Wednesday, May 18, 2011

How Terms of Service Could Jeopardize Your Clients Favorite Social Media Site

We rarely ever look at the terms of service associated with our favorites sites such as Facebook or Twitter however NOT taking a closer look could result in your client’s favorite social media site getting taken down. The terms of service provides users with guidelines regarding the sites capabilities as well as the do’s and don’ts of the site. When looking at the terms of service in managing your clients social media, its important to note five major things: identity, content, infringement, takedown, and changes to terms of service.

Identity refers to if you can use a pseudonym for your username or display name. If your clients shop’s name is already taken can you legally use another name? When looking at content, you want to ask the question, “can I sell or promote on this site?”. Its also is important to know who exactly owns the content that you post or infringement, do you have copyright on the things your post?

Another important aspect to keep in mind is takedown, what do they do to those who violate the terms of service? Is it worth losing your clients social media forever? Finally, maybe the most important thing to consider is, will they tell you when the terms of service change? This is important for the primary reason of you need to know if you are in violation of the terms of service in order to avoid having your clients page taken down.

A good company with letting you know the changes of terms of service is iTunes. Every update has new terms of service contract that you must read. However, some of our favorite sites, Twitter and Facebook, rarely ever inform you of changes to their terms of service. So, to avoid a potentially devastating conversation with your client about why their most effective social media site got taken down, simply check the terms of service.

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