The stories of social media fails are legendary—companies using inappropriate humor regarding serious social issues, typographical errors, or pop references that backfire.

These examples represent reputational issues that can affect your company’s brand and its sales.

The mistakes in social media marketing that make the headlines can obscure other forms of risks presented by social media, namely privacy violations, security breaches, unauthorized use of intellectual property and employment-based claims, among others.¹

Liability Risks of Social Media

The risks that social media introduce to your business are generally not new risks, but conventional risks that are delivered in a more modern way.

In order to help manage the risks presented by social media use by your business, you should:

• Create a social media policy for your company. Develop one for employees using social media for their job and another for employees using social media in their personal lives.
• Don’t create your policy in a vacuum. Rely on the diverse talents of your employees.
• Limit social media to designated spokespersons for better control over messaging.
• Train all employees on your social media policy.

These risks may be covered by your existing business liability insurance, provided through a rider on your current policy, or obtained through the purchase of specialized coverage. Speak with your insurance agent to learn how to make sure you are adequately protected against the business risks of social media.