With all the focus on the PhoneDog lawsuit, there’s a lot of talk right now about who actually “owns” Twitter Followers, Facebook likes and other Social Media intellectual property.
The case brings to light two different issues that directly affect businesses.
1) Contract Negotiation – before hiring someone, particularly for social media purposes, it’s important to understand the intended use of the accounts. Are you growing followers? Do you want the social media person to become a personality for your business or would you rather the business take on the personality traits? There are good and bad aspects of each.
2) Social Media worth – to this point we’ve only guestimated dollar equivalence for social media followers using formulaic equations for income generated by nothing more than 21st century word of mouth advertising, which quite frankly is just as hard now as it was then. The last reported dollar amount was about $1.83 for Tweeps per account but either way it’s a tough comparison to try to make.
What we’re recommending to clients on contract negotiation – whether with a marketing firm on a retainer contract per month to handle social media interactions or if hiring an individual to create, follow, and update outlets – make sure part of the contract states the intent and purpose of the business’ social media and who is to retain rights should there be a parting of ways.
There are a number of ways to handle social media and it’s important as a business that you define what you want it to do before even getting started in the network. Each social media portal can have a distinct functionality within your marketing strategy so it’s integral to decide the particulars prior to interweaving it into the daily avenues of business.
IF the lawsuit goes to trial, it could define how social media followers are measured. For the first time a defined amount will be recognized by law to give a specific dollar amount to followers – at least for Twitter. Does knowing each follower’s worth is $2.50 change your outlook on social media and how it works for your company? Let us know your thoughts and if we can help you through these quickly changing times because telling the world is not always as straight-laced as it seems.
