The misuse of social media can have a disastrous impact on an individual's reputation.
This article focuses on individuals with a high follower base and discusses some best practice tips for managing and operating your social media accounts.
Key Considerations
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Brand
For accounts with a significant number of followers, it is easy for the account owner to fall into the trap of over-posting and revealing too much about themselves in order to grow their follower base.
The account owner or agency controlling the account should therefore consider whether the following actions are appropriate when promoting the individual’s brand to the public: -
- Posting private photographs or videos with family members or friends, including partners and children. This potentially exposes family members to the public, inviting negative reactions which could impact them personally;
- Posting content which reveals the account user’s location, place of residence and/or personal assets. There are obvious security concerns associated with this;
- Commenting on and offering an opinion on potentially controversial cultural, religious, societal or political issues; and/or
- Responding and reacting badly to negative comments. If you appear to be susceptible to negative comments, this could encourage and invite more of the same.
You should always be wary that a simple post could attract interest from millions of people and what you say will be magnified on a grand scale. You should therefore choose your words and content carefully to ensure that there are no knock-on effects to your private life away from social media.
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Audience
The scale of social media compared to readers of the tabloid press is considerable.
The most popular UK online newspaper in the UK by audience reach is The Sun with 27.6 million readers in August 2022.
By comparison, the most-followed person on Instagram in the world is footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with over 484 million followers.
Before social media, the tabloid press was the main source of insight into the celebrity world. The tabloid press now acquires the majority of their stories directly from an individual’s social media account. You should be mindful that the tabloid press may be closely monitoring your account for potential stories.
Whilst this does give the individual an element of control in terms of dictating the narrative of the stories that reach the public, there is always a risk of damage being done to the individual if their account is not operated correctly.
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Public Account
Public accounts are open to all users of a social media platform and grants access to the account’s content without the need to follow the account first. Public accounts are the least secure accounts and posts should ideally be limited to content relevant to and consistent with the account owner’s brand.
A public account is commonly managed by the account owner’s PR company, agency or family members. You should give serious consideration as to who is allowed to access and operate the account, ensuring that they understand you, your brand and your personal and professional values. This will ensure consistency in the content that you release to the public.
It is important to agree parameters with those in control of your account so that they understand what they are permitted to access or upload and whether any pre-approval is required before posting.
Steps should be taken to ensure the security of your account by using different passwords for all accounts, regularly updating your passwords and implementing features such as two factor-authentication for those with access to the account.
A recent example of mismanagement of a public social media account is the Instagram account of former Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper, Joe Hart. Following a 3-0 Europa League defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in March 2021, Joe Hart’s external social media team posted an Instagram story to his account with the caption “job done”, mistakenly believing that Tottenham had won the game. This led to Joe Hart making a personal public apology video on his Instagram page.
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Private Account
Private accounts are usually limited to a small number of followers. Requests to follow the private account must be first accepted by the account holder in order for content to be viewed.
This allows the individual to have more control over the people who are able to view their account. As private account followers are usually limited to friends and family, it is not uncommon for the account owner to post more personal content such as tagging family members and their location at that time.
Consideration must be given to the individuals that are permitted to follow this account and regular reviews should be carried out to ensure that those who follow the account are trusted. Content uploaded to a private account will be of greater interest to the tabloid press.
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Advertisements / Promotions
Social media can be an extremely effective way of marketing products and services due to the scale of audience reach. It is common for businesses to engage individuals with a significant follower base to run promotional campaigns on their account to reach new audiences and boost sales and leads. It is crucial to ensure that any promotional material on your account is within the relevant regulatory guidelines.
In the UK, advertising and promotions are governed by the Advertising Standards Authority. However, other regulators are increasingly monitoring the commercial activities of social media influencers too. For example, the Financial Conduct Authority has recently provided warnings about influencers being used to promote financial investment and crypto trading products.
In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission has recently charged Kim Kardashian for failing to disclose that she was paid $250,000 to publish a post on her Instagram account in relation to a crypto asset security offered and sold by EthereumMax, as required by law. Ms Kardashian has agreed to pay $1.26 million in penalties relating to this breach of anti-touting provisions.
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Wider Obligations
For professional sportspersons such as footballers, it is essential to ensure that social media publications do not bring the club or the professional game into disrepute. There will usually be a clause in a player’s contract to protect the club against such instances and disciplinary or regulatory action can also be taken against a player as a result of their conduct online.
Players should be mindful of their obligations to their commercial sponsors and ensure that any content does not undermine or conflict with their values. This could ultimately lead to a serious breach of a commercial agreement and termination of the deal. In circumstances where a player does wish to express their own views via social media, they should ensure that they indicate within the post that their views are their own and not the clubs.
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Confidential Information
In some circumstances, players are privy to confidential information and activity within a professional club which would be of interest to the public and tabloid press. For example, players will have inside knowledge of team selections, tactics and training ground incidents which they are obliged to keep to themselves.
Clubs will take steps to contain this as best as possible to avoid potential leaks. Therefore, players should be careful who, if anyone, they share that information with.
Concluding Thoughts
A social media account with a significant follower base is a powerful tool, in both a positive and negative sense.
In recent years, we have seen Marcus Rashford use his social media platform to oppose the government and promote a campaign regarding free school meals for children during the Christmas holidays.
There is also a risk of a story spiralling out of control as a result of significant interest on social media. We recently acted for Coleen Rooney in her successful defence to the claim brought against her by Rebekah Vardy. The proceedings arose out of Mrs Rooney’s infamous social media post in October 2019 accusing Rebekah Vardy of being responsible for having leaked information from Mrs Rooney’s private Instagram account to The Sun newspaper. Mrs Rooney’s post quickly became a viral sensation and one the most high-profile trials in recent times followed.
Mrs Rooney’s solicitors, Paul Lunt and Jamie Hurworth have released the podcast series ‘Rooney v Vardy: The Breakdown’ which covers the details of the case, including the role that social media played in the build up.
We would recommend that high-profile individuals, and any agents operating their social media accounts on their behalf, keep the above considerations in mind to try and make best use of their significant presence online.
