Talk with your Internet lawyer about a social media policy

You don’t have to be an Internet lawyer to know that Congressman Anthony Weiner was tweeting things he shouldn’t while working, using his employer’s computer equipment and office space to do it.

Fortunately for Congressman Weiner, his employer is the government so there’s unlikely to be a lawsuit against it as a defendant because of his misconduct.

But when you do business online, you don’t have that special privilege.

When your employees or freelancers are doing work on your behalf, the last thing you want is for them to embarrass you using Twitter, Facebook, or other social media.

Here’s what to do…

1. Pre-screen who does work for you. If nothing else, check them out through Google and a peek at their social media postings before they start working for you. If you’d be embarrassed by what you see online already, don’t use their services…because they’re likely post more stupid stuff while they’re working for you.

2. Put a written social media policy in place for your business that restricts what employees and freelancers can do while working for you. If they want to act like drunken clowns or perverts in social media, you don’t want your business’ reputation to get hurt because of it.

3. And if someone is acting like a fool in social media after they have done work for you, ask them to remove any reference they have made online to your business. Avoid being tied to their shenanigans by association.

4. If you have any questions about what is acceptable social media behavior from a legal standpoint, ask your Internet lawyer for help.

Best wishes,

-Mike the Internet lawyer