Legal Risks of Social Media

The Twittering of President Obama’s off-the-record comments regarding Kanye West’s performance at the VMAs may hit home to many of us the unforeseen ramifications of the Big Brother, 360-degree ramifications of the social media world we live in.

It’s time we adress some of the legal risks of social media.

Employees’ Tweets and posts about your company, your product(s), your clients, and your employees. That’s right - even if you’re unaware of what they’re saying, or even of whether they’re saying anything at all, your company may be held liable. Let’s say you send samples of your product to your ad agency, or friends, and ask them to send messages out to all their contacts about how great it is. Well, their e-mails and social-networking messages may be subject to the federal law regarding sending unsolicited commercial e-mail.  

Free swag to bloggers and the like. Yes, it’s an awesome idea (and time-honored) to send free swag to people with the wherewithal to then proclaim about the goodness of said product to their readership. However, bloggers and other social media users need to follow the rules as well - the FTC requires that they disclose the free swag.

Not telling the truth. Just as making up testimonials is not only morally wrong but also illegal, so is making up positive reviews, posts, blogs, and the like and attributing them to fake customers. In fact, per the FTC, it’s illegal for an employee to endorse its own company’s product on a message board without disclosing that he/she works for the company.

Now, you don’t want to go off the deep end and ban your employees from using ALL social media to talk about your company, employees, or clients ALL the time. Rather, you need to take some control. A solution? A social media policy. Not only does it begin to address this gray area, but it also could give you some legal legs to stand on.

Cautionary Tale

I enjoy the professional advantages of social media sites and tactics such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, and, of course, Twitter as much as the next person, but I also enjoy playing devil’s advocate.

Hilarious example of the pitfalls and dangers of combining personal and professional uses of social media:

Political Twittering

For some reason, I’ve given alot of thought to Twitter lately. I’ve interspersed thoughts of “how do people have the time to Twitter, anyway?” with “Twitter is an extremely effective tool, and could be utilized quite readily by politicians”. Handily, I came across an extremely interesting article on Yahoo about just that topic - political twittering.

However, the article discussed two negative examples of Twitter being used by politicians, namely Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger (all I can say to the latter is: “What???”), and then goes on to briefly examine other politicans’ use of Twitter. As this article states, “In March, columnist Charlie Cook of the National Journal wrote that he has ‘yet to hear a single intelligent remark twittered by an elected offical.’”

If you read The Christian Science Monitor’s post on political twittering, you’ll see much room for improvement. Granted, Twitter does pose a security threat (politicans blythely twittering about secret locations, classified info, etc.), and too often it is uselessly and pointlessly used as a “where am I now” commentary (”at the gym!”).

However, that just means there’s alot of room for improvement. Imagine the possibilities! Barack Obama did - his campaign’s use of social media tools helped get him elected. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Twitter can be a very effective tool, if used properly and strategically.

Big Brother

Something struck me as I was reading through my latest copy of The Public Relations Strategist (Spring 2009). “In 2009, Big Brother is now a vast, collective and diverse group of individuals, organizations and industries watching the Internet and sometimes acting upon the information that they obtain.” This quote is in an article titled “Social Networking Media Present New Ethical Challenges for Public Relations” by Tim O’Brien, APR.

It truly is Big Brotherish out there. You hear seasoned celebrities make comments all the time, grateful that they didn’t come of age as a celebrity in this, the digital media age, because, today, they could not have gotten away with the things that they did then.  A listtle closer to home, where home is our marketing and public relations world, no longer is an irate or unhappy customer relegated to their simple letter to customer service and a few phonecalls to same. Today, these same disappointed customers take to the blogs and forums, loudly proclaiming to all who listen their woes with you and your company.

Today, everyone is watching, listening, and talking. You need to be aware, and you need to likewise - and you may need to respond. Or at least have a plan in place on how to react. But, more on that later.

Digg It

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m new to social media marketing (then again, aren’t we all? Seriously, did many people use it last year, or the year before?). Although I’ve been on LinkedIn for a while (thanks, Dean Bakeris!), within the past few months I’ve started blogging (both personally and professionally), have two Twitter accounts (@LauraLaChapelle for me and LaChapelle Communications, and @PRSA_MD for PRSA-MD), and joined FaceBook.

Well, you can only write to the big black void so much before it occurs to you that you  need to start promoting things, or else you’re just writing to yourself. So, I recently experimented with Digg to promote what I’m writing as the Baltimore Triathlon Examiner. Overnight, I had 171 page views (as opposed to just one previously).

Gosh darn, this marketing stuff really works (she says snarkily).

Rethink Your Approach to Employee Communications

How do you communicate to your employees? Do you post signs on the bathroom doors? Send out a mass e-mail? Hang up posters in the break rooms? Or, are you more advanced, with an employee newsletter, executive blog, and/or intranet site? Honestly, I’ve been at companies that have used all these approaches, from the bathroom signs to the dynamic intranet site.

Depending on the make up of your company, any and all of these methods can be effective. However, you should also consider utilizing social media. Develop a group for your company on LinkedIn and FaceBook, set up a Twitter feed, and even utilize YouTube and Wikis.

Hey, your employees are on these sites - rather than ignoring that fact, embrace it and use it to your advantage.

Social Media Boosts Event Marketing

Click Here for a short but interesting article on using social media to promote your event.

I’m using these tips in crafting and executing the promo plan for the PRSA-MD Chesapeake Conference and Best in Maryland Awards.

YouTwitFace - Thanks, Conan!

“YouTwitFace.” I love it! Conan certainly got it right. Everywhere you go, someone is talking about who they’re friends with on FaceBook, while someone else is twittering away on their BlackBerry, and someone else is recording something on their iPhone to then post to YouTube.

All great PR and Marketing tactics, to be sure, but too often companies are forgetting that’s exactly what they are - tactics. They’re not an answer in themselves, they’re not a strategy on their own. They’re pieces of the bigger puzzle, and each can’t stand on its own. Twitter by itself is not an effective strategy; for some companies, it may not even be a good tactic. I know - I may be the lone voice in the wind out here with that one, but it’s true. Each company must evaluate its strategy and the goals of their campaign to determine what tactics work best for them - old school strategy creation.

Some companies utilize a social media plan, while others incorporate social media tactics into their overarching plan. Again, depending on your goals, each system would work if done properly. However, I’m seeing a troubling triend with clients (and even some colleagues) where the opinion is that Twitter/FaceBook/YouTube, you name it, is the be all and end all for them. They come to me with that answer in mind, without first considering what their goals are and if, in fact, Twitter would really be the best way to achieve them.

So, a word of caution - social media tools are amazing, and I certainly put them into use when needed, but proceed with proper planning. YouTwitFace, to be sure!