Editorial Articles

Toby Beresford, Chair of the Social Media Council at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), studies the digital industry’s understanding of the legalities and ethics of social media

There aren’t many marketing campaigns these days that don’t have some kind of social media element to them. This is not surprising when 96 per cent of respondents to a recent survey conducted by ourselves on the value of social media identified this medium as the next big thing in direct marketing.

Our research reveals that Facebook is leading the way as the site most used to engage with consumers. Twitter comes in a close second. However, popularity with the target audience is just one criterion used by marketers to select the platform of choice for social media campaigns and activities. Others include audience preferences, in terms of where they want to engage with organisations, and which platforms suit the organisation’s needs, skills and social output. Marketers are also realising they can use social media to effectively drive brand awareness and brand loyalty.

While it’s great to see such strong use of and thought going into social media, brands must realise that the challenge with social media is not limited to choosing the right platform, strategies, tools and tactics, but understanding the legal and ethical issues of approaching consumers through social media.

Brands take considerable care to regulate most aspects of their business to ensure they are covered and protected from potential liability, however, in the social media world businesses still seem to be lagging far behind. This means they are exposing themselves to litigation if things go wrong while using this medium.

Our research demonstrates that a significant proportion of direct marketers are not aware of the legal implications of using social media and have little formal structure in place to protect their business. For example, less than seventeen per cent of respondents are not doing any kind of legal monitoring while just over twenty-eight per cent take formal legal advice. The rest use a variety of sources and approaches to tackle related issues, including “common sense”, industry and media sources, and internal guidelines.

There are a number of possible reasons for this, from lack of clarity on the dividing line between direct marketing, PR and editorial content; the use and solicitation of user-generated content; and disclosure issues when employees post, to social venues in both a professional and private capacity.

Our same research on social media reveals confusion about existing guidelines. For example, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code that was extended as of 1 March 2011 to also apply to an organisation’s advertisements and other marketing communications, including social media, is not readily understood. Seventy-three per cent of marketers stated that they believe the CAP Code is not clear on how to execute digital marketing through social channels.

As a result, we are developing the industry’s first social media best practice guidelines to address broader ethical and marketing issues to help direct marketers when devising their social media strategies. Our research indicates that 70% of those surveyed would find such a code useful or a lifesaver.

With the rise of a compensation culture and the increasingly blurred boundary between private and work life online, it’s vital that direct marketers understand the legal issues of approaching consumers through social media. Key to this is having access to a clear social media code of conduct, something we are seriously looking at devising in light of the overwhelming feedback from our members.