On Saturday, I had a great opportunity to meet Alaine Dollan and gain insight from her session on The Legal Implications of Social!

Some of the key points that I thought we all could learn from:

Policy for Visitors to your site:

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer about links
  • Intellectual Property Policy

Policies to think for your employees!

  • Employee Handbook should include .. intellectual property policy, social media policy, and privacy policy (Do you have these? )
  • The Social Media Policy (see IBM’s at http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html)
  • Should define your company’s attidue toward social networking
  • State employee’s access to social network sites while at work
  • State whether employees can identify themselves as reps of the company
  • Explain what disclaimers must be used
  • Lists types of employees covered by the policy

Social Media Insurance:

  • Does your general liability, product liability, professional liability, and commerical property liability cover Social Media incidents?
  • Does your social media insurance cover First party, Third party and Personal Injury Claims?

Intellectual Property Infringement:

  • The internet is viewed as a lawless zone!  However there are rules that should be followed!
  • Trademark infringement could happen from uploading designs, trademarks or logos (ask permission for these!)
  • Purchase domain names so that you do not “cybersquat”
  • Copyright infringement — is your work protected?  Is the Use Considered Fair use? 
  • Do you invite others to post materials on your social media page?   Are they protected by copyright?

HINT:  Review the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  And the Online Infringement Liability limitation act!

This work that was presented was very very helpful to me!  I hope it is helpful to you!  The second part of her session was on keywords and linking!   Watch for that summary tomororw!