Social media is pervasive throughout society. Billions people use social media to communicate. Social Media has replaced what used to be standard communications methods such a postal services, telephone and even email.
And while Social Media used to be confined to individual and private communications, it has now entered into the workplace. Over one billion employees use personal Social Media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate regarding sensitive company and organizational issues. These communications are subject to eDiscovery in legal matters and litigation. The inability to produce social media communications for a court can have million-dollar negative ramifications for organizations.
With this increased use of social media, organizations must be prepared for the risks associated with social media misuse. To mitigate these risks, ensure proper use and protect from future litigation, organizations must now archive social media communications.
Here are the top four reasons why organizations need to archive social media:
1. Enterprise collaboration is using social media at an ever-increasing rate
An Osterman Research survey found that the average employee spends 28 minutes per day using social media during work hours (not counting time spent away from work). This translates into 2.9 work weeks annually. With the shift in collaboration from email to social media, organizations must archive social media communications, along with its standard email archiving protocols.
2. Inappropriate Use of Social Media
The Osterman survey found that nearly 79% of organizations do not archive their users’ content posted to social media and that 13% of organizations have terminated an employee because of something they posted on a social media site.
3. Organizational Data Leakage
Osterman found that 13% of organizations have experienced sensitive or confidential information leakage through Facebook, 9% through Twitter and 10% through LinkedIn. This loss of data can lead to damaged reputation, potential litigation and loss of untold amounts of money.
4. Burden of Regulation Compliance
The majority of organizations do not archive social media content, despite regulations, court decisions and other guidance that points to the fact that this content should be archived. The following examples highlight, by industry, a number of regulations and suggestions for social media archiving and usage:
- Financial – FINRA 10-06 states that firms must retain records of social media communications.
- Government – NARA October 2010 Bulletin explains that as government agencies adopt Web 2.0 tools, they must comply with all records management laws, regulations, and policies.
- Commercial – FRCP rules state that all employee-created social media content that is work related, regardless of whether or not it was created on a personal account, is discoverable. Not only should this be archived and supervised according to corporate policies, but archiving this data in a siloed bin may be required to address employee privacy issues.
- Healthcare – HIPAA or Federal Substance Abuse Confidentiality laws may apply in the context of receiving and retaining patient approval to post content to social media.
How to Archive Social Media
Archiving social media is actually easier than you think, especially with the right archiving solution. Retain Social is a great choice to allow your company to archive social media.
Micro Focus partners with Archive Social to provide a comprehensive social media archiving and risk management solution. A simple demo on ArchiveSocial’s home page shows how social media accounts are easily configured for archiving. Once set up, ArchiveSocial collects all social media posts and messages in their native format, complete with metadata. These files are securely stored in Retain in that same format, where a handful of search, redaction, export, and other eDiscovery tools make them easily available for audit, compliance, or court litigation cases.
Retain Social also implements ArchiveSocial’s Risk Management and Analytics package, which gives key insights and allows for real time monitoring of social media pages. The package helps organizations stop harmful posts before they are sent out using customizable keyword monitoring. It also offers insight into activity levels of accounts.
These features and more make Retain Social the best option in monitoring and archiving your company’s social media.
Want more information? download this FREE PDF with all the features and benefits of the Retain Social Archive.
Information herein obtained from the Osterman Research Whitepaper, “Why All Organizations Need to Manage and Archive Social Media” published April 2012
Photo Credit: To tweet or not to tweet: How companies are reining in social media by opensource.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0
