Corporate Legal and Risk Concerns With Social Media
February 17, 2009
Among the more common objections by companies to utilizing social media for business are concerns over risk and legal issues. For public companies the concern is somewhat more justified since they have regulatory considerations that private companies (in general) don’t. But public or private, no company wants to see information leak that should not, or for an employee to expose the company to a lawsuit because of a careless blog entry. To further the problem, there may be concerns over content, copyright and trademark control particularly in the wake of the recent announcement by Facebook that they retain the right to use [forever] any contenet uploaded to their site. While many social media marketers and consultants are quick to dismiss these concerns, gloss over them or simply don’t know enough about the risk to address it, the reality is that companies should be keeping a close eye on their use of social media including corporate blogs.
The question of what can be blogged on a corporate site recently came up while I was speaking at a conference on Social Media, and while my answer isn’t particularly satisfying to many people it is the right answer for a social media consultant/marketer to give… ask your lawyer. It might sound like a dodge but every company has a different risk profile, different requirements and restrictions on reporting and disclosure and there is almost no way for me or anyone else on the marketing/technology side to tell you what that is for your company. More importantly, the specifics of that are often a legal issue, not a marketing one, and the only person in a position to provide you legal advice is an attorney.
None of this means you shouldn’t be utilizing social media and the greatest “risk” is often the knee-jerk reaction to not use social networks and corporate blogs. With any business, there is risk in almost everything we do and benefits to be gained from taking risk. What is important, as any risk manager will tell you, is managing risk, not avoiding it. To this end everyone in the process has a role; It is incumbent on the business leaders to be familiar with the risk and determine their risk threshold, for the attorneys to be familiar with social media as to assist in setting guidelines and keep the company out of trouble, and on the consultant to understand and be able to articulate associated risk and risk management techniques which may not be considered by their client for lack of experience with social media. All the while we have to address risk without scaring anyone off from taking advantage of a very powerful medium by which they can communicate with their customers.
The upside of social media is enormous and a few rather nominal steps can help manage associated risk. When you are looking for or considering hiring a social media consultant make sure they also have a basic understanding of risk. While every consultant wants your business many of them (understandably) will tout the benefits of social media and not the risk. It is up to you to ask about risk, understand it, and for them to be able to address your concerns while reminding you that legal decisions are for the lawyers (don’t expect your consultant to answer legal questions, if they do run away as fast as you can). Most importantly, don’t avoid social media or corporate blogging, the biggest risk to you is doing nothing and having your lunch eaten by your competition.
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