Legal Considerations for Social Media Marketing: How Can You Protect Yourself When Using Social Media?

If you’re using social media to grow your business and connect with your ideal customers, both online and in real life, then congratulations! I’m ALL about creating powerful connections through social media that turn into happy clients (and referrals)! However, it’s important to be in the know when it comes to social media laws and regulations so that you can play it safe online and avoid any legal trouble. When it comes to social media, we want to stay in our lane and out of the courtroom! Read on to learn about a few important legal considerations and how you can protect yourself when using social media. 

How to Protect Yourself When Using Social Media

Read the Terms of Use CAREFULLY (Especially on Instagram!)

While Instagram’s terms of use set out that they don’t claim ownership of your content or photos, it’s important to remember that when you post your content, you give them a non-exclusive license, world-wide, to host and use those images. 

While you still remain the owner of those images, you run the risk of other people “stealing them” and using them for their own content and growth. I’m sure you’ve heard horror stories about content being repurposed without the original owner’s permission or being used in a way that misrepresents the original creator. 

To protect yourself from this, it’s a good idea to put your personal brand logo or watermark on images (especially informational carousels or value-based posts, etc) so that it’s easy for someone who got value from your post to determine that you are the original owner of the content.

Putting your brand logo on these types of posts and images can make it easy for users to trace that content back to you or find you on social media or your website. While you can report these violations to Instagram, they often have no real consequences and are more likely to cause you frustration.

If you do see someone reposting or repurposing your content, it’s a good idea to chat with a lawyer to determine your next legal steps. 

Be Wary of the “Regram”

Everyone loves a good meme, GIF, or inspirational story, which is why “Regramming” has become so popular. People love to share and repost content that they find funny, relatable, or valuable. While it’s easy to do this, and there are even certain apps that have been developed to “Regram” at the push of a button, you could be violating someone’s intellectual property rights. 

It’s important to always ask for permission before reposting content. If you are allowed to do so by the original creator, make sure to give obvious credit to the original source. Providing a disclaimer that says “Credit to the original owner, I don’t mean to infringe!” just simply doesn’t cut it. 

A good rule of thumb is to stick to original content as much as possible. Not only does that help you establish yourself as an authority on social media, but it also protects you from potential social media legal issues.

Pay Attention to Affiliate Marketing Disclosures

Affiliate and influencer marketing has exploded in the last few years on social media. As a business that uses social media marketing to grow and reach new ideal clients, you might be an affiliate for other companies. 

It’s important to be aware of your requirements to disclose that you are an affiliate and that you are receiving a commission and/or free products or services for sharing online. As an influencer, you must disclose any material connection that you have to the company clearly and in an obvious place in your content. This disclosure language should not be hidden or vague. Use clear hashtags such as #paid, #ad, or #sponsored instead of vague hashtags such as #ambassador, #collab, or #spon. 

Communicate your relationship with the company to your audience before you make any posts or create any content. This helps you stay protected when it comes to influencer and affiliate social media laws. 

You can check out a great breakdown of these requirements for Canada by checking out the Canadian Competition Bureau’s Influencer Marketing Guidelines here. 

Be Smart With Testimonials

Using client and customer testimonials on your social media is a great way to increase social proof, get new eyes on you, and build your credibility and trust with your audience. Just make sure you are being smart with your testimonials. 

You must get written consent from your customers or clients before posting their testimonial. Make sure they approve any and all testimonials and images before sharing them to your social media or other marketing channels. 

You also can’t just copy + paste Google reviews as testimonials to your website without committing copyright infringement, so be sure to steer away from doing that. Instead, go to the source to request a testimonial instead. 

Make the Rules Around Your Resources Clear

If you’re sharing resources and freebies on your social media, be clear about how users can and can’t use those resources. Make these rules clear from the get-go so you can avoid any social media legal issues such as copyright infringement or others stealing your intellectual property. 

You can set out these rules in your website’s terms of use section, which is used to tell general users visiting your website how they can and can’t use the content and resources you provide on your website. 

If you’re sharing your resources via social media, it’s a good idea to direct them to access or download the resource on your website by filling out an opt-in form that also clearly states the terms of use and rules on using the resource.

Have a Strong Privacy Policy

While social media is amazing and a great way to find and connect with ideal customers, we all know that we don’t own our social media platforms. Remember the great IG outage of 2021?! 

There’s so much value in connecting with your audience through your own website and email list. You own those platforms and can exercise much more control over them, much different than social media and its tricky algorithms. 

If you have a website, it is required by law to have a privacy policy. A privacy policy tells people how you collect their personal information and what rights they have on your website. 

If you’re looking for a rock-solid template to use to create your own website terms of use and privacy policy, you can click my affiliate link here to check out The Contract’s Market Website Bundle. It’s simple to use, easy to understand, and will keep you protected on the legal front. 

Know How You Can (and Can’t) Use Photos

Whether you’re using stock images or hiring a photographer to take professional brand photos for your business and social media, you need to read the contract or terms of use of the site carefully. This will help you ensure that you are legally allowed to use the images for commercial purposes, aka, promoting your business. 

There have been instances when business owners hired photographers to get personal photos done, but they didn’t actually purchase the license to use them commercially. Simply posting the photos with the words, “Photo creds: Photographer’s Name” is not enough to protect you. 

I hope these legal considerations for social media help you feel more confident as you go forth and promote your fabulous business online. By keeping these things in mind, you can avoid social media legal issues and make marketing through social media fun and effective in your business.