Good Business Practices To Avoid Advertising & Social Media Liability Issues

There’s no denying that we’re living in a world that has revolutionized the way we communicate with one another. Years ago, word of mouth and postal mail was the only way to deliver messages; now, we can send messages in less than a second. What does your current marketing plan look like? How are you communicating with customers and clients? If you have yet to take advantage of social media, you should definitely start.

Regardless of your current social media status, there are major considerations that must be kept in mind. Here’s a close look at good business practices you can follow to help avoid advertising and social media liability issues.

Understand your liability concerns

Before you can protect yourself from social media liability issues, you must first know what they are. Generally, social media information security legal risks will fall into one of three categories:

• Spoofing
• Breach of organizational security
• Leakage of third-party information

Make sure you protect consumer data

When you advertise on social media, you’ll likely attract a group of fans and followers. When these people start following your company’s profile, you will gain access to certain information that is available through their profiles. It’s your job to protect any information that you gain, which means that you cannot give it out to third parties unless the consumers give you permission.

Avoid IP infringement

The whole point of advertising on social media is because you want to engage consumers and build your brand, but this is also the primary reason that other businesses advertise via social media too. Keeping this in mind, make sure that the content you use in your branding (images, music, written text etc.) is not copyrighted by someone else or some other business. IP infringement issues will become present if you don’t make sure all materials posted on your social media profiles are in compliance with copyright and trademark laws.

Defamation

It’s also on your social media profiles that some people might make defamatory statements. If they do, it is your responsibility to make sure the remarks are removed. If you were to leave them for everyone to see, this can lead to lawsuits over defamation.

Advertising laws

Most social media platforms have their own laws and guidelines in place relating to advertising. For example, if you are running a contest on your social media profile, you’ll need to make sure that you display the appropriate notices and disclaimers.

Always cooperate with law enforcement

If you are ever subpoenaed to court to deliver information gathered through your social media marketing endeavors, it is imperative that you comply.

The best way to make sure that your social media marketing tactics are in good standing is by creating a social media policy. This policy should be reviewed on a regular basis, and as technology becomes more advanced, your policy will need to be updated to ensure social media liability issues are avoided.