Stairwellblog

I was fortunate enough to speak at the University of Chicago this past week on the subject of Entrepreneurship. A fellow panelist and alumnus of the University, an attorney, told me he had been working on some interesting questions / research regarding a relatively new phenomenon in my industry: social media.

He related that he and his partners had been building a consulting strategy for their Fortune 500 clients who had embarked upon publishing on places like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and MySpace. “Oh yeah,” he said. “We recognize already that there are legal risks to publishing on social media sites. What is a company liable for on their Facebook page? What if they publish information that is inaccurate and leads to damages for a reader?”

This question has been getting more and more play since the beginning of this year as the drive toward social media publishing has taken on more steam. More law firms are applying resources to providing legal counseling and strategy just on social media initiatives alone. Initiatives like microsites, sweepstakes, reader comments on locations owned by the company, among many. Yet how real cases may arise and find their way in to courts across the country has not been fully played out.

One thing is for sure, according to Al Kruger, Partner at Comet Branding, “…many of us may be frolicking in the magical fields of social media with rose-colored glasses on, not fully realizing or understanding the true legal implications and liabilities of this space. Businesses are now becoming more and more concerned with liability, exposure and other legal issues that could arise if they venture into social media.”

Apart from the company’s interaction with customers, is the issue of its social platform (and its employees’ social sites) and human resources. According a web site dedicated to Florida Law, for example, this issue is going to become bigger. “To date, there have been no major corporate lawsuits involving evidence from social networking sites. However, organizations need to monitor employees who may be commenting publicly about the workplace. For example, one young employee wrote on her profile that her job was boring and soon received her marching orders from her boss”

For many stakeholders and business owners, the questions are: What are the pitfalls and risks? and How do we minimize our vulnerability?

At Billups Design, we are invested in social media and have been providing our clients with consulting and execution of social media strategies. In light of these potential legal ramifications, however, we will now be building our knowledge base about legal implications of social media as well, and partnering with our legal counsel to be sure our clients are not exposing themselves unnecessarily.

Last 5 posts by charles

• Don’t Call It A Comeback: 5 Brands That Found a Second Life Using Social Media - October 21st, 2011
• Interest-based digital advertising: It's the right thing to do - October 5th, 2011
• Social Media for Indy Restaurants - February 7th, 2011
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