Be the Brand: Required professional involvement in social media. Presented by Raizel Liebler and Keidra Chaney from The Learned Fangirl.com
Am I representing myself or the brand? It continues to be an issue for many people whether we represent ourselves in social media or our brand. What are the legal implications of this overlap?
There is a blurring of the line between the personal and the professional and will give examples.
American red cross: an individual posted ‘ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of dogfish head’s midas. The day after the Red Cross explained that it is an honest mistake bec it was tweeted 1000s of times. This was handled well bec Red Cross had a well-planned and comprehensive social media policy for employees.
An employee in Chrysler said ‘I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one her knows how to … drive.” That employee was fired.
Tools make it easy to share. These things happen more in Twitter rather than FB. FB is set up for a corporate audience and represent the brand which is separate from your personal stuff.
Liebler is talking about legal issues: no lawyer can prevent all possible negative implications of social media. Summarizing some points only here: zone of privacy, persona, of moral rights,
- zone of advertizing [who is the messenger].
- Zone of employment and contract: what can employees divulge of their personal life. Prohibited subjects: Employees are not allowed to disparage employer, and basically issues that fall under unionizing. Disparagement of any race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
- zone of persona: right to publicity: ability of person to exploit identity for any gains. If a Twitterer has 1000s of followers, he will be asked to sign their tweets over to the employer.
- Zone of privacy: government intrusion.Maremont v Susan Fredman Design Group: her employer used her personal twitter to promote the company. She was using her own persona to promote the company. When she was sick, the brand continued to use the account. She said they impersonated her and promoted her employer. Each tweet displayed her image and name with no reference that she is not the one tweeting any more.