The Tweet That Tanks Your Company
Throughout the business world, there is a quest to augment new business development strategies, using social media as a platform to convert followers to leads to sales.
But while management is focused on the upsides, it’s time to understand and address the downsides as well. And they can be severe.
It comes as a shock to companies to learn that when employees misuse social media, their employers can be held accountable.
Assume a company sponsors a bulletin board on Facebook and an employee posts something demeaning or worse. It can create a complex and challenging legal dilemma, where competing interests are at stake: an employee’s freedom of speech vs. an employer’s management of risks. Put simply, employers can be held liable for the acts their employees commit. The employer is at risk of being considered an “advertiser” responsible for its employee’s statements, even if it did not sponsor or authorize those statements.
The good news is that there are specific insurance coverages available to protect your company from various threats pertaining to social media, including Crisis Management or Reputational Injury coverage to assist with a PR fallout.
