Social Media: Marketing and the Legal Risks Training Session One: The Social Media Playbook

1. Social Media: Marketing and the Legal RisksTraining Session One: The Social Media Playbook Matthew Spanovich & Eric Wiechman December 2, 2011 Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011

2. Schedule of Proceedings Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Eric Wiechman • What is Social Media? • State of the Social Media • Effective Social Media Marketing • WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) • Marketing Conversation • The C’s • Benefits and Goals • Comparing forms of Advertising

3. Schedule of Proceedings, cont. Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Matthew Spanovich • The Legal Risks of Social Media • Categorizing the Risk • Defamation • Privacy and Employment • Communication Decency Act • Developing a Social Media Policy

4. What is Social Media? Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content - Webster Dictionary

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6. State of Social Media Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Facebook- 800 Million Youtube- 3 Billion Twitter-200 Million

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9. Age Demographics of Social Media Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Millenials/Gen Y-ers Baby Boomers

10. MONOLOGUE DIALOGUE Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011

11. The C’s of Social Media Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Communicate Community Creative Competition Collaborate

12. Word of Mouth Marketing: WOMM Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Buzz Marketing Viral Marketing Influencer Marketing Evangelist Marketing Stealth Marketing

13. Benefits of Social Media Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Qualitative - Loyalty, Trust, Interaction, Brand Awareness Quantitative - Cost-Free

14. Goals of Social Media Marketing Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Enable, Inspire, Influence Love or Hate

15. Social Media vs. Other Forms Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 “In many organizations, the corporate marketing function has lost budget, head count, influence, and confidence, resulting in strategic consequences that run deeper than many managers realize.” Sloan Management Review

16. The Legal Risks of Social Media • (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, 2011) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Categorize the Risk • First Party Liability: Personal Liability • Agency Superior Liability: Employees, agents, and co-brands • Secondary Liability: Customers and Users • *International

17. Action upon Categorization Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 First Party: Immediately contact personal lawyer and, if applicable, inform employer Agency Superior: Notify superiors and HR Secondary: HR and PR

18. First Party Liability (Burke & Goldstein, 2010) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Most common and most damaging to the individual Ex. Hospital employee in Dec 2009 resigned over tweet referring to care for Governor of Mississippi Sub-Categories: defamation, false advertising, invasion of privacy, and harassment

19. Defamation (Blaine T. Bettinger) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Four Elements of Defamation • 1) A False Statement • 2) Published to 3rd Party without privilege • 3) Fault amounting to at least negligence • 4) Causing special harm • Court Rulings tend to be subjective

20. Examples of Defamation Cases Horizon Realty also cited the following tweet from the same user: Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011

21. Defamation Checklist (Bettinger) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • False Statement • Published to 3rd Party • Fault or negligence • Special harm The judge dismissed with prejudice, citing that the tweets were too vague

22. Privacy Laws Secured Communications Act (Saper) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Must consider all laws protecting individual privacy, including: health, financial, online, communication, education, and information privacy • In court, public postings on public sites are not considered private • Exceptions: password protected site or if the individual uses security settings to prevent viewing

23. Employment Laws (Elefant, p. 17) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Employer can monitor all work-issued equipment if it notifies employees beforehand If not, courts decipher when employee has a reasonable expectation for privacy Employers cannot hack into employee accounts to obtain password-protected materials under the Stored Communications Act

24. Employers’ Rights (Saper) (Elefant, p. 15) (Burke & Roth, 2011) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Can check social media to verify information provided by a job applicant Can view social media for postings of harassment between employees Controversy: Viewing social media to determine character of candidate 29 states have lifestyle statutes, including WI

25. Communications Decency Act (Bettinger) (Steinman & Hawkins, p. 8) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Ruled unconstitutional in 1996 • Section 230 • No provider or user of a social media platform can be treated as the publisher of any info provided by another user or provider • Section 230 does not protect against Federal criminal or intellectual property claims

26. Social Media Policy (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, 2011) Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • Last line of defense • Explicitly state in handbook • Employee activity vs. Private activity • Monitoring approach • Four horsemen of social media • Breach of Confidentiality, Defamation, ‘False and Misleading’, and Infringement • Oversight system

27. Conclusions & Recommendations Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 • 4 recommendations • 1)Co’s should educate employees in the C’s and train to engage in consumer-driven dialogue • 2)Co’s should provide training for employees in social media law • 3)All co’s should immediately develop social media policies • 4)US courts should find similar ground on rulings

28. Thank You Spanovich & Wiechman Dec 2011 Thank you for your time God’s blessings in your future careers Handout Questions?