#CONTRACT How Social Media Can Be Legally Binding
By David Willbe T
here is little doubt that new forms of social media can be a great help
to an entrepreneur in running his business. As well as the networking opportunities that they afford, they can be a cost- effective way for the business to engage with its customers and
potential
– whether that’s through advertising,
promotion
customers of
special offers, customer service or a combination of the above.
The risk with these new media, however, is that we engage with them less formally than we do with their older equivalents. Sending out a tweet to a disappointed customer whilst running between meetings is a very efficient way to provide customer service, but relatively little preparation goes into it compared to the process that would have accompanied a formal written response to a customer complaint – or even an email. As well as the more obvious risk of putting out public statements off the cuff, entrepreneurs should be aware that if they make offers or promises over social media then it may be that the business can be held to them – and not necessarily just by the person to whom they address.
24 entrepreneurcountry Ryan Leslie and a
Binding YouTube Clip In October 2010, Mr. Ryan Leslie (a popular US recording artist) was on tour in Cologne, Germany. Whilst he was on stage performing, a black bag containing his laptop, portable hard drive, $10,000 in cash, some accessories and his passport apparently disappeared from a car. The following day, he posted a YouTube clip in which he offers a reward of $20,000 for the return of his property. On the 6th of November 2010, evidently having failed to locate the missing property, he uploaded another video which seamlessly combined the announcement of a new European tour, some smooth R&B sounds and an increase in the amount of the reward to $1 million. Reference to the reward, before and after the increase, was also made through Mr. Leslie’s Facebook page and Twitter feed.
On 26 November 2010 a Mr. Armin Augstein found a black bag in the park whilst walking his dog. The bag contained a laptop, portable hard drive, Mr. Leslie’s passport and some of his accessories – the $10,000 cash was missing, along with some gold jewellery, but otherwise the contents matched what had been taken from Mr.
Leslie. Having taken the bag
home with him, Mr. Augstein found the passport and looked Mr. Leslie
up on the internet – at this point he discovered the existence of the reward. The following day he dropped the bag off with the police, and emailed the address specified in the YouTube clips in order to let Mr. Leslie know where the bag was.
Although Mr. Leslie’s tour manager did collect the bag from the police on the 29th, neither Mr. Leslie nor his “people” responded to Mr. Augstein’s email – nor to a follow-up that Mr. Augstein sent a week later.
Mr. Augstein
called the mobile number listed in the YouTube video (which belonged to Mr. Leslie’s tour manager) and, although encouraging noises were made, Mr. Augstein did not receive the reward or, indeed, any direct acknowledgement from Mr. Leslie. After some other attempts to make contact, including agreeing to an interview with a national German newspaper (from which his
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58