network. Many of us in PR overall are active on social networks. This brings with it major ethical considerations. Where they really come into play is when a) we friend journalists and bloggers on soc nets and b) when our networks become sizable.

On Facebook, where I limit my network to those whom I have met or corresponded, I am friends with 1000 people, including 100+ journalists and many more bloggers. Every time I post an update, join a group or fan a brand or a cause, it shows up in my news feed, potentially influencing everyone in my circle. Therein lies the ethical issue. People can't tell if it's intentional or not.

Many of us in PR are natural cheerleaders for our clients. We're often proud of who we represent - and we should be. So this leads us to "fan" a brand or a cause on social networks because they're near and dear to our hearts. However, in doing so, we're subtly influencing those around us and often without properly disclosing our affiliations. Over time we may need to be as impartial as journalists when it comes to our participation on these sites.

Here's how I've navigated this situation, so far.

First, as hard as it is, I shy from "fanning" brands and causes on Facebook. Part of the reason is that a brand can turn me into a social ad without my knowledge or theirs. It happened to me earlier this year in fact. There were no ramifications and I quickly unsubscribed as a fan of that brand.

Second, whenever I post a status update that mentions a client, I devote some of that minimal space to mention my affiliation. Any Tweets from Starbucks, for example, disclose that they are an Edelman client. The same when I goes for when I share a Google Reader item about Palm and it appears in Friendfeed - as I did here.

I don't think that PR professionals have fully grasped the ethical implications of ambient awareness. I guarantee it will become a major issue for someone somewhere in the near future. Don't let it be you. Take great care when participating on these sites.