Everyone who's anyone is getting into social media. It's
the P2B; the Place 2 Be. Particularly if you're a B2C.
Marketing gurus trumpet the opportunity available for businesses
using social media. The upside is the unprecedented ability to
interact with your customers. The downside is your customers'
ability to interact with you.
It can be pretty risky giving people a public platform to say
what they think. First you have the PR risk. The danger of
interactivity is that you can lose control of the conversation, and
maybe your reputation.
Then there's the legal risk. Obviously you can be liable for
whatever claptrap you publish yourself. On top of that you can be
liable for material that other people post on your social media
site too. You can be liable for defamatory comments, misleading or
deceptive conduct and intellectual property infringement, among
other things.
