At times, you may think that social media can be fun to enjoy as a business. However, you need to be aware of mistakes so that you do not land into legal trouble. A lot of times, the mistakes may not seem like much to worry about. However, with the FTC regulating the amount of influencer ads and posts that are sponsored, the content is being monitored even more by those who post the content.
When you have an agency handling your social media and they do not understand the legalities involved with social media, you will likely still be responsible. With that, below are five social media mistakes you need to prevent to avoid legal troubles.
- Being Unaware of Copyright
When you have a photo, it is automatically copyright material, although it may be difficult to pinpoint the owner. Does the photo belong to those who post the photo or the original photographer of the photo. When content is generated by a user a company could be exposed for undergoing infringement of intellectual property. If a photo is used commercially, the correct licenses need to be used in order to post the photo. You can easily bypass this is a photo was taken by you and you post it on your account. However, the difficult part is knowing where the photo copyright came from if it is from another source.
- Not Providing Proper Credit
If you are planning to share a photo of an object you own but someone else took the photo, then you will need to provide proper credit as you share it. This is especially true if attribution is involved. A lot of times, the photos on instagram have no source attached with attribution involved. But when attribution is provided, then you will be safe from possible copyright problems.
- Not Disclosing Influencer Campaigns
Businesses need to always disclose the use of an influencer for advertising efforts. The FTC strictly regulates the use of influencers in advertising so companies need to be sure it is known clearly. In fact, the influencer needs to be disclosed prior to a person clicking ´more´ to have more information. Also, there was a warning sent by the FTC stating that hashtags are not considered to be a disclosure.
- Posts Are Not Formatted Properly
With the FTC regulating social media heavily, the agency is even taking steps that ensure the formatting is unique. This is even to include any hashtags that are used as the disclosures need to be clear with them as well. When the influencer acknowledges a brand, that does not mean they are sponsoring the content. This is why a disclosure is important.
- Testimonials are not Real
Having a testimonial is a good way to have trust built through an authority figure. But you need to ensure that the testimonial is real or you will be asking for trouble. With regulators on the lookout for anything and everything, the words that are said will also be verified. If astroturfing is found, then there could be a fine imposed which could be in the thousands of dollars.
Conclusion
With social media being regulated so much, you need to be extra careful of what is shared and posted. To get more information concerning mistakes to avoid, get a hold of us today.
