Exercising Caution with Social Media Marketing:  Be Aware of the Risks Involved in Using Social Media to Promote Your Business!

This is the final of my three-part advisory posts for businesses embarking on a social media campaign, and gives you practical advice regarding the risks associated with social media marketing. My other two posts are available on these links, part one concerns the different types of social media, and how you can use it to benefit your business, available here: http://bitly.com/1EsIBVU, and the second contains a spotlight on Facebook, and provides the basics on how you can best utilise this social media platform, available here: http://bitly.com/1b3vjDi.

Over the past decade, social media platforms including Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have been readily adopted in the daily activities of millions of UK inhabitants, currently standing at a combined figure 56,200,000 users (White, 2013). And this has provided a copious source new potential customers for businesses using social media in their digital marketing campaign, but what are the risks involved in using social media to promote your business and interact with followers?

For many businesses, using sites like Facebook and Twitter is pretty failsafe. They cost nothing to set up, and little time goes into managing them. Worst case scenario, you page crashes, you lose a few followers, or get the odd negative comment… right?

Actually, the risks can be a lot higher, and the consequences can be a lot more serious if you enter your digital marketing campaign blindly. Here are my top three issues to consider before embarking on your social media strategy:

1. Legal Implications: As a business owner, you’ll probably already be aware of the various forms of intellectual property that restrict the use of imagery, literature, and other media. If this is new to you, I highly suggested taking a look at this basic guide to IP law produced by the UK government to familiarise yourself with the concepts: http://bit.ly/1a9XaSc

As a general rule, you should always obtain written permission before using any third-party content (ie. anything that has not be specifically created for use by your business, like stock photos and product information from suppliers) to avoid litigation (Bently and Sherman, 2014). And bear in mind that anything you post will be stored in some permanent form somewhere, even if you delete it, so an offensive post you remove two years ago can still be held against you one day (Neal & McDevitt, 2010). The only real way to avoid this is to use your common sense – if you think there is even the most remote chance that your post may be considered offensive, then don’t take the risk. Even some of the biggest businesses don’t have the revenues available to survive the costs involved in a costly court trial. If you really are concerned, it’s always better to seek professional legal advice.

Top Tip: if one of your followers, or someone who visits your page, posts something offensive, deal with it quickly and effectively by reporting the post to the social media provider. In the worst case scenario, block that user from accessing you page again. For more information about legal implications, check out this YouTube video by Networks Northwest below:

Exercising Caution with Social Media Marketing

2. Competitor Implications: this issue ties in with the intellectual property issue above, whatever content you post, or campaigns or promotions you run, your competitors will take notice. Doubtless you will the same of theirs. Most of the time, copying won’t be a major issue, whether you are being copied, or copying someone else – there are supposedly ‘good’ (innovation) and ‘bad’ (theft) types of copying. For more information this, and how to avoid crossing the line of illegality, see this useful article by Raustiala, 2012: http://lat.ms/1PFuaS9

Generally, copying won’t be an issue where it’s used to ‘improve’ what you’ve already created, for example, most big business names didn’t actually invent anything, just improved it using other’s techniques – Steve Job’s has been said to have used this very process himself (Halpern, 2014).

But there are also times when copying can cross the border of illegality. You may then face a situation where your campaign is being copied by one of your competitors, and taking your customers with them (Robinson, 2013), or where you are being accused of the very same thing. This is rare, but is does happen. Once again, the best you can do to prevent a competitor mirroring your campaign, and stealing your clients, is by obtaining intellectual property on your strategy. For guidance on identifying which type of Intellectual Property you require, and how to apply for it, take a look at this government website: http://bit.ly/1xlxEzD. This will likely incur and initial expense, but if you’re confident in the success of your strategy, then it’s worth doing, because if you are copied in future, you’ll be able to seek a prohibitory injunction (an order to prevent the illegal action) against the other party, and claim remuneration from the damages you incurred in the process. Without legal protection, there is little you can do to prevent theft of your techniques (UK Government, 2014).

3. Security Implications: Social media hackers, unfortunately, do succeed in hacking business pages. Some do this to gain access to your finances, but more often than not, they simply do it for the fun of messing with your company information and sending spam emails to your followers (Robinson, 2014). However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t engage in social media marketing, not does it mean you should spend your time counting the days until your site gets hacked – but it does mean you should look out for signs of hacking, and take appropriate steps if such a thing were to happen to you. For tips on understanding hacking, and how to avoid it, take a look at this article by ‘Hakin9’: http://bit.ly/1PFA9X3;

The Infosec Institute (http://bit.ly/1z3bthx) provide a list of signs to look out for that may mean your page has been hacked, including:

• messages sent from your account, but not by you;
• An extensive amount of advertising has been posted, via your account, to your business page, but again not by you;
• you start receiving messages from users that your account has been hacked – usually these are not practical jokes, and you should take them seriously.

Typically, for social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, when there appears to be evidence that something unauthorised is going on with your account, the site will temporarily freeze your account, and ask you to complete security tasks when you try to log in.

The easiest way to avoid hacking is to change your password regularly, and don’t use the same password you do for other sites such as your email or main website. For further practical advice on steps you can take to minimise you chances of being hacked, take a look at this article by Burn-Callendar, 2015: http://bit.ly/1PFBay8.

If your account does get hacked, first and foremost, do not panic. Delete any and all content that has been posted or sent by the hacker. As a precaution, put a main post to your followers that your site has been hacked and to ignore anything untoward. The report and delete this content. For more guidance, see this article by Business Bee: http://bit.ly/1GxFKgm.

While these three issues can be serious, you shouldn’t avoid using social media to promote your business. It’s a phenomenal tool when used correctly, that can significantly improve your digital marketing campaign. That said, do not go in to it blindly, keep these three issues in mind, and be prepared to deal with them if and when they arise.

Article by Kayleigh McChambell.

Have you experienced any of these issues? What advice would you give to other business persons? Please leave your comments below!

SOURCES:

Bently, Lionel, and Sharman Brad, (2014), Intellectual Property Law, Fourth Edition, Ofrod University Press;

Halpern, D, When is it Okay to Copy Your Competitors?, 2014, Social Triggers, available at: http://bit.ly/1D4A89q;

McDevitt, Top Ten Legal Issues in Social Media, 2010, Neal & McDevitt, Intellectual Property and Marketing Attorneys, available at: http://bit.ly/1gOSRs4;

Poulsen, L, 4 Ways to Avoid Social Media Hackers, 2013, Business Bee, available at: http://bit.ly/1GxFKgm;

Qamar, A, Social Media Hacking: Mitigation Strategies, 2015, Infosec Institute, available at: http://bit.ly/1z3bthx;

Raustiala, Kal, (2012), Apple v Samsung: Is Copying Theft or Innovation?, Los Angeles Times, available at: http://lat.ms/1PFuaS9;

Robinson, C, The Risks Associated with Social Media Marketing, 2013, Tailwind Blog, available at: http://bit.ly/1uUMjCc;

United Kingdom Government, Intellectual Property and Your Work, 2014, Government Guides, available at: http://bit.ly/1IRErGv;

United Kingdom Government, Intellectual Property Crime and Infringement, 2014, Government Guides, available at: http://bit.ly/1GTPtMo;

White, J, The Demographics of UK Social Media Users, 2014, The Last Hurdle, available at: http://bit.ly/1a9XaSc.