ACE Professional Risk Podcast #8: Social Media: The Business Benefits May be Enormous, But Can the Risks – Reputational, Legal, Operational – Be Mitigated?

In this ACE USA Professional Risk Podcast, ACE Group experts explore the risks companies face from engaging in social media activities.

Panelists are:

Toby Merrill, Vice President within ACE Professional Risk’s Technology and Privacy Liability division. Toby is based in Philadelphia.

Ken Latham, Vice President within ACE Professional Risk’s Employment Practices Liability division. Ken is based in New York City.

Richard Santalesa, Esq., Senior Counsel with InfoLawGroup LLP. Mr. Santalesa is also based in New York City.

In less than a decade, social media seems to have “taken over the world.” As one of the largest social networking sites, Facebook® boasts more than 750 million people actively using its service, with more joining every day. However, the vast majority of companies did not immediately join the social media revolution.  Instead, they observed from the sidelines.  But when the first wave of companies did join, it was because they anticipated the significant business benefits of “this brave new world” – where the personal, the professional, and the commercial combine seamlessly, and in the blink of an eye.

ACE recognizes that social media has created a whole new world of privacy, security, intellectual property, employment practices, and other legal risks.  In this podcast, we will discuss the business benefits of social media participation, and how the cost of non-participation – or opting out – could mean anything from losing business to losing touch with your customers.  We will also provide risk managers and business owners with some background on the risks of social media participation, discuss a few basic steps to address a company’s social media risks, and provide a roadmap to help make social media work for their company.  Most important, we’ll explain why a coordinated approach to managing the risks and liabilities when using social media is an essential best practice. 

You can download the free white paper on this topic by visiting the ACE USA website, click on "ACE Progress Reports, and then on the report entitled, "Social Media: The Business Benefits May be Enormous, But Can the Risks – Reputational, Legal, Operational – Be Mitigated?”