Whose Social Media Account Is It, Anyway?

A detailed social media policy specifically addressing the ownership of social media accounts is key to a corporation's ability to maintain ownership of an employee's account after the employee leaves the corporation. This was made clear in the recent decision by the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Eagle v. Morgan, 2013-11-4303 (E.D. Pa. 2013).

'Focus on how to be social, not on how to do social.' - Jay Baer

In 2012, 73 percent of all Fortune 500 companies used Twitter, 66 percent had a corporate Facebook page and 28 percent had a public-facing blog, stated a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.¹ While small businesses are somewhat lagging behind (with just 24 percent of small businesses and 33 percent of medium-size businesses having integrated social media in a structured way for their businesses),² they are quickly closing the gap and increasing their social media presence.