Tag Archives: Bottom Line Law Group

Legal Guidelines for Small Businesses Using Social Media

Legal Guidelines for Small Businesses Using Social Media

I was pleased to contribute to NFIB‘s online collection of business resources regarding legal issues in social media. The National Federation of Independent Business is the leading small business association representing small and independent businesses, a vigorous advocate for entrepreneurs. I’ve reproduced part of the article below, and a link to the original can be found here, along with many other resources for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Thanks to Elizabeth Cotner for the interview.

Legal Guidelines for Small Businesses Using Social Media

Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be useful marketing tools for your business. But all it takes is a single mistake—or a negative comment from an unsatisfied customer—to hurt your business and potentially create a legal mess.

Social media is real-time, spontaneous and casual, making it easy for people to think that “anything goes” online, says Antone Johnson, founding principal of Bottom Line Law Group, a San Francisco-based firm. Johnson has worked as an attorney at MySpace and eHarmony. He says many laws that apply to businesses offline also apply online.

Consider the following legal guidelines for using social media in business:

Libel

NFIBNegative user reviews and comments provoke the majority of lawsuits involving social media. When someone slams your business online, you may be inclined to take legal action to remove that comment from the Web so it doesn’t harm your business. Think twice.

Online services like Yelp, Google or Facebook aren’t liable for user-generated content, so suing them would be fruitless. Taking legal action against the person who posted the comment is also risky. If you don’t know the person’s identity—which happens often when someone posts under a username—you may be able to use the subpoena power of the courts to ask the service to reveal the user’s identity. But these kinds of lawsuits often leave business owners at a dead end. “They’re expensive, time-consuming and the damage is already done,” Johnson says.

As an alternative, Johnson suggests cultivating a following of online fans who will evangelize for you and defend your business against negative comments.

Read full article at NFIB.com

Working in Santa Monica, Coworking in San Francisco

As my firm picks up momentum, we’re putting down deeper roots in both Northern and Southern California.  Although virtual offices in executive suites offered convenience and flexibility during our launch, they’re less than ideal in the long run for many reasons. At the same time, as I’ve written before, BLLG itself is operating as a bootstrapped… Continue Reading

Martindale-Hubbell Connects Lawyers, and… More Lawyers

Martindale-Hubbell is a legendary name in legal circles, synonymous with legal directories dating back more than 140 years.  Long before the Internet existed, a ritual among junior associates at law firms was to pull the weighty leatherbound tome off the shelf, find opposing counsel’s M-H profile and hand out copies to everyone on the deal… Continue Reading

SxSW Interactive 2010: Social Media Clubhouse

Bottom Line Law Group is proud to sponsor the Social Media Clubhouse in Austin, Texas during SxSW. The Social Media Club and its founders, Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells, have put a tremendous amount of effort into organizing this event. Following up on the Social Media Week events of last month in San Francisco and around the world, the Clubhouse will host some of the most stimulating discussions during SxSW Interactive. Continue Reading

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