Why You Should Know Your Social Media Risks
Carl Niedbala
COO & Co-Founder
COO & Co-Founder
When it comes to social media, advertising injuries are all too easy to commit. Even famous brands and celebrities make these snafus. Unfortunately, these particular lawsuits are costly and could ruin your reputation (and budget). This post will unveil your social media risks and corresponding insurance coverage that will help you to safeguard your brand.
Knowing about the exposure you face while marketing your professional brand on social media means understanding the extent of advertising injuries. This type of damage is intangible and often hard to predict or pinpoint — but it exists, nonetheless.
Unlike physical injuries, advertising injuries are a type of personal injury. Instead of damaging tangible property, such as a software system or an office building, this kind of loss typically impacts the reputation of a person or business.
As you might have expected, a professional reputation can make or break a business. When companies align with a negative mindset, social cause, or take the “wrong” side in a stand-off, the damages could be irreparable.
Advertising injuries might include:
Unfortunately, social media makes these “mistakes” incredibly effortless to commit. A single click of a button to post something witty or try to appear trendy could cost you loads in legal fees.
Up to 50% of all small businesses are involved in litigation every year. Additionally, small businesses pay $20 million out of pocket each year in tort liability lawsuits. However, it’s not only small businesses that must be vigilant about social media risks. Plus, personal injuries happen with or without the help of social media. Here are a few famous examples:
It might seem like navigating social media is a lot like running the gauntlet. Plenty of regulations, rules, and fine print exist in this world. Plus, new platforms are evolving, increasing the overall use of social media.
Here are a handful of ideas to consider for keeping things between the lines on social media.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more, are mere platforms to deliver a message to the masses. Although they can often reach many potential clients in one fell swoop, plenty of rules still exist for each channel.
If you’re going to use social media as a marketing tool, you must become familiar with the guidelines and best practices for each platform. This approach will maximize your online effectiveness, and it will also help protect you from personal injury lawsuits.
As many unfortunate brands have proven, posting aimlessly can severely damage your reputation in seconds. Even if posts only remain live for a short while, the impact could be immense and produce irreparable damage.
Experts advise savvy business owners to plan a social media calendar for content creation. Planning can help you to use social media more strategically, preventing messages that are thrown together last-minute. Instead, your entire team can collaborate and plan an intentional campaign to make a more significant (and positive) impact.
As a business owner, you might have a social media expert in your corner, or you might rely on an entire marketing team to divvy up social media responsibilities. No matter how you approach your marketing goals, keep in mind that employees can influence your brand.
The following are some ideas to help encourage employees to support your brand and steer clear of social media risks:
Words are powerful. A single headline in an online newspaper or e-magazine can have a ripple effect, influencing an entire market. Most of the time, the “news” impacts a company’s stock market performance. However, a headline can also affect the whole sector, which is why headline risk is a valid concern for business owners.
Naturally, this kind of risk is problematic for the business’s directors and officers since its value often weighs on their shoulders. Unfortunately, headlines can have a significant impact, no matter how accurate the content is.
Even with the best practices and intentions in place, social media mistakes still happen. When they do, it’s vital to have a safety net to recover from the loss. Here are a few insurance policies that help businesses safeguard their brand.
We consider a general liability (GL) policy the firm foundation on which to build a robust commercial risk management plan. Without it, companies can quickly shutter due to the fundamental risks of merely operating a business. That said, GL coverage works to protect companies against third-party lawsuits of bodily injury, property damage, personal injury, or advertising injury.
Also known as professional liability insurance, errors and omissions (E&O) steps in to protect you from lawsuits claiming that your product or service didn’t perform as expected according to the customer and industry standards. When it comes to social media risks, many bloggers forget about this vital coverage.
Companies can indemnify their executives against covered claims and rely on a D&O policy for reimbursement. This coverage can defend the corporate entity as well as its leadership, too. This is the go-to policy to help protect your company from headline risk.
Each coverage type has its limits of liability and will only pay out an established amount on covered losses, depending on the arrangement with your insurer. Umbrella coverage is an excess policy meant to supplement your other policies, which are called underlying insurance.
If your underlying insurance policies don’t cover specific claims entirely, umbrella insurance covers the outstanding costs. It’s an affordable solution to a complicated problem.
Understanding the details of what coverage your company needs can be a confusing process. Founder Shield specializes in knowing the risks your industry faces to make sure you have adequate protection. Feel free to reach out to us, and we’ll walk you through the process of finding the right policy for you.
Want to know more about small business insurance? Talk to us! You can contact us at info@foundershield.com or create an account here to get started on a quote.
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