Over two billion social media accounts are active worldwide. In the United States, 223 million people are active on at least one social networking platform, which represents over 70% of the population. Due to the increasing number of Americans who are active on social media, both on and off the job, state lawmakers have begun to introduce legislation designed to protect the rights and privacy of employees when it comes to their personal social media pages.
In 2015, social media privacy legislation has been introduced or considered in 23 states including Virginia, Connecticut, and Delaware. While legislation regulating the use of employee social media accounts is a new concept for many employers, within the financial services industry, companies are already very familiar with regulations in the workplace, especially when it comes to social media. With both state and federal regulations now surrounding the use of social media both inside and outside of work, there is confusion within the financial services industry on which set of regulations need to be followed in which scenarios.
In March 2015, the state of Virginia passed house bill 2081 which prohibits an employer from requiring employees to disclose usernames or passwords for social media accounts or employers access to social media accounts. However, the Virginia bill states in section F that the state law does not prevent an employer from complying with the requirements of the federal law, meaning if you are in an industry that already has federal regulations in place that contradict with the state law, the federal law overrides the state.
The new trend of state laws putting limits on employer’s access to employee’s social media accounts is meant to advocate for employee privacy within companies that have no business looking at employee’s personal social media pages. For example, an administrative assistant at a bank has no reason to have their social media accounts monitored because they are not conducting business via social media. On the other hand, a financial advisor who is actively engaging with potential customers via social media does have a reason to have their page monitored by their employer. Financial advisors post content on their personal social media pages in order to gain new customers and in the process, could potentially violate a federal regulation about what can be said on social media. In addition, inbound content such as post comments could also have legal repercussions, so it’s important for an employer to have insight into what others are saying in response to their financial advisors.
Early on in the process, there are going to be conflicting ideologies as a company begins to grow their social strategy. Today, 67% of financial services firms are using Twitter, 59% are on Facebook, and three out of four financial advisors use at least one social network for business. In addition, 71% of advisors say their target clients are active on LinkedIn. Social media is going to continue to grow and be an essential tool in gaining new business for financial services companies, so take the time to understand the state and federal regulations currently in place, how they apply to your company’s social presence, then move forward with growing social within your company.