Social Media Risks: Compliance & Archiving

Social media is an amazing way to share information. We can share our thoughts, key pieces of information, important company developments, introduction of new products/services, and recruiting opportunities. We can use social media to grow our businesses and increase our connections. There are new technological innovations every day, and these things are making it easier for businesses and individuals to be more social. All of this is great news, but the fact that a message or comment can be viral the minute it is posted creates an interesting dichotomy: Good news if it is a great, truthful, engaging message; Bad news if it is a false, negative, misleading message.

Here are the two biggest risks for direct selling companies and their distributors:

• Internal compliance
• Accurate archiving

Internal Compliance

The best way to look at internal compliance is to think of it as your ability to influence and manage the social message of your employees and distributors. I don’t believe in a systematic lock-down approach where you want to stop every social activity. I certainly don’t believe that a company should make social posts on behalf of an individual. I do believe that you need to have the following in place to help insure your internal compliance:

• Effective educational training that is required and has an accurate tracking of a distributor’s education activities. Looking at this from a legal perspective, you are protecting both the company and your individual distributors.
• Compliant workflow processes that can be customized specifically for your organization (this is where software technology has come a long way). You want to make sure that you have the correct balance of company control and individual flexibility. Nobody likes surprises, especially when they come in a legal letter or inquisition.
• Engaging content that is approved and readily available in a resource library for your employees and distributors to use. You are helping to “arm” your distributors with engaging social messages for their connections and audience. Distributors are great at building relationships and you want them to focus on that rather than trying to create the actual marketing message in social environments.

Accurate archiving

The best way to look at archiving is to think of it as your company back-up to show you have the right plan in place. You want to be monitoring, listening, and recording.

• You are monitoring what is being said by your company both internally and externally. This is really about making sure you have the right tools in place to have an accurate view of what is being said about your products and services.
• You are listening to what your distributors and employees are saying via social channels. It is important that you show you are taking proactive rather than reactive steps in your ongoing management of your organizations social endeavors.
• You are recording by keeping an accurate record of what you hear, see, and do socially from both your monitoring and listening activities.

Both risks can be reduced by a social media management software

Let me make one generalization to an executive or manager of a direct selling company: your distributors are always talking about your product/service. The key is: Do you know what they are saying and how are they saying it?  I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of legal experts in the direct selling industry, and without a doubt you need to make it a priority to know these things, especially in the social media space. Don’t let fear paralyze your decision making ability. Make sure you take the proactive steps you need to take to manage your risks appropriately. We live and work in a rapidly changing environment, and it always leads to exciting and sometimes frustrating discussions as we all try to figure out what we need to focus on next.

As the Chief Operating Officer at The Targeted Group, Greg Gentner is responsible for the successful activation and execution of social media solutions for corporate clients.  His wealth of experience has helped him become one of the leading experts in social media strategy and the operational aspects of social networking.  Having worked with some of the nation’s leading brands, Greg understands and can communicate the essential steps for creating social media strategies that align directly with overall company business objectives.