A recent article published by the business spectator has drawn attention to the fact that many companies have taken their eyes off what has been happening on their social media pages, in regards to new legislation governed by the ASB (Advertising Standards Board) that monitors any misleading adverting and community protection laws. 

This has led to several cases of companies being ask to review and in some circumstances having to remove user generated content (including comments and reviews) to avoid misleading advertising or other potential customer relations problems in regards to the new rulings. This situation has been highlighted by the fact that several companies have been “caught napping” when not fully taking into account their responsibilities (when it comes to monitoring/moderation of their ‘fans’ commentary) and not leading their customer interaction and postings. The article features several examples of recent cases where followers of brands had posted articles that received complaints from other users about the content being either obscene, sexist, racist, or depicting irresponsible behaviour. 

One company in the article argued that their Facebook page was only a networking tool that connected their company to their customers, but the ASB and ACCC found that the page was actually a legitimate marketing communication tool (drawing public attention to their product). In a nutshell the ASB and ACCC have stated that the new rulings means that companies must responsibly manage comments and posts as they would manage advertisements. This will now mean that organisations using these channels and wanting to work within the new legislation will have to step up their monitoring and moderation of their ‘fans’ commentary and postings. Obviously this will mean more commitment from social media teams of each company, but in the long run isn’t this in their own interests to grow positive conversation with their customers and followers? Click here for the full article.