The Social Media Marketer

Free Speech is Not Always a Right

Poor, poor Rosemary Port.

For those who haven't been following the news, Ms. Port is a blogger who was using Google's Blogspot pages to create a blog titled "Skanks in New York," using the space to rip apart any woman who apparently didn't meet her standards of morality.

She was having a grand old time until a fashion model took offense to being called  a psychotic, lying, whoring ... skank." on her site. The model threatened to sue, and Google released Ms. Port's identity as the mystery blogger. Now Rosemary Port is suing Google for millions, claiming that her right to free speech was hurt by the revelation.

Here in America, we believe in our right to free speech. However, it's obvious that once the free speech passes over the lines of decency and into the realm of libel, that's a right we all have to reexamine, both in ourselves and others who are using our blogs and websites.

Any company that plans to use social media to promote itself needs to also come up with a social media policy for doing so.  Just how far do you allow yourselves, or those associated with your company, to go when offering up their opinions?

Nowadays, just about everyone has a blog, a website, or a Twitter or Facebook page.  Everyone who has those pages believes it's their right to have an opinion, no matter what the opinion is. But what happens when the employee's opinion or statements hurt the company where they're employed.
When companies are creating their own social media policy plans, they need to consider, and outline, just what is being said by employees of their company.

After all, imagine the reaction of a potential client or customer who is Googling  your company and comes up with one of your employee's sites, and catches that employee calling them names?  Your company will be lucky to avoid a lawsuit, let alone keep that customer's business.

In this day of Tweeting and Friending, it's important for companies to come up with social media policy plans that help to keep this kind of thing from happening.

Keep track of your employees' social media sites. You don't have to look at them all the time, but keep an eye out, particularly if you have some one who would not mind ruining your reputation. Also, remind your workers that what they do reflects your company, and encourage them to refrain from saying where exaclty they work on their sites. That way their words won't come back to haunt you.

And if you have your own pages, remember Rosemary Port and obey the Golden Rule and do unto others. Nothing you put out there on the Internet is entirely private all the time.

Free speech isn't free when it costs you or your company its reputation.