Corporate Blogs & Employee Social Networks:
Managing the Impact on Company Brands
Member: The Florida Bar, SHRM-Atlanta, ALSB, IPMA
Legal Studies professor, Georgia State University College of Business
Corporate training
programs: PerryBinder.com
Corporate Blogs & Employee Social Networks:
Managing the Impact on Company Brands
Course Description
(Always tailored to client's needs)
A current employee has started MySpace and Facebook sites, a "gripe site," and blog which are all critical of your company. Even worse, you discover that several workers have been reading and posting unflattering comments about the company on the sites. Then, much to your dismay, you find company trade secrets and libelous comments posted anonymously on one of these sites. You suspect it must be the work of an ex-employee, but what's a company to do to protect its most valuable assets - your good name and brand?
This cutting-edge, hilarious, and practice-oriented session will:
- Educate you on social networking and blogging legal cases,
- Explain the ramifications of your company's actions,
- Reference specific PR blunders and success stories, and
- Suggest useful tips on communicating with employees and the online general public.
All attendees will
receive a copy of Professor Binder’s article published in HR Executive
magazine, Handling Employee Blogs.
Presentation Outline
I. Introduction – The Evolution of Social Networking, Blogs & Gripe Sites - What's a Company to do?
II. Assessing the Web Threat & Damage - Are you making a PR Mountain out of a Mole Hill?
III. Is a Gripe Site Owner a Cybersquatter?
To answer this question, we needed a working knowledge of trademark law, domain name registration rules, and cybersquatter laws
1- Anti-Cybersquatter law
-injunction plus damages
2- Arbitration
- Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) http://www.icann.org
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) http://www.wipo.int
In Domain Name Arbitration, need proof of all three:
a- Domain name holder exercised bad faith
b- Domain name holder’s web site has no legitimate purpose
- Business
- Personal
- First Amendment
c- Domain name is “identical or confusingly similar” to your trade name
- herein lies the debate and differences of opinion among arbiters
IV. Specific Social Networking and Blogging Cases
- Can you compel an ISP to give up the anonymous name of a blogger who posts trade secrets or defamatory comments? (the person could be a current employee)
- What would you do in these scenarios?
- Legal and ethical perspective
- Morale perspective
- Is it ethical, moral, and/or legal to disparage your employer online, on company time?
- How about off company time?
- Is a person posting an opinion? A rumor?
- What are the implications of posting trade secrets?
- What are the consequences of posting false information?
- Are you really anonymous on the web?
- Can the company find you?
- Can the company monitor your web activity?
- If the company does find you, can it fire you?
VI. Employee Morale Issues arising with Blogging Activity in the Workplace
- If employees have no place to vent, are they likely to post gripes on the web?
- What mechanisms can a manager put in place to avoid gripe site activity from employees?
VII. Monitoring Employee Activities – Privacy and Ethical Issues
- Who’s function in the company is it to monitor employee blogging?
- partnership among executives and HR/IT professionals?
- Is this activity worth the diversion of limited resources?
- monitoring software?
- outsource?
- www.waybackmachine.org
VIII. Do All Companies Need a Social Networking/Blogging Policy?
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perrybinder@gmail.com
(404)402-1892
