We’re not going to sugar-coat it: social media compliance is a big deal. A lack of social media compliance monitoring can have serious consequences.
But don’t panic! We’ll walk you through the most important compliance elements to protect your brand.
Key Takeaways
- Social media compliance involves adhering to various laws, regulations, and industry guidelines when using social media for marketing and community engagement.
- These rules can vary by region and industry, covering areas such as data privacy (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), confidentiality, advertising regulations, and intellectual property rights.
- Violations can lead to serious consequences, including fines, lawsuits, reputational damage, or loss of social media privileges.
What is social media compliance?
Social media compliance means following all laws, regulations, and platform policies that apply to how your organization uses social media.
In reality, the “rules” come from many places — government laws, industry regulators, platform policies, and your own internal guidelines. That mix can get complicated fast, especially in regulated industries or enterprise organizations.
But at its core, compliance is about protecting your customers, your brand, and your team from avoidable risk.
Why is social media compliance important?
Social media compliance is important because it protects your organization from legal issues, financial penalties, data breaches, and reputational damage.
When teams follow the rules, they reduce potential risks, keep customer data safe, and avoid the kinds of mistakes that can snowball quickly.
For regulated industries, the stakes are even higher. Compliance is what keeps your marketing efforts from violating privacy laws and advertising standards.
What does social media compliance mean for enterprises?
For enterprises, social media compliance means making sure every post, reply, workflow, and account follows the right laws, industry-specific regulations, and internal standards.
This typically includes:
- Managing risk across hundreds or thousands of employees, agencies, and partners
- Keeping brand voice and messaging consistent everywhere
- Following industry-specific regulations
- Protecting customer data in comments, DMs, and support channels
- Maintaining archives to prove compliance during audits
Big organizations face bigger stakes: multiple regions, multiple business units, and often multiple regulators watching. That means compliance isn’t just “don’t post the wrong thing.”
At this level, compliance is really about repeatability and control. And because that’s nearly impossible to do with native tools alone, many enterprise teams lean on platforms like Hootsuite to keep everything trackable.
What are common social media compliance risks?
The most common social media compliance risks include data privacy violations, confidentiality breaches, advertising violations, AI-related risks, and improper archiving.
Let’s dive into each of these risks:
Data privacy and protection
Social media platforms collect a lot of personal data from users. Businesses can and do use this info for targeted marketing and advertising.
But businesses must work within data privacy laws. That includes obtaining appropriate consent and protecting the data from unauthorized access.
Here are some crucial data protection regulations grouped by region:
- USA. CAN-SPAM, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Canada. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
- Europe. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Global. Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) Declaration
The general principles have a lot of overlap:
- Do not send unsolicited messages
- Notify users when collecting and storing their personal data
- Allow users to access, edit, and delete their data
- Ensure users’ personal data is secure and used in a responsible way
Confidentiality
Marketers need to understand all the confidentiality expectations in their industry, not just the data privacy piece. Confidentiality includes all information about people involved with a business, online or offline.
Take education, for example. Anyone marketing for a school has to follow both:
- the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and
- the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).
In healthcare, there’s the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Even resharing a social post without signed consent could be a compliance issue. (More on this below.)
For instance, a physician’s assistant student was recently called out on X (formerly Twitter). The student was posting patients’ radiographs and other confidential images on social media.
Your Physician Assistant students are sharing photos of patients’ radiographs and excised BREAST tissue on social media
This is a serious breach of patient confidentiality and patients can be easily identified
Totally unacceptable pic.twitter.com/OTYNehhOuy
— The Med Reg (@MedRegoncall1) June 13, 2024
This case involved a student, rather than an employee. But it still puts the university involved at compliance risk. Everyone involved with your organization needs to understand social media compliance. Even if they don’t work in social media.
For more details, check out our post on using social media for healthcare.
Artificial intelligence
While AI can make teams faster and more efficient, it also introduces a whole new layer of compliance considerations that didn’t exist a few years ago.
And here’s the tricky part: there are AI regulations (especially in places like the EU). But many regions are in a gray area where AI is governed by a mix of privacy laws, industry-specific rules, and whatever internal guardrails an organization decides to put in place.
In short: a lot of the responsibility still falls on you and your team to make sure you’re using AI responsibly.
