Like every other small business owner out there, chances are good that you rely heavily on social media to help showcase your brand and spread the word about your products and services.
And, like every other small business owner, there’s probably a better-than-good-chance that you have yet to establish a solid rights management policy to guide that online strategy.
No judgment if you don’t. After all, these aren’t the sort of thing that normally jump to mind when you’re crafting your online presence. But when you consider the fact that not having a solid rights management policy can lead to million-dollar lawsuits, you may feel motivated to put one in place.
If so, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Take steps to insulate your brand and keep in mind that everything on social must be done within the context of your brand and to ensure its security.
- In order to streamline social workflows, automate asset management. This can be one of the most challenging aspects of effective asset management protocol. After all, a brand’s ability to interact with customers in real time on social is understandably a huge draw. But don’t let the potential to interact cloud your vision when it comes to making smart moves to protect your brand.
- Keep your workflows lean, but ensure you have key team members on hand for when you need them to address real-time social interaction and give the okay on content that’s not been automated.
The best defense, so the saying goes, is offense. And for brands, nowhere is this perhaps more evident than in the world of social media. Practice solid offense on social by developing social media guidelines and templates for your team that include assets and rights management. Do so, and you’ll take the guesswork out of determining which assets are right for your social platforms, how they should be used, and for how long, even as you work to avoid those million-dollar lawsuits.
This article is excerpted from “Marketers Need to Talk More about Rights Management on Social” published by DMN.