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Cyber Security, Employment Practices, Management Liability
Social Media Liability Risks
Social media has taken over the world. Did you know that Facebook has 1.01 Billion active daily users? Twitter has 320 million active users with roughly 500 million tweets per day.
While social media is not only for personal use, businesses are adopting this platform. They are seeing the potential to transform how they engage with customers, employees and other stakeholders. Social networking sites allow businesses to transform from their traditional marketing strategies by developing and deepening the relationship between the company and the customer.
As more companies adopt social media each day, they should be aware of the risks, in addition to the opportunities, that come with using social media.
Things to remember:
- You cannot publish someone else’s words or likeness to endorse your company without their permission;
- You cannot publish copyrighted content without the copyright holder’s permission;
- You cannot copy advertising;
- And you cannot publish content that defames another person or company.
While companies need to be careful about what they publish on social media, they also need to be aware of other users including their own employees. Whether intentional or unintentional, employees can threaten their company’s reputations via social media with defamatory comments of coworkers, management, clients, vendors or even the company itself. In order to mitigate these risks, companies need to:
- Establish a review process for social media content;
- Train employees so they understand the brand image and voice;
- Consider purchasing a General Liability Insurance policy or Cyber Liability Insurance policy.
If your company is using social media, mistakes can happen. The potential for risk should inspire your business to be prepared. To learn more about how to better protect your business from social media liability, connect with any of us at Propel.
Sources: newsroom.fb.com/company-info, about.twitter.com/company
