Design of a Social Media Manager
As the Internet continues to manifest itself into the central platform for a vast majority of retailers, the need for a well-versed marketing manager has developed a new target: social media. These new outlets can determine either marketing success or a quick marketing suicide if the correct individuals are not in place to manage and maintain the company accounts in the most respectable manner. It would be of the highest regard for a company to acquire an individual who emanated a legally sound capability to run these accounts. With the development of environments like SnapChat, Twitter, or Tumblr, seemingly limited but socially fruitful social media platforms, there begs a need for someone who is well versed in the legal necessities of mass marketing in a direct-to-the-consumer environment. Being able to push an advertisement quickly to an individual’s phone or tablet would potentially make for a very rapid sales environment on the front end. However, the legal ramifications of a misinterpreted ad, poor market analysis, or violating some level of privacy would require a more proactive approach to the potential legal issues caused by this form of placement. This can all be solved by having someone who is not only legal-minded, but able to function as the point of human interface for a corporation, bringing in a more personal feel to a brand (Denmark, 2013).
The entire scope of social media requires an individual who can make the best case for the business that they represent when faced with the need to exercise a very specific set of legal judgments. These situations will become very context-specific due to a company’s dedication to their product. Marketing and sales of a product online suggests the need of someone who has a very intimate knowledge of the laws associated with not on the platform they are working with, but the product they are attempting to sell. The legalities of different products vary greatly when considering the types that are ushered into our news feed, twitter feed, or dashboard. Not every human being is of legal age to be purchasing or viewing certain types of ads, and a manager must be acutely aware of those legal differences as they apply to the type of content they are attempting to push upon us. The information is not limited to just individual rights in the public but also potential violation of internal company policy or an existing Federal policy regardless of the information placed online in the case of Netflix CEO posting information publically while not directly informing investors (August, 2013).
The Genuine Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution To begin the consideration of all forms of alternative dispute resolution, negotiation would be a more useful tool in regards to smaller at-fault cases to avoid unnecessary court costs. When a smaller company determines, internally, that they have made a mistake that would result in some form of payout, an out-of-trial negotiation limits exposure, and saves the face of the business. Looking at mediation, not much different from just basic negotiation, creates a platform for negotiation when a settlement is needed with the assistance of an unbiased party. Mediation is more suited for larger companies dealing with a specific set of individuals, or another company with agreeable requests.
When companies become large enough that they cannot set aside individual management’s time for casework, arbitration is the next best option utilizing a group to the effect of actual legal staff, allowing them the ability to make decisions for the company as they see fit. As we move higher in the echelon of big business, med-arb becomes a more common practice. Once the mediation procedures have completed, a claim may then go into arbitration, making the final acceptance of terms easier to come to when an established open channel of communication between all parties. Arb-med is the literal reverse of med-arb. Depending on the expectations of a claim, the individuals may have a need to create an unbiased agreement on a settlement with the use of their arbitrators before finally going in for mediation.
Mini trials, as the name may suggest, are not actual trials, but rather the evidence of both parties presented before a series of officials in order to come to a settlement more quickly, without the burden of a full court. This method would be best in large corporate disputes when both sides are wary about going to court. The panel reviews the provided evidence, and upon the final hearing, provides a settlement or moves forward to a different method of legal action. Summary of jury trials is, simply, a mock trial; a series of steps both parties go through where a judge determines what could be the settlement in order to avoid a real case. The downside to a summary of jury trial is the requirement to go through the entire process twice. This requirement establishes both parties are aware of all the legal proceedings, and that there is no change to the assumed verdict. However, this does not limit further disagreement and continued legal proceedings.
Online Federal Regulation Consumer transactions do not typically occur on an actual social media website, so the actual limitation of a transaction more so applies to the limitation of the business in question. Social media will lead an individual to a sale, or with an advertisement, entice an individual to make a purchase through the online sales hub. If a site’s corporate headquarters exists inside the United States borders, or the hosted site itself resides inside a domain of U.S. jurisdiction, those sites are then handled by their State’s respective courts and laws. The most recent Federal regulation has been in regards to taxes collected on online purchases. The determination of these collected taxes is by the final delivery destination of a purchased item. A different regulation put in place is the requirement for federal licensing when selling specific items. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now instructing animal breeders, who also utilize internet sales through a social media page such as Facebook, that they can no longer be considered retail pet owners, requiring them to apply for federal licensing in order to continue their method of business. These regulations become even stricter with annual breeding limitations, government inspections, and the cost of licensing as a whole. This regulation now creates an expectation by some level of federal guarantee that the products purchased are genuine and meet expected regulations. However, with the change in licensing, tax codes, and the adjustment of how many items can be sold by a business in a year, this will, ultimately, drive the cost of the product up (August, 2013).
The Branches of the U.S. Government The executive branch of the United States has a stake in the laws the public is expected to adhere to, however, that stake is limited to a more political expectation. With the functionality of ensuring these laws are fair and equal, the Executive branch acts as the final mediator in the final acceptance of an approved law. What it brings to the table is merely the assumption that the law being passed will create a positive change in the country’s everyday functionality. The economic climate of our country may seem to balance on the idea of our functionality, but the corporations themselves continue to create their own success with legitimate marketing, such as social media, rather than just the laws at hand.
Our legislative branch has the capability to define new laws based on what they feel is a need for our current economic climate. These laws can be as broad as they want to be, but take time to disseminate to the masses, to make aware of the flowing changes. With these laws put in place, it takes someone to act on the, to make them carry a true weight of purpose and control. Simply passing a law does not mean it will be upheld unless someone with the sense to enforce it actually goes forth and takes action. This is still a necessary process, but carries minor effect compared to the final branch
Due to the judicial branch’s capability to act on existing laws, I believe there is an abundant capability for this branch to cause a significant level of impact on social media outlets used for a business marketing advantage. Laws placed into effect, but without actual action taken place, mean little more than guidelines for which to operate by. The judicial branch can create an economic impact when a law is violated and action is required to be taken. The overall effect the judicial branch has over our everyday lives from even the most sizeable corporation to the most insignificant individual drives the way work together, and the way a business is expected to perform. Without the force to actually hold a person or a corporation responsible for their actions, there would be no point to the entire process.
Business Relationships of the Tools and Account Managers Most social media hubs have a very active business relations section associated with individual business accounts. There is, in most cases, a marketing or business form for every account on a social media site. Twitter has Verified accounts that create the legitimate acknowledgement an account belongs to who they say they it does, and Facebook has created business pages that require further acknowledgement and offer different forms of advertising options to create a minor difference in their posts so they are obvious to the user. The accelerated need to push business-specific ads to our social media feeds will continue to create an even higher need for these social media sites to develop a deeper connection to the businesses they support, both on the legal and economic levels. Account outages, or failure to reach an intended demographic, could cause a very large issue in regards to the market connection a social media outlet attempts to support. A failure like either of the two aforementioned could result in legal action that an intelligent social media marketing manager should be able to quickly act on with the support of their legal team, and come to a quick resolution if the business account management staff of the social media sites are unable to meet their terms of use.