Here are a few areas to pay close attention to:
- Image generation: AI tools can accidentally generate images that resemble real people, include sensitive details, or recreate copyrighted material.
- Content writing: If you’re using AI to help write posts, captions, or replies, make sure you’re not feeding it anything confidential.
- Customer data: AI-powered tools can pick up personal info from comments, DMs, reviews, and mentions. You’re still responsible for how that data is collected and used.
- Chatbots and automated responses: If you use an AI assistant on social media, make sure it’s not giving medical, financial, or legal advice.
- Disclosures: Some regions already require AI-generated or AI-modified content to be labeled. Others are moving in that direction. It’s better to build transparency into your process now.
Advertising regulations
Marketers must understand social media ad compliance regulations for promoting their businesses. That means being upfront about sponsored content and making sure every claim you make is accurate and not misleading.
When brands skip these steps, the fallout can get serious (think: fines, legal trouble, or other enforcement actions).
In the United States, organizations like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulate social media posts. The FDA monitors claims related to food, beverage, and supplement products. The FTC scrutinizes online reviews, endorsements and testimonials, including those from social media influencers.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) monitors financial services businesses in the US. FINRA says that social media posts must be “fair, balanced, and complete.”
In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulates advertising. They work with codes creed by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP).
Source: CAP and CMA
Since 2021, the ASA has publicly listed influencers who regularly fail to disclose paid posts. They can also ban ads that don’t meet the guidelines.
Community standards
All social media sites – including Meta, Twitter, and LinkedIn – have community guidelines. When you create an account, you’re essentially agreeing to play by those rules. So as marketers, it’s crucial to keep them in mind before hitting “post.”
The risks can be serious if you violate a platform’s content guidelines. A platform might quietly take your post down, stop recommending your content, or restrict your monetization options. In more serious cases, they can even ban your account altogether.
Community guidelines also change frequently, especially around areas like political content, AI-generated content, and misinformation. It’s important to stay on top of these updates so you can avoid accidental violations.
Intellectual property rights
Marketers must be careful about intellectual property rights when posting content online.
Anything created by someone else may be subject to copyright. This includes images, video clips, music, quotes and more. Don’t risk using other people’s content without permission.
Memes are a bit of a gray area for intellectual property risks. In fact, both a meme and its original materials can be copyrighted or trademarked. Images that include real people are particularly risky.
Remember the “Success Kid” meme?
The child’s mother took the picture and therefore owns the copyright. She sued 2020 congressional candidate Steve King for using the image without permission. After a long legal process, he lost his appeal against an original finding of infringement earlier this month.
To be safe, stick to using your own images. Or, look for royalty-free images or those with an appropriatee Creative Commons license.
Access and archiving
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other public records laws ensure public access to government records. That includes government social media posts. So, official government social accounts should not block followers, even problematic ones.
This can also apply when politicians and public officials use their personal pages to conduct public business. The Supreme Court recently noted:
“A public official who fails to keep personal posts in a clearly designated personal account … exposes himself to greater potential liability.”
In other words, avoid mixing personal and professional posts. Doing so can create compliance risk for public sector employees.
Meanwhile, archiving compliance requirements ensure organizations have a record of social media activities. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) both require financial services firms to archive social media communications in context.
How to stay compliant on social media
Staying compliant on social media means building consistent systems that ensure every post, workflow, and interaction follows the rules that apply to your organization.
Let’s break down the most important pieces of a strong social media compliance checklist.
1. Understand the laws and regulations relevant to your industry
If you use any social media channels in a regulated industry, you likely have in-house compliance experts. They should be your go-to resource for any questions about what you can (and can’t) do on social networks.
Your compliance officers have the latest information on compliance requirements. You have the latest information on social tools and strategies. When these teams work together, you can maximize the benefits for your brand — and reduce the risks.
Make sure your compliance team understands your content creation and approval process (including any AI tools you’re using). This will allow them to identify risks. Clarify when you should consult them or if you need to change your procedures.
2. Control access to social accounts
Limiting access to your accounts is critical to keeping your content under control. It’s also an important way to reduce compliance risks.
Sharing passwords among team members creates unnecessary risk. It’s especially problematic when people leave their role. A password management and permissions system is a must.
