If you're a social media manager or work with influencers, advertisers or endorsers, there are a number of legal issues you need to be aware of. You need to protect the personal information of your audience base, and follow FTC guidelines for disclosing all ads. We'll break it all down for you here. Read more here: https://www.privacypolicies.com/blog/legal-requirements-social-media-managers/

1. Legal Requirements for
Social Media Managers

2. If you’re a social media manager,
you collect and use a lot of
legally-protected personal
information such as:
Online screen names and
user photos
Email addresses
Geolocational information
Analytics information

3. When you collect such information, laws like CalOPPA, the GDPR and
PIPEDA require you to have and publicly post a Privacy Policy.
The Privacy Policy will need to disclose what personal data you collect
and how you use it.
The company you manage social media for will need to have this
important legal agreement in place to make your use of this information
legally compliant.

4. While it’s up to the company
to create a Privacy Policy, as
a social media manager you’ll
be responsible for ensuring
advertising disclosures are a
part of each social media ad
you promote.

5. In the United States, the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) monitors
social media platforms to ensure
advertisements are correctly
disclosed as being ads and aren’t
misleading.
The FTC requires that all social
media posts that are sponsored
endorsements be disclosed as
such.

7. Endorsements are considered to
be sponsored when anything of
value is exchanged for the
endorsement.
This can include anything from
payments and free products to
gifts and discounts.

8. According to the FTC,
ad disclosures must be:
Written in clear and
explicit language
Similar to the ad
Easy to read
(Note: Audio and video ads have
additional requirements.)

9. An example of this would be
the word “Sponsored” being
immediately below the name
of the company here, before
the text of the ad:

10. You can also use hashtags
(#ad, for example) and
superimposed text on the
post to make it clear it’s an
endorsement, ad or
sponsored post.
Just make sure your hashtag
isn’t buried at the middle or
end of a long list of other
hashtags:

11. As the social media manager, make sure
you do the following:
Ensure the company you work for has a Privacy Policy in place that
addresses the information you collect via social media.
Become familiar with what disclosure methods are acceptable.
Provide guidance to any influencers or endorsers you work with so
they know how to appropriately disclose that their pictures or posts
are sponsored.
Make sure to monitor all sponsored posts for the correct disclosures.