Navigating Social Media Legal Risks: Safeguarding Your Business

Navigating Social Media Legal Risks: Safeguarding Your Business

Released May 2012
Publisher(s): Que
ISBN: 9780133033656

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Book description

The plain-English business guide to avoiding social media legal risks and liabilities—for anyone using social media for business—written specifically for non-attorneys!

You already know social media can help you find customers, strengthen relationships, and build your reputation, but if you are not careful, it also can expose your company to expensive legal issues and regulatory scrutiny. This insightful, first-of-its-kind book provides business professionals with strategies for navigating the unique legal risks arising from social, mobile, and online media. Distilling his knowledge into a 100% practical guide specifically for non-lawyers, author and seasoned business attorney, Robert McHale, steps out of the courtroom to review today’s U.S. laws related to social media and alert businesses to the common (and sometimes hidden) pitfalls to avoid. Best of all, McHale offers practical, actionable solutions, preventative measures, and valuable tips on shielding your business from social media legal exposures associated with employment screening, promotions, endorsements, user-generated content, trademarks, copyrights, privacy, security, defamation, and more...

You’ll Learn How To

•   Craft legally compliant social media promotions, contests, sweepstakes, and advertising campaigns

•   Write effective social media policies and implement best practices for governance

•   Ensure the security of sensitive company and customer information

•   Properly monitor and regulate the way your employees use social media

•   Avoid high-profile social media mishaps that can instantly damage reputation, brand equity, and goodwill, and create massive potential liability

•   Avoid unintentional employment and labor law violations in the use of social media in pre-employment screening

•   Manage legal issues associated with game-based marketing, “virtual currencies,” and hyper-targeting

•   Manage the legal risks of user-generated content (UGC)

•   Protect your trademarks online, and overcome brandjacking and cybersquatting

•   Understand the e-discovery implications of social media in lawsuits

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Table of Contents
  5. About the Author
  6. About the Contributor
  7. Dedication
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. We Want to Hear from You!
  10. Reader Services
  11. Introduction
  12. 1. Social Media Promotion Law: Contests and Sweepstakes
  13. 2. Online Endorsements and Testimonials: What Companies and Their Employees Can and Cannot Tweet, Blog, or Say
  14. 3. The [Mis]Use of Social Media in Pre-Employment Screening
  15. 4. Monitoring, Regulating, and Disciplining Employees Using Social Media
  16. 5. Social Media in Litigation and E-Discovery: Risks and Rewards
  17. 6. Managing the Legal Risks of User-Generated Content
  18. 7. The Law of Social Advertising
  19. 8. Trademark Protections from Brandjacking and Cybersquatting in Social Networks
  20. 9. Balancing Gamification Legal Risks and Business Opportunities
  21. 10. Social Media’s Effect on Privacy and Security Compliance
  22. 11. Legal Guidelines for Developing Social Media Policies and Governance Models
  23. 12. Looking Ahead at Social Media Business Opportunities, Expectations, and Challenges
  24. Appendix A. Table of Legal Authorities
  25. Appendix B. The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914
  26. Appendix C. The Lanham Act—Section 43(a)
  27. Appendix D. The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA)
  28. Appendix E. Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
  29. Appendix F. Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA)
  30. Appendix G. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
  31. Appendix H. FTC’s Revised Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
  32. Appendix I. Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003
  33. Appendix J. The Copyright Act
  34. Appendix K. Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA)
  35. Appendix L. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
  36. Appendix M. Electronic Communications Privacy Act
  37. Appendix N. National Labor Relations Act
  38. Appendix O. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
  39. Appendix P. Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996
  40. Index

Product information

  • Title: Navigating Social Media Legal Risks: Safeguarding Your Business
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: May 2012
  • Publisher(s): Que
  • ISBN: 9780133033656