I had the privilege recently to speak to a group of communications professionals, along with my friends Lisa Zone and Alexa Marinos at Cleveland PR Firm Dix & Eaton, about the legal implications of using social media in marketing communications.  You can read a bit about it here at Time.com http://business.time.com/2012/07/18/protect-your-company-from-social-media-mayhem-2/

It was a fun opportunity to talk about the key legal trouble areas with social media, and how to avoid them.  Here are some of my top tips:

Have a social media policy, in writing.  It would surprise you how many companies skip this obvious step.  The nature of social media is that it is fast moving and informal, so to some having a formal policy to deal with it seems like an obstacle.  But it’s critical to have rules of the road that everyone understands.  Developing the policy should be a team effort, involving people from the marketing, technology, human resources, and, yes, legal teams, so that all corners of the business weigh in and have ownership of it.  And it should be in harmony with other company policies you have on external communications, internet and e-mail use, and employee behavior.  Once you have agreement on what the policy should address, document it and insist that everyone acknowledge it.

Follow your social media policy consistently.  Your policy is only as effective as the way you enforce it.  If it is applied to one situation, and ignored in another, it gets diluted.  People get confused.  And then they don’t follow it either.  It’s not hard to see where this leads….no meaningful policy.  Avoid this landmine by applying the policy fairly and consistently across the board.

Respect copyright.  The fact that social media is informal does not mean that your staff has license to disregard copyright laws.  Don’t duplicate or reproduce the copy of others without permission.  Especially for commercial purposes.  Yes, even on Pinterest (although the jury is out on whether anyone cares about repinning someone else’s work on Pinterest for non-commercial purposes).  And when you do reproduce someone else’s work or content, give them full attribution.

Use brand trademarks correctly.  Brand use guidelines are just as important on social media as they are in print, or in digital advertising – follow them.  And while editorializing (ie. “griping”) on social media about a company’s products or services is not trademark use, the story changes when you are engaged in comparative advertising, or using someone else’s trademark for commercial purposes.  Know the lines about proper trademark use and attribution, and stay within them.

Follow FTC testimonial guidelines.  While the FTC doesn’t acknowledge that it updated its rules on testimonials because of social media, the timing was too coincidental to ignore.  Be aware of, and follow, the principles of transparency in the FTC’s rules related to testimonials on social media.  If you distribute your client’s product to mommy-bloggers to review, require them to disclose that fact.  If you give a coupon or promotional item to a Facebook “liker,” your policy needs to be disclosure as well.

This is an ever-evolving area of the law, and I always remind my clients that technology leads, business follows, and the law sweeps up after everyone.  Which makes staying up to date on the legal developments related to social media challenging and important.

I would love to hear about specific social media legal situations you or your clients have encountered.