SOCIAL MEDIA,
PRIVACY &
BEHAVIORAL ADVERTISING
PRESENTED BY
Jimmy F. Robinson, Jr.
Troutman Sanders LLP
Troutman Sanders Building
1001 Haxall Point
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Direct Dial: 804.697.1211
Mobile: 804.306.7500
Jimmy.Robinson@troutmansanders.com
Retail Mobile Executive Summit
INTRO
SOCIAL MEDIA, PRIVACY & BEHAVIORAL ADVERTISING
Goals of this presentation
4
• Provide an overview of social media
issues related to retailers
• Provide an overview of the current
challenges and solutions for protecting
your marketing strategies, your data,
and your customer’s privacy.
• Provide examples of best practices
• Provoke thought and consideration
• Accessing and exchanging business information in
cyberspace fosters both unlimited possibilities and new
risks and vulnerabilities for companies across the globe.
• Today more than ever Companies must stay on the edge
of legal and regulatory developments affecting their
business and workplace risks—and opportunities— in
the digital age.
Connecting with
Your Customers through
Social Media
Social Media
To tweet, or not to tweet…?
Why is Social Media so
Powerful?
• Provides Reach
• Establishes Credibility to the users
• Provides Interactivity
• Speed and ease of use
• Type of information available
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Current Status of Social
Network Sites
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1.9 billion users on Internet (28% of the
world)
77.4% of the North American population
(398 million) are Internet users
4 billion people (58%) use mobile phones
450 million people access web via mobile
phone
Two-thirds of the world’s Internet
population visit social networking or
blogging sites.
More than 74% of global executives are
members of social media outlets.
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Social Networking Facts
•35% of adults have
profiles on social
networking sites.
•Adults are a larger
percentage of US
population than teens
Are Your Customers Using Social
Media to Shop?
• Yes!
Online retail sales have grown at a staggering rate—from $5
billion in the fourth quarter of 2009 to $30 billion in the first quarter of
2010 and 34.7 billion in the first quarter of 2011, according to the U.S.
Census. And while this growth is extraordinary, it still represents a
relatively small portion of all retail sales activity—only 3.5% of sales
are transacted online.
• However, even though retail sales are still dominated by
brick and mortar stores, the influence of the Internet on
offline purchasing is becoming increasingly important.
Website visitation, online advertising and social media all
impact offline purchasing. Visibility into online behavior has
become critical across the entire retail enterprise.
Mainstream Phenomenon
• The social media frenzy—also known as consumer-generated
media (CGM)—refers to content being created 24-hours a day
online on blogs, message boards, social networks like Facebook
and platforms like Twitter. CGM has come a long way from the early
newsgroup days and continues to grow rapidly
• Traffic to Facebook is up almost 300% over the last year, and
Twitter has seen an increase of almost 1500%. Social Media is no
longer just for techies or younger generations—it has become a
mainstream phenomenon. Compared to two years ago, not only are
more people visiting these sites, but they are also spending more
time there—time spent per person is up 67% over last year.
Why Is Social Media So
Important to Retailers?
So, why is social media so big? Especially for Mobile
Retailers?
The answer is relatively simple: it taps into a few basic
human needs and emotions.
Social media satisfies our need to be heard, it
provides us with a platform to reach more people than
ever before and it enables us to advocate for and
promote the brands and topics we feel strongly about.
Social Media Provides
Amplified Advocacy
The purchase consideration process has always been a social
endeavor. Before the advent of social media, a shopper may
have consulted with a limited number of friends and family
members before making a purchase. Today, shoppers’
networks have gone from being composed of just a handful of
people to hundreds—or even thousands—many of which are
likely strangers.
• Social media has not only transformed the research and
purchase consideration phase, but it also provides shoppers
with a platform to advocate for the products and stores they
love. Advocacy has always existed, but social media has
made this stage even more critical, amplifying the size of the
audience reached.
Best Practice Pointer:
What Happens On-Line
Does Not Stay On-Line
• Assume that consumer control/power will continue to grow—now
is the time to listen to your customers.
• While you must always nurture and protect brand credibility by
being honest, open and transparent. Do not neglect your
website, it is one of your best marketing vehicles, but focus
majority of effort on reaching customers where they’re already
congregating.
