Social Media and The Law

My Juice Academy workshop was a little different to usual, we were lucky enough to have had a guest speaker. I and the rest of Cohort 6 didn’t quite know what to expect, then we were introduced to Steve Kuncewicz, an established lawyer who specialises in IP, media and social media.

As Steve began his talk, we began to understand the importance of online guidelines and etiquette. Not many people are fully aware of the limitations of online content or the consequences of stepping out of line. We learned that breaking these rules could end in court.

Steve’s presentation included some examples; one of these was Rio Ferdinand who took part in a promotional real life ad campaign for Snickers on Twitter. Snickers paid several celebrities to tweet about their chocolate, without declaring their involvement with the brand. Rio was clever enough to put ‘#spon’ on the end of his tweet. Other celebs involved in the campaign did not which resulted in a legal battle. Funnily enough he was the only one who didn’t get fined.

If a company pays someone to tweet about their products it must be made clear that it is a sponsorship or an advert. If the celebrity in question doesn’t put ‘#spon’ or ‘#ad’ on their tweet then it is seen as misleading and both the company and celebrity could be fined and the whole campaign could be pulled.

Steve’s talk was fascinating and it will no doubt benefit us in the future as social media apprentices. On behalf of myself and the whole of cohort 6 I would like to thank Steve for a fun, enlightening day!

To hear more from social media guru Steve you can follow him on Twitter.

@stevekuncewicz