The book Navigating Social Media Legal Risks by Robert McHale, ESQ. and Eric Garulay was a very interesting and informative book on the legal insights, risks and recommendations for any business today.  While this book tended to focus on businesses with a social media strategy it had great legal advice for any type of company competing in today’s world.  Whether a business is highly involved in social media or has no official involvement, this book gave important perspective on everything from promotions, hiring decisions and defending a firm or brand’s reputation when attacked.   Not having a legal background, I found this book very easy to navigate and understand.  McHale and Garulay give nice real world case studies to illustrate their points.  I learned a lot about not only legal issues that arise but conflicts many large and smaller corporations have been faced with in this new digital world.

Being not too far outside of graduate school and about six years out of undergrad, I also found this book to be very enlightening on what employers or perspective employers can find out about a potential job candidate without ever setting foot in an interview.  The amount of digital data that can be collected on anyone today is astonishing and I learned a thing or two about what companies are provided and also legal risks for an employer when looking at this information.  I have a few siblings that are currently in school and interviewing for jobs and I will be passing some of this insight along as I found it both interesting and essential to know.  Likewise, as I move up in my career and hire candidates, there are legal rules that vary state to state on what information an employer is allowed to seek online and I found that essential for not only Human Resources to understand but any hiring manager.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Social Media and especially for anyone directly involved in starting up a company or directly involved in their firm’s social media strategy.  This digital sphere is new and the legal rules are oftentimes evolving with the technology.  This was a book that was easy to read and understand and gave me a quick crash course in a law degree in social media!  A great read!

KTK

Disclaimer:  I was given a copy of this book to review although the above review would not have changed if I had purchased the book myself.  I will be passing it along to siblings and friends!