Four tips to reducing social media compliance risk

Credit unions often tell us they run into trouble when it comes to their social media, creating friction between the marketing team and the compliance team. Social media is a great way to reach members and promote products and services to potential members, but it is a common area of compliance confusion. The advertising regulations apply the same to social media posts as they do to other advertising – there are no free passes for social media. I know this can be frustrating to marketing teams trying to be fun or keep messaging short, but there just aren’t any exemptions to the regulations I can offer here.

What I can offer, however, are a few tips. If these tips are followed closely, they could help minimize your social media compliance risk and keep the marketing and compliance teams singing in harmony.

1. Present key items legibly. Specifically, an NCUA official advertising statement or Equal Housing logo. Not only do these items need to be present when applicable, but they also need to be clear and legible. A simple way to ensure you are staying compliant is to add the NCUA official advertising statement and the correct Equal Housing logo clear and legibly to your credit union’s main cover image, like the large banner images you see on Facebook and Twitter. Then you don’t have to worry about including these items in each post or tweet and it will always be clear and legible.

 

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