Social media is and should be an invaluable tool for your business networking needs. But like anything else, it should be wielded with caution. Many businesses make mistakes with social media that get them in legal trouble.
Here, our Illinois commercial litigation team at Ellis Legal provides some more common mistakes and advice when dealing with your business and social media.
What You Write Matters
We tend to think that what we write on social media “isn’t real” or that it’s “just talk” and has no legal effect. It does. If you promise something to someone on Facebook or Instagram, that can be seen as a binding oral agreement. If you tell a customer something on Twitter, that customer is going to expect what you say to be or to become true.
It’s great to be responsive to customer needs or concerns on social media. Just make sure that you have a way of logging and recording what is being said, that whoever is handling social media for you is able to represent your business. You may want to consider avoiding handling major problems with clients or customers over social media.
Defamation
Once again, things written on social media have legal effects. That means that if you defame someone on social media, you can be sued for what you say. The same holds true for customers—you may have legal recourse if a customer defames you.
Removing Information or Posts
You can legally remove anything you want from your social media pages. However, suppose you remove anything that could conceivably relate to any legal matter. In that case, you must preserve whatever was posted—the picture, comment, or any text included with your post.
Later, if there is litigation related to the post, or if the social media post has information relevant to any litigation, that post could be construed as evidence, and you could be held to have destroyed evidence if you remove and delete information that was once on a social media post.
False Advertising
Remember that social media can be seen as advertising, which obliges you to comply with advertising rules. If you are in an industry that requires disclaimers or disclosures, those may have to be posted. And, of course, if you make false advertising claims, you can be held liable for what you post.
Your best bet is to stick to puffery—things that can’t really objectively be proven or which are clearly, untrue.
It’s fine to say you make “the best cake in the world,” which may not be true and can’t even be proven objectively, but if you told your cake was “made with organic ingredients” or “won Best Cake in the 2023 competition,” and those claims are false, you could end up in trouble.
Common Sense and Good Taste
Use good taste. Run your pictures or posts with more than one set of eyes. Be sensitive to all races, religions, sexes, sexual identities, and backgrounds. Regardless of your personal views, you don’t want the bad publicity that comes with a post that is misconstrued by the general public.
Do you need help with company policies or procedures or help keeping your business out of legal trouble? Speak with a Chicago commercial litigation attorney at Ellis Legal at (312) 967-7629 today.