12. Looking Ahead at Social Media Business Opportunities, Expectations, and Challenges

The past few years witnessed a flurry of lawsuits stemming from social media activity. Legal challenges are bound to increase as the rate of social media adoption in businesses continues to rise.

Indeed, the next few years promises to be very fruitful in the social media legal field, as courts (and legislatures) wrestle with issues such as publicity rights, privacy, data security, online tracking, behavioral advertising and geo-location marketing, mobile payments, and ownership rights of social media accounts and followers.

Businesses will need to be vigilant—and respond swiftly—to new legal challenges arising from social media, as the law governing this space continues to unfold almost on a daily basis.

In looking forward to mitigate risk, one should also look back to learn from the mistakes that have been made along the way by others. Table 12.1 outlines 10 noteworthy social media business entanglements, and the lessons businesses should glean from them.

Table 12.1 10 Social Media Lessons

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As demonstrated by the cases in Table 12.1, like all technology, social media has practical benefits, limitations and unexpected dangers. While social media provides unprecedented levels of quick and relatively inexpensive means for businesses to communicate directly with their customers and prospects, it simultaneously carries substantial risks (including less control over the company’s message and brand and potential liability for the social networking actions of its employees and customers).

Although social media might appear too risky for many companies protective of their brand and market positioning, it need not be so with a fuller appreciation of the laws in this space. Customer engagement occurs with or without a company’s blessing, and cloistering oneself away from social media’s reach is no longer a viable option. It is better to be leading the conversation than responding to it (perhaps too late).

The law governing social media is significantly outpaced by rapid changes in technology. Inevitably, as the social media landscape evolves, so too will the law, as it continues to play catch-up to technological innovations. While the business usage of social media carries with it tremendous advantages, it also carries risk of legal exposure that businesses would do well to keep updated on and take prudent steps to mitigate. Reading this book is hopefully a forward step in that direction.

Stay connected:

To keep track of further social media legal developments, you are encouraged to follow me on Twitter (@rmchalelaw) and Facebook (facebook.com/rmlaw).

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