For example, Hootsuite allows different levels of access for each person who works on your social content. There are several compliance benefits to these permissions:
- Ensure that all content posted is accurate, truthful, and on brand.
- Allow all social team members to embrace their creativity. At the same time, approval safeguards ensure content passes compliance checks.
- Prevent unauthorized access to confidential information. This is especially important when you use social media DMs for customer service.
On top of that, every integration, app, or plugin should be reviewed to make sure it follows your organization’s compliance and security requirements.
3. Build a social media compliance monitoring strategy
In regulated industries, monitoring is especially important. You may need to respond to comments within a specified time. You may also have to report comments to a regulatory body. For instance, those involving adverse drug reactions.
It’s also important to look for social accounts related to your organization but not under corporate control.
This might be a well-intentioned advisor or affiliate creating a non-compliant account. Or, it might be an imposter account. Each can cause its own kind of compliance headaches.
Any brand that works with outside salespeople needs to watch for inappropriate claims. For example, the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) conducts regular monitoring. They recently found sellers for the multilevel marketing brand Limbic Arc making inappropriate product and income claims on social media. The council notified Limbic Arc, who contacted sellers to remove the claims.
The result was a lot of extra work that could have been avoided if the company caught the claims before the DRSCC got involved.
Start with a social media audit to uncover social accounts related to your brand. Then put a regular social monitoring program in place.
To make monitoring easier, many orgs now use AI-powered tools to automatically flag high-risk language, misinformation, complaints, or unapproved claims in real time.
While AI shouldn’t replace human review, it can dramatically reduce the risk of missing something important, especially if you’re managing multiple channels, large volumes of comments, or distributed teams.
4. Archive everything
In regulated industries, all communications on social media need to be archived. That includes ads, replies, comments, Stories, Reels, DMs, edits, and even deleted content.
This matters because any of these records may be required during a social media audit, an investigation, or an industry-specific examination (e.g., HIPAA/HHS).
We know this can sound daunting. Luckily, social media compliance tools (like Hootsuite’s ProofPoint integration) can help.
5. Create a content library
A pre-approved content library provides your whole team with compliant social content. Employees, advisors, and contractors can share these without introducing compliance risk.
Armanino, one of the top independent CPA and consulting firms in the U.S., built a content library of brand-approved content to share with a network of internal brand ambassadors. After launching the library, they saw more than 14,700 website clicks from employee posts. More than 19 million people were reached through that approved employee content. That’s a 638% increase year over year.
6. Disclose sponsored content
When you partner with influencers, proper disclosure is non-negotiable.
When you partner with influencers, proper disclosure is non-negotiable.
The FTC requires content creators to disclose all “material connections” to brands. This includes personal, family, and employment relationships — not just financial relationships.
Disclosures need to be displayed where people will actually see them (not buried under a “more” button). For example, a compliant sponsored post might include the #ad hashtag at the very beginning, plus the platform’s built-in “Paid Partnership” label.
The FTC most recently updated its disclosure guidelines in June 2023. One of the big additions was around virtual influencers. The FTC made it clear that brands can’t use virtual influencers — or any AI-generated personas — to create fake or misleading endorsements.
More recently, the FTC also banned fake reviews outright, including ones generated by AI.
If you haven’t yet updated your policies to reflect the new guidance, it’s definitely time to check in with your compliance team.
In Canada, the Competition Act offers the following examples of a material connection:
- payment
- free products or services
- discounts
- free trips or tickets
- a personal or family relationship
Be sure to build disclosure requirements into your influencer contracts and agreements.
7. Invest in regular training
Compliance and social media training should be part of your new employee onboarding process. When employees are familiar with the rules, they’re more likely to flag compliance risks.
Since social media can change fast, it’s also important to invest in regular training updates. That includes updates on platform policies, new regulations, and any AI tools your team is using in their workflow.
And, perhaps most important of all…
8. Create compliance and social media policies
A social media compliance policy is a simple but effective way to educate your employees. It should explain why compliance is important and offer tips to help mitigate risks.
The components of your social media compliance policy will vary based on your industry and the size of your business. It might actually include several different types of policy, such as:
- Social media policy. Guides your internal social media strategy and employees’ social posts. It should include relevant regulations, your content approval process, rules for AI-generated content, and more. We’ve created a complete guide on creating a social media policy.
