Social Media & GDPR: How to Promote Your Business While Staying Compliant
Social media is everywhere. As an entrepreneur, you use it to promote your services, connect with your audience, and build your brand. All good. But as soon as you start collecting, processing or engaging with personal data through those platforms, GDPR applies.
The good news: staying compliant does not have to be complicated. Here are four practical things to keep in mind.
Tip 1: Analytics tools
Social media analytics tools can give you valuable insights into the reach and ROI of your content. Use them. But make sure you also communicate to your audience that you are using them, for example in your privacy policy.
Beyond disclosure, check that you have a correct legal basis for the processing that takes place. For some analytics tools, especially those that use cookies or tracking technologies, you may need explicit consent from your audience before any data is collected.
Tip 2: Transparency
When your audience interacts with you on social media, they share personal data. Comments, direct messages, profile information: it all falls under GDPR. Make sure your privacy policy mentions that you process personal data through your social media channels, and what happens with it.
Transparency is not just a legal requirement. It also builds trust with the people you are trying to reach.
Tip 3: Protection of sensitive personal data
Sometimes conversations with your audience touch on sensitive topics. Think about health information, financial details or other highly confidential data. If that happens, do not handle it over social media.
Ask your audience to share that kind of information through a more secure channel instead, such as email or a protected contact form. It protects them, and it protects you.
Tip 4: Confidentiality of your conversations
Direct messages on social media may feel informal, but the personal data in them is not. Even on a publicly available platform, the conversations you have with followers are confidential.
That means you should not share the content of those messages, or the name or handle of the person who sent them, with anyone else, without that person's consent. Treat DMs the same way you would treat any other confidential client communication.
Not sure whether your current social media practices are GDPR-compliant? We are happy to take a look. Get in touch and we will help you figure out where you stand.