If your business is on social media, you may need to invest in social media compliance. Depending on the industry you are in, there are laws in place. There can be legal consequences when you don’t comply.
Understand the rules that apply to your industry
If yours is a regulated industry like health or finance, you will need to bring compliance officers on board. These are experts on what is and isn’t allowed on various social media platforms. The social media marketers in your company will need to work with the compliance experts in order to know how to always create responsible posts.
Build an easy-to-understand social media policy
Every business that is on social media should put together a social media policy document. It can help keep everyone on the social media team up-to-date and compliant. It can also help prevent mistakes that come out of ignorance. As an example, if it were up to the social media team, they might find a post with the company’s name, and repost it. This may be unacceptable, however, if the original publisher required permission for such reposting.
Your social media policy, at the very least, should talk about the basic regulations of social media posting, about the hierarchy of authority in the social media team, and guidelines on how to make sure that everyone with access to the company account keeps it safe from cyber-attacks.
Put together an acceptable use policy
While a social media policy helps people on the company’s team mind the rules that matter, an acceptable use policy helps guide visitors to the company’s social media accounts learn what to do when they wish to share the company’s brand logo or advertising material. For instance, a well-intentioned fan of the brand might share a branded pictorial or video of the company, with his own commentary added. Should there be a lawsuit about the kind of opinions mentioned in the commentary, the shared pictorial could get the company into trouble. An acceptable use policy should state to all users that reposting company material without permission isn’t a good idea.
Keep monitoring
While your business may have its own social media accounts, there may be people out there with accounts that have names that sound very similar. It’s important to watch out for such accounts, and do what you can to have them taken down. Often, these are simply run by fans of the brand. It’s important to have them removed because other people running accounts as if they were associated with your brand may not comply with rules and regulations the way your company would.
It’s also important to monitor for non-compliant posts on the company account. Any employee who creates posts that go out under the company name should run it by the compliance team. It’s also possible to use software to ensure compliance with all company policies and government regulations. For instance, such software can make sure that posts do not include words that are disallowed, and ensure they are archived for as long as needed under the law.
Finally, it would be a good idea to invest in routine training of all employees in the importance of social media compliance. The rules keep changing in social media compliance, and everyone needs to be up-to-date.
Having to think about social media compliance can seem like a burden at first, but it’s a necessary one. Once you have a compliance structure in place that shows every employee what the rules are, and the necessity of running all posts by the team before publication, the process should become second nature.
About Right Way Medical
Right Way Medical provides supply, logistic, technology, biomedical and financing solutions to alternate site, long-term care and specialty pharmacy healthcare providers through an innovative suite of products and services combined with the highest level of customer service. Founded in 2014, Right Way Medical has become a trusted name in the infusion industry, and focuses everyday to continue to earn that trust and provide its customers with the ideal experience in acquiring healthcare related products and service.
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