- Acceptable use policy. Sets expectations for how fans and followers can interact with your brand. This policy helps reduce risks from public interactions on your social media accounts.
- Privacy policy. Informs internet users how you use and store their data. Many privacy laws require posting a privacy policy on your website. Make sure to address how you store data from social media users specifically.
- Influencer compliance policy. Outlines disclosure and copywriting guidelines for influencers that work with your brand.
Remember: a good policy doesn’t just sit in a Google Drive folder. It’s clear, accessible, regularly updated, and supported by training. The easier it is for employees to understand and follow, the lower your compliance risk will be.
How do large organizations stay compliant on social media?
Enterprise organizations stay compliant by baking compliance into every step of the social media workflow.
Here’s what that usually looks like in practice:
1. Centralizing governance
Most enterprises have a dedicated social governance team that owns the big stuff: policies, approval rules, workflows, and monitoring. They’re the group making sure every team is playing by the same rulebook.
2. Using tiered permissions
Not everyone needs (or should have) full access. Role-based permissions keep things clean by controlling who can draft, edit, approve, publish, respond, or dig into analytics.
Platforms like Hootsuite make this easier by letting you assign custom access levels to every team member and set up simple, built-in approval flows. That way, the right people review content before it goes live, reducing risk and keeping everything on brand.
3. Standardizing workflows
From content creation to legal approvals, everything should follow a documented, repeatable process. That consistency ensures nothing slips through without the right eyes on it.
4. Training (and then retraining) everyone
New hires, agencies, contractors — anyone touching social needs to understand the rules before they log in.
5. Using enterprise-grade tools
This is where technology does the heavy lifting. Platforms like Hootsuite help automate approvals, flag compliance risks, archive content, and enforce all those governance rules behind the scenes.
How does social media compliance work in regulated industries?
In regulated industries, social media compliance means following industry-specific laws that tightly control what you can say, how you say it, and how you store or review your communications.
These rules go well beyond basic platform policies. They often cover advertising claims, data privacy, and recordkeeping.
Here’s how compliance works in a few major regulated sectors:
Social media compliance for financial institutions
Financial services firms face an extensive list of compliance requirements for social media.
For example, take the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It provides different compliance requirements for static and interactive content.
Static content is considered an ad and must go through pre-approval for compliance. Interactive content, though, goes through post-review. You must archive both types of social posts for at least three years.
What exactly is a static versus an interactive post? That’s a question each firm will have to answer depending on its risk tolerance. Your compliance strategy should involve input from the highest levels of the organization.
The U.S Security Exchange Commission (SEC) also monitors social media for misleading statements and compliance violations. This now extends to AI-generated or AI-assisted content, which regulators treat the same as any other communication.
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) covers financial institutions. They recently teamed up with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to create an infographic. It helps guide influencers considering promoting financial products on social media.
Source: FCA
In Australia, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) regulates financial institutions. They provide specific directions for financial influencers and firms that work with them.
Learn more about how to use social media for financial services.
Social media compliance for healthcare institutions
All healthcare social media marketers should get familiar with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Even if you’re outside the U.S., HIPAA’s general principles provide good guidance.
The bottom line? Healthcare providers can’t share any protected health information (PHI) on social media.
Source: CDC
PPHI can include the following:
- standard identifiers like name, address, birth date, and SSN;
- a patient’s health history and treatment plan;
- payments for care provided; and
- photos in which a patient’s name, face, or other identifying details are visible.
Some common HIPAA violations include:
- Posting patient testimonials or case studies without explicit written authorization
- Sharing workplace photos with patients’ faces or identifying features in the background
- Using names when replying to patients’ reviews or comments
- Uploading patient emails to create custom audiences on ad-targeting platforms
- Communicating with patients via non-HIPAA-compliant channels
- Sending appointment reminders that include PHI
Penalties are real and enforceable. In the worst cases, organizations face fines in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, plus long-term reputational damage… For example, the maximum penalty for a HIPAA violation is up to $1.5 million per year.
While this may sound a little scary, we’ve got you covered. To avoid accidentally sharing sensitive information on social media, check out our complