Best Practices for Social Media Archiving
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Best Practices for Social Media Archiving
Social media is becoming a concern for organizations that do not archive content and get caught off guard when e-discovery is required for legal purposes. -
Consumer-Focused Social Media Pervasive in Workplace
70% of organizations surveyed use Facebook for business reasons, 64% use LinkedIn and 56% use Twitter. -
Rise of Enterprise Social Media Platforms
A large proportion use enterprise social media platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint (82%), Cisco social media tools (44%), Microsoft Yammer (23%), Salesforce Chatter (17%), and IBM Connections (8%). -
Benefits of Social Media to Enterprise
Social media helps organizations become more efficient, helps users speed decision-making, and allows information sharing previously neither possible nor practical. -
Risks of Social Media to Enterprise
Social media increases the likelihood that malicious content will enter an organization. Malware infiltrated 18% of organizations through social media. -
More Social Media Risks to Enterprise
Social media increases the likelihood of breached sensitive or confidential data either through employees' inadvertent actions, unmanaged sharing of geolocation data, or malicious employee activities. -
Social Media Not Thoroughly Archived
43% of organizations that use enterprise social platform do not archive information from it. 26% have had to produce content for eDiscovery from the platform. -
Social Media Best Practices
Organizations should address the risks associated with the use of social media implement the following best practices. -
Conduct an Internal Audit of Social Media
An internal audit of social media will help determine which tools are being used, why, and their business value. -
Implement Social Media Policies
Address employees' use of social media tools, identify who should have rights to specific social media features and functions, and spell out the right of the organization to monitor, manage and archive social media use and content. -
Mitigate Risks With Appropriate Technologies
Deploy technologies that will mitigate risks from malware and other threats delivered through social media and corporate social networks. -
Archive, Archive, Archive
Implement solutions to archive business records and other content on social media and corporate social networks. -
Communicate
Mitigate risks associated with consumer-focused social media tools with an enterprise social media solution that also enhances communication, collaboration and information sharing.
Organizations that do not archive content from social media platforms face significant and growing risks from their inaction, according to a white paper by Osterman Research. Twenty-six percent of organizations have had to produce content-free discovery from their enterprise social media platform, according to the paper, "Best Practices for Social Media Archiving and Security." This figure is expected to grow dramatically in the next two years. The paper, which includes results of research conducted with individuals responsible for enterprise social strategy at midsize and large organizations, examines the increasing use of social media and associated risks. These include costs of malware infiltration and increases in data breaches. The paper details regulatory obligations to retain business records that these platforms generate or store for the purposes of e-discovery, litigation, regulatory compliance and corporate best practices. A list of specific court cases follows in which social media records were required and impacted legal decisions, and case studies of companies that experienced data breaches via social media.