We Didn’t Say That!: Minimizing Risk Via Social Media

Policies

January 27, 2012

Todd Whiteman & Dave Tinker, CFRE

What We’ll Go Over Define Social Media & Social Networking How Social Media Impacts Your Group What is a Social Media Policy What a Social Media Policy Looks Like What Types of Insurance Might Cover Social

Media Use What You Can Do to Avoid Claims Online Resources

Definition What is Social Media? A group of applications that allow for user

generated content What is Social Networking? Placing individuals into specific groups

connected by a common interest

Statistics Social Media

650 million people connect via mobile devices Social networking sites reach 1.2 billion people = 82% of people online 1 in 5 minutes online is spent on social networking sites

Facebook 800 million active users 1 in 7 minutes of all time spent online is on Facebook Average user connected to 80 groups, events, and community pages 250 million photos uploaded daily

Twitter 300 million users worldwide 155+ million tweets per day = 8.2 million pages of text

Sources: comScore, Facebook, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Wikipedia, Twitter, Wall Street Journal

Why You Need One Use by employees, volunteers, consultants, and

people you serve Impact on marketing and brand, fundraising, and

awareness e.g. Pittsburgh Gives and Westmoreland Gives

NPOs of all sizes need a policy Avoid Claims

What is a Social Media Policy? What it is:

It sets expectations and boundaries Operational guidelines for people who use social

media in their job

What it is not: Static

Components of Social Media Policy Define social media Identify that you have concerns and interests Tell people what to avoid Remind people to protect privacy State how it’s related to other agency policies Logos, photos, videos ‘Friending’ clients, co-workers How to engage others

Don’t Have One? Can lead to

Leaks Badmouthing Someone else speaking on your behalf

Fear Not…It’s Not Too Late

Social Media Policy Guidelines In 2010 AFP International crafted guidelines for

members of AFP ASAE NTEN and The DMA, Nonprofit Federation

Results were released in late 2010 http://is.gd/yGv43r

Protect Your Organization There are ways to protect your organization

before and after a situation arises - Before:

Employee Handbook Internet Usage Policy Employee Communication Policy Social Media Policy

After: Insurance Coverage (General Liability, Professional Liability,

Directors & Officers, Employment Practices, Internet Liability Damage Control

Handbooks And Training Employee Handbooks can include policies and

procedures for Internet Usage, Employee Communication and Online Social Media.

They can be tailored specifically for your organizations operations and exposures and can also include volunteers.

Training is equally important!

Insurance Policies General Liability

Most organizations have this coverage and believe it will cover everything and anything.

Provides coverage for claims for Bodily Injury and Property Damage and excludes the organizations professional liability and claims for financial injury.

Personal Injury provides coverage for libel and slander.

By endorsement you can purchase

coverage for claims resulting from

postings on blogs, websites and email.

Insurance Policies Directors and Officers

This is a step in the right direction which provides coverage to the organization, it’s Directors and Officers and it’s Employees.

Coverage is for claims brought based on poor decisions or no decisions that lead to a claim that may or may not have been covered.

Employment Practices can be added which covers acts against employees and can be extended to your clients.

Your organization is just as vulnerable to internal claims as it is to external claims! An employee sending an inappropriate internal email or viewing an inappropriate website can be the trigger.

Insurance Policies Professional Liability

This is typically coverage for your “profession” which could be performing arts, child care, community action etc…and is for your mistakes, not your intentional actions.

Example – Your organization provides housing for individuals with disabilities:

#1 A client wanders from the home and is injured – is there coverage?

YES - Your job is to protect that individual. #2 You post on your blog that the person (by name) has been

nothing but trouble and deserved it. – is there coverage NO - The suit brought is that you named that person and

slandered them causing them and their family emotional injury.

.

Internet Liability and Social Media Coverage This coverage was specifically designed to cover

Social Media, Your Website, 3rd Party Websites and Email Communications

Claim Examples: Posting of picture without authority Employee postings on your website, Facebook or 3rd party sites Volunteer badmouthing a competing

organization Distribution of internal email to outside

parties Theft of money or data from your website

and computer system.

Insurance Policies

Management Your organization and individual duties

Who makes changes and determines appropriate content?

Depending on your size and structure it may be the Executive Director, Development Staff, Consultant or IT.

Does your board or a committee have any input?

Have you presented guidelines to your staff?

Who can make claims against you? Your current employees and past employees. Your clients / constituents Your competitors Your partners Your vendors Your funders and donors Your volunteers Your members The general public

Online Tools to Help You AFP Social Media Guidelines- http://is.gd/yGv43r

Beth Kanter’s list – http://is.gd/tSujQv

PolicyTool - http://socialmedia.policytool.net/

Social Media Policy Samples - http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

Contact InformationTodd Whiteman

Vice President, Property / Casualty

Enscoe Long Insurance Group, LLC

412-206-0364

twhiteman@enscoelong.com

www.enscoelong.com

Dave Tinker, CFRE

Director of Development

ACHIEVA

412-995-5000 x 436

dtinker@achieva.info

www.about.me/davethecfre

Example: Red Cross Rogue TweetAN EMPLOYEE WITH ACCESS TO THE @REDCROSS TWITTER ACCOUNT ACCIDENTALLY POSTED ABOUT THEIR NIGHT OF DRINKING DOGFISH HEAD MIDAS TOUCH AND TAGGED THE MESSAGE #GETTNGSLIZZERD.

