These days a wide range of businesses use social media channels to build better relationships with their customers, employees and other stakeholders. From large consumer brands with millions of Facebook fans to niche B2B companies promoting their services through LinkedIn, social media has transformed the world of marketing.
But as businesses rush to take advantage of this new way of talking to their audiences, the risks are often overlooked. We’ve all seen plenty of examples of social media gaffes from businesses as they try to work out the right way to use these channels, but the bigger danger is that they could find themselves falling foul of the law.
Most businesses are aware of how the law, and industry regulations, affect their traditional communications, but understanding how this applies to social media can be tricky. Worse still, some businesses do things in social media that they would never dream of doing in their other channels, such as republishing copyrighted photographs, or sniping at their competitors, because they imagine that the rules no longer apply.
The technology of social media is developing faster than the law can keep up, so it’s easy to understand how many businesses might become a little lax in their approach. But with a little planning and some common sense policies, you can significantly reduce the level of risk your business is exposed to.
To help with this, we’ve produced a white paper, in collaboration with legal and compliance experts, to give businesses a clearer picture of how things currently stand, and what action they can take to minimise risk.