Legal Aspects of Your Company’s Social Media Policy

What you’ll discover:

Implications of Social Media Activity on Business Accounts or in the Name of the Company Defamation and Exposure of Sensitive Information

Social networking is an excellent tool for marketing your company. It may also cause issues. Whether you have a deliberate social media plan or not, social media may have a significant influence on how your company is regarded. You should be aware of more than simply your company’s social media efforts. Your workers’ social media activity might potentially have a substantial impact on your company.

You must take control of this impact by establishing clear guidelines for your workers’ personal social media activity as well as interactions on your company’s platforms. This entails establishing specific criteria, often in the form of a written Social Media Policy. These are some of the legal factors you should include in yours.

Social Media Activity on Business Accounts or in the Name of the Company

The most stringent bans and criteria for social media involvement should apply to activity undertaken on the business’s accounts or in the business’s name. As a business owner, you have the right to preserve your company’s interests and to take action to safeguard the company’s image. You also have a legal obligation to establish behavioral expectations. If your workers engage in criminal behavior on your company’s social media accounts, you may be held entirely accountable under the respondeat superior theory. It makes no difference whether you disagreed with the activity or did not authorize it. The fact that one of your workers did it on your company’s behalf is usually enough to hold you legally accountable for the activity.

In your Social Media Policy, you should specify how workers should manage activities and interactions on your company’s social media accounts or while acting in the company’s name. Make it clear what you want staff to do and what they should avoid doing. Provide instances. Make it clear what the penalties of not adhering to the standards will be.

Defamation and Sensitive Information Disclosure

Defamation of your company or its consumers is another legal risk that must be addressed in your Social Media Policy. Defamation has been a growing issue as individuals use social media to rave about their bosses, companies, or consumers. Although you are not required to include defamation provisions in your Social Media Policy, any defamation actions you may make will be more likely to succeed if you include this material as part of your policy. Bear in mind that, in general, statements of displeasure and dissatisfaction are insufficient to establish a defamation claim. The assertions must be untrue and detrimental to your company.

The exposure of sensitive information may not constitute defamation, but it may harm your company. Your social media policy should also contain information on banned social media disclosures. For example, your staff may believe they are safe if they use a code name to refer to an account or a customer. Even such code names, however, may backfire if they are connected with secret information belonging to the company or its customers.

Consequences

For infractions of your Social Media Policy, you may apply a variety of disciplinary penalties. But, before taking action, you should clearly out in your policy the penalties for any forbidden behaviors. The intensity of the punishment should be proportional to the gravity of the offense: Minor infractions may require a warning, but more serious transgressions, such as the revealing of private information, may necessitate suspension or termination. Just make sure that the repercussions are made clear from the start.