I blog, I tweet, I’m LinkedIn. Chances are you do, too. There are an array of forums to stay updated on your friends’, family, co-workers’, and competitors’ whereabouts. Just like in the old days when companies had to figure out how to deal with email etiquette and policies, now they have to figure out how to handle blog posts and Facebook pages.
Social networking websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are making it easy for your opinions to reach thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Along with this increase in online buzz and chatter, come more opportunities for legal problems.
Online commentators, from bloggers to your neighbor, are increasingly getting sued or threatened with legal action for everything from defamation to copyright infringement. Take for example the woman sued last year by her apartment’s management company when she tweeted that the apartment had mold… and that the management company was ‘ok’ with it. The management company filed a libel suit the very next day – asking for $50,000 in damages.
Luckily for the renter, since her tweet didn’t specify where the company was located or point directly to the company, it didn’t meet all of the elements to prove a libel. The judge ended up dismissing the case in January, on the grounds that the tweet itself was too vague to fit the required legal elements.
The moral of the story – be careful of what you type. But, what about what your employees are typing? Do you know what your employees are tweeting, blogging, or posting? Does your organization have a social media policy? Probably not.
In the latest issue of our ePublication, Global Communicator, read about tips for creating a social media policy and get links to examples of other policies and resources.
