Social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, are extremely popular. Companies benefit from having a strong social media presence for various reasons, ranging from generating more leads and increasing brand awareness to improving customer service. However, companies cannot simply post anything on their social media accounts and get away with it.
Companies must implement social media policies to ensure they comply with legal statutes. Those policies should also provide useful information on how to properly use social media, ensure security and data safety, and protect the company from liability.
What is social media compliance?
Social media compliance refers to compliance with legal statutes, regulations, and policies when using social media platforms. Social media compliance requires companies to monitor their posts and interactions, collect and process data, and protect it from misuse.
The requirements that companies must comply with when using social media platforms depend on their industry.
For example, companies that have access to people’s financial or health data must ensure that they maintain proper data security in order to comply with laws like FINRA. Companies in the health care industry, on the other hand, are required to follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe’s data privacy law, requires companies to comply with strict guidelines and regulations when processing data.
No matter which industry your business operates in, you need to implement social media compliance policies to ensure your social media activities comply with legal statutes.
The consequences of non-compliance
Non-compliance with regulatory requirements costs organizations throughout the world billions of dollars each year. As data laws and regulations become stricter, this will only increase.
In addition to fines and penalties, however, the losses are far more extensive. Businesses that don’t follow the rules run the danger of having their security compromised, losing productivity, having their name tarnished, and much more.
The consequences of noncompliance can be divided into two categories — legal consequences and business consequences.
Legal consequences include fines, penalties, civil or criminal liability, and regulatory scrutiny. Business consequences include damage to brand reputation, loss of productivity, and damage to company security.
4 benefits of social media compliance
Protect your reputation
In order to keep your company’s reputation intact, it’s important to adhere to social media guidelines, such as using suitable language, adhering to established rules of engagement, and evaluating the repercussions of breaking them.
Disclosing company secrets, inappropriate jokes, or generally offensive posts can hurt your company’s reputation. Therefore, it’s important to educate employees about the importance of maintaining a respectable social media presence and about the company’s social media policy.
Prevent legal liability
Companies that embrace social media and use it appropriately benefit from increased brand awareness and an increased customer reach. However, companies that make a mistake on their social media accounts can face legal consequences.
For example, companies that post fake reviews about their own products or services can face legal consequences. Similarly, companies that allow their employees to post offensive content on their social media accounts are also at risk of legal liability.
Therefore, companies must implement policies regarding social media use and disclose those policies to their employees. Those policies should specify what employees can and cannot post on social media and what the consequences are for violating the policy.
Having a social media strategy that complies with all applicable regulations lowers the risk of posting information that might get you in trouble with regulators.
Avoid security breaches
Companies should always protect their social media accounts from breaches and hacks, which can result in confidential information being disclosed.
Furthermore, companies that fail to properly protect their social media accounts from breaches can face lawsuits from customers whose information was disclosed.
For example, if a company’s social media account is hacked, and sensitive information is disclosed, the company may face lawsuits from customers whose information was disclosed.
Therefore, companies should implement social media policies to ensure their social media accounts are properly secured. Those policies should include clear instructions on how to protect the company’s social media accounts from breaches and hacks, how to identify breaches and hacks and how to prevent them, and what the company will do if a breach or hack occurs.
Have easier access to your data
In order to effectively comply with legal statutes and to prevent legal liability, companies have easy access to their social media data, including posts and comments.
When authorities or the general public ask for information, you should provide it in its original form and context, including any content uploaded to social media sites during a certain time period.
For example, companies must be able to access all the posts on their social media accounts, including all posts by employees, and be able to filter posts by content type, author, and date.
In order to access your social media data, you need to implement social media policies, which must specify what data the company will store, how the company will store it, and how long the company will store it. Using a social media archiving solution can help you automate data archiving and retention and ensure that social media records are easily accessible in case they are needed.
Over to you
As social media continues to grow, it will become increasingly important for companies to comply with the regulations that apply to them.
Companies need to implement social media policies to ensure their social media activities comply with legal statutes. Those policies should
include clear instructions on how to protect the company’s social media accounts from breaches and hacks, how to identify breaches and hacks and how to prevent them, and what the company will do if a breach or hack occurs.