• Think about how you can provide better customer service
through social media and turn your loyal customers into
advocates. And lastly, learn from everyone in your organization
Protecting Your Marketing
Strategies from
Social Media Exploitation
Don’t Allow
Don’t allow your employees or customers to exploit your
Company. It’s easier than you think!
• Trade Secrets / Confidential Information
89% of the time these breaches come from within
• Solicitation of customers or employees
Value your customers & Employees
The #1 Reason for Customer Dissatisfaction- Poor Customer Service
The #1 Reason Employees Quit - Lack of Appreciation
• Disparagement/ Harrassment/ Workplace
Misconduct/ Retaliation/
Don’t put up with product disparagement by employees or customers
Have a dedicated watchdog
Social Media’s Exploitation of Your
Marketing Efforts
• Hypothetical – An employee is connected to his boss
on LinkedIn and posts the following update on LinkedIn
Tweeter & Facebook & Uses the Company’s Logo:
“I just turned 60 and I really feel as if my employer is
only hiring and promoting younger workers because
our products are geared toward the young hip group
with the Androids and the other high tech pones. I feel
like I am often made fun of by customers, my
colleagues and my boss and treated harshly because
of my age now!”
One week later, the same employee is fired for
performance-related issues & Appears on the
Today Show with Matt Lauer to discuss the downsizing
of America’s elderly by tech savvy companies
Your Employee – Your Marketing
Dollars
• Hypothetical – An employee “tweets” the
following:
“We just closed a big deal with Company X,
and I’ll tell you one thing…..they acted in a
truly unprofessional manner! Worst business
experience of my career!”
Social Media & Marketing
• What are some of the questions employers
are struggling to decide when considering
marketing and social media?
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Current Challenges and
Solutions for Protecting
Your Company’s Data
Drafting Effective Policies
• Social media can open up office minefield
•
• More workers are tapping into blogs, Twitter
Facebook, and You Tube and gaffes can
create trouble on the job
Companies have long faced the threat of confidential or
inappropriate corporate information leaking via emails or
transfers but now this threat is exponentially greater due to
social media's viral nature and public access.
Many believe that businesses need to be able to have real-time
monitoring of employee social network communication in order
to protect their brand. They need an easy way to detect if a
particular employee is disclosing confidential intellectual
property, financial results or information about an upcoming
product release without prior permission from the employer.
There’s a whole new slate of companies that offer to bring
companies an easy to deploy product to avoid company
damage and data loss. It’s Big Business.
Common Sense Approach
Honesty is the Best Policy
• Let employees know from the very beginning that
company property is company property with no
expectation of privacy.
• Encourage the use of company property so you can
monitor it.
• Issue company property cut down on outside equipment
use
• Be honest and remind employees that you have the
ability to monitor select users or the entire employee
base to eliminate corporate exposure related to
communication.
IS ALL THIS NEW SOCIAL MEDIA
LEVERAGING REALLY WORTH
THE RISK??
• Yes!
Protecting Your Customer’s
Privacy in the Social Media
World
Customer Service Critical
• In today's market, your brand and reputation aren't always safe from
the scorn of disgruntled and social-media-savvy customers. Some of
the best-known brands in the world have fallen prey to online
discussions across the blog community, Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, and other social channels.
• As a result, reputation management in this new era of the digitalnative customer has changed the way we view customer service.
• Looking ahead is critical to managing social media communications
and anticipating when something may go awry. In doing so,
organizations can both take meaningful action early into a crisis and
arrive at a better understanding of customer needs and behavior.
Customer Service is Key
• The key to this new approach is an unyielding
commitment to interacting with the customer. Such
customer service focuses more heavily on "listening" to
your customers across different channels and rethinking
how to use customer data to re-evaluate and alter your
organizational structure (if need be) and flexibly adapt to
the changes around you.
• .
Other Privacy Issues
• White House publishes cybersecurity
legislative proposal
• FTC says Scoot, Rascal! Rascal Scooters
penalized $100,000 for calling consumers
on the Do Not Call registry
Your Input
• What are some of your suggestions to
sidestep some of these privacy
nightmares?
QUESTIONS?
Conclusion
• Don’t be an ostrich
• Learn and move forward
• Analyze and create
• Immunize with policies and safeguards
• Ounce of prevention: consult counsel
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