Can Your Social Media Profile Be Insured? Is This The Future?
Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are quickly proving to be more than simple interactive websites – they are emerging as some of the most important social soapboxes that have ever existed.
With this type of heavy use and popularity come issues of liability and responsibility and, believe it or not, it would seem that social media liability insurance is something that brands and people will be considering sooner rather than later.
The risks of being candid on Twitter and Facebook
By their very nature, social outlets like Twitter and Facebook encourage candid, opinionated messages that often offer a look into the very nature of a person; while this can encourage a huge following and a wonderful reception to the things people have to say, it can also provide a terrible tunnel of communication for those slips and social faux pas that we would sometimes be happier to have never said.
The more people you connect with, whether as yourself or under the guise of your professional brand, the further your message will spread. As a result, business marketers have been having a field day with Twitter and friends, leveraging it to spread their products and services to the masses and increasing sales and brand popularity in doing so. Unfortunately, while this wide focus has worked wonders for professionals, it can always work against them when the social posting in question is in bad taste.
Recent examples of sports stars and celebrities losing their jobs and livelihood over off-base remarks made via Twitter raise the question: given the risk carried by being a public personality in an ever-connected world, is social media insurance on the horizon?
How would social media insurance work?
Inherent risk in any activity suggests an opening for insurance firms to offer their wares and social media is no exception. Because it is still some years away from becoming a reality, no definitive technical details can be offered, but the general premise would be that brands and businesses would be protected from the social media mistakes of their employees, allowing them to avoid lawsuits and other legal troubles in the event that a person or entity wanted to hold them responsible.
This type of protection would help dissuade the bad publicity that comes with infuriating your customer base and would allow businesses to save both face and money by instantly separating themselves from what their employees and colleagues do and say via their social media accounts, allowing insurance to cover associated costs and simply paying a monthly premium for the privilege.
Social media insurance for individuals
Last year’s lawsuit brought against rock music star Courtney Love by fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir ended up costing the former more than $400,000 in settlement payments, all resulting from a tirade that Love posted on her Twitter page regarding allegations of theft, bad parenting and drug use against the latter. This huge payout and other, similar cases certainly make social media insurance for individuals seem a worthwhile thing.
Taking that example down a notch, let’s consider the average worker who, after a long, hard day at work with a less-than-pleasant boss, returns home and steams off about said boss via Facebook or Twitter. Assuming the worker’s profile is viewable by the public, the boss or even a chatty co-worker, those words may very well make their way back to their target and result in workplace punishment.
Depending on how widespread the practice and its associated costs, social media insurance for individuals could offer job security to social butterflies, allowing them to balance candid venting and general respect with a safe buffer.
Conclusion
Social media insurance remains only a possibility at the moment but our ever-evolving technological circumstances certainly suggest that new actions, situations and holdings worth insuring will continue to be created, leaving the question one of when as opposed to if this service will become available to both brands and people.
Kate is the social media addict and blogger for Car Insurance Calculator, the free tool providing estimates for car insurance.
yes you are absolutely right madam remain candid to fb and twitter is becoming because you are vulnerable to hacker
They are easily hacking the accounts.
Always post with caution as one small slip can destroy you, your career or business.
Maybe candid is okay provided that the users are fully aware that everyone who can see their profile can use it against them. Pictures are okay but not almost nude ones. You might not want to see that when you’re sober one day.
Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are quickly proving to be more than simple interactive websites. And also it helps us to communicate to the other people around the globe. And to meet new people and friends. I think this is not the future because future is more advanced and more high tech.
Just dont put everything in your social account specially in facebook or twitter