TOOLS FOR MANAGING MULTIPLE TWITTER ACCOUNTS AND SMARTPHONES THAT HANDLE TWITTER MESSAGING ALONGSIDE TEXT MESSAGING HAVE MADE SUCH MISTAKES EASIER THAN EVER BEFORE. THE RED CROSS MESSAGE WAS INITIALLY VISIBLE TO NEARLY 270,000 FOLLOWERS SUBSCRIBING TO THAT ACCOUNT BUT DOZENS HUNDREDS OF RE-TWEETS (WHEN THE SAME MESSAGE IS RE-SENT FROM ANOTHER PERSON) AND TWEETS ABOUT HIS POST HAVE PUT THAT NUMBER WELL INTO THE MILLIONS.

IN A SLIGHT TINGE OF IRONY, EARLIER IN THE DAY, THE BREWERS ASSOCIATION RELEASED A PRESS RELEASE ABOUT ITS SAVOR EVENT COMING IN JUNE; ONE OF THE MAIN GOALS OF THE EVENT IS TO RAISE THE IMAGE OF BEER TO BE EQUAL TO THAT OF WINE, A DIFFICULT TASK GIVEN THE BARRAGE OF BEER ADVERTISEMENTS FEATURING LOWBROW HUMOR. ON THE OTHER HAND, IT’S A NICE BIT OF PUBLICITY FOR DOGFISH HEAD THOUGH THE BREWERY, GROWING AS RAPIDLY AS IT IS, DOESN’T NEED IT.

RED CROSS LATER DELETED THE TWEET AND REPLACED IT WITH A NEW ONE THAT READS, “WE’VE DELETED THE ROGUE TWEET BUT REST ASSURED THE RED CROSS IS SOBER AND WE’VE CONFISCATED THE KEYS.” AT LEAST THEY HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR ABOUT THE MATTER.WE’LL SEE IF THEY DO IN THE MORNING BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. THE RED CROSS PR HEAD SAYS THAT HUANG WILL NOT BE FIRED OVER THE INCIDENT.

Someone with access to the official Chrysler Twitter account, @ChryslerAutos, dropped an F-bomb on its more than 7,500 followers earlier today.

“I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f*****g drive,” reads a retweet of the slipup.

The actual tweet has been deleted from the account, and the company quickly tweeted an apology, saying that its account had been compromised.

Jalopnik, which originally noted the mishap, reported that people familiar with the Chrysler media organization said the source of the tweet is likely an employee of the social media company that runs Chrysler’s Twitter account.

Like a tweet from the Red Cross last month that spawned #gettngslizzerd, Chrysler’s tweet seems to be the result of an employee confusing personal and brand accounts. Bad taste on Twitter can’t always be prevented (cough, Kenneth Cole), but please, brand Twitter account managers of the world, double-check your tweets.

Update: Chrysler confirmed in a blog post that the off-color tweet came from an employee of its social media agency, New Media Strategies. The employee, according to the post, “has since been terminated.” Meanwhile, the @ChryslerAutos account has actually gained Twitter followers since we first reported the incident.

Example: Chrysler Consultant Tweet

Nonprofit Organization Settles Trademark Lawsuit: Little House on the Prairie

Earlier this week, Friendly Family Productions, LLC, the company that produced the television series Little House on the Prairie settled its lawsuit against a nonprofit corporation that operates a small museum outside Independence, Kansas.

The museum is located at the site of the original house that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her book of the same title. Friendly Family Productions alleged that the museum infringed the trademark LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. According to complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the predecessor to Friendly Family Productions acquired rights to that trademark from the author's descendants in 1974.

What got Friendly Family Productions all riled up (to use a term that Ms. Wilder would have been comfortable with) was the use of the trademark on merchandise that the museum sold, including the merchandise that it sold through a website with the domain name www.littlehouseontheprairie.com. Friendly Family Productions acknowledged that it had no quarrel with the museum using the words "little house on the prairie" to describe the homesite or the museum, because a purely descriptive use like that does not infringe a trademark. On the other hand, Friendly Family Productions had considerable quarrel with the museum putting those words on merchandise (caps, T-shirts, magnets, note cards, key chains, and other items typical of promotional merchandise) and selling them over the internet. Friendly Family Productions claimed that the use of those words implied that the merchandise came from the owner of the trademark, when it did not. That is, in a nutshell, the reason trademarks exist -- to identify the source of the goods that bear the mark.

According to an article in the Wichita Eagle and other sources, Friendly Family Productions originally offered to pay the museum $40,000 if it would stop using the trademark. The museum refused the offer, choosing instead to fight the lawsuit. The terms of the settlement agreement are confidential, but we know that the nonprofit corporation has changed its name from Little House on the Prairie, Inc. to the more descriptive Little House on the Prairie Museum, Inc., and www.littlehouseontheprairie.com is no longer active.

There's no way to know how much the two-year litigation cost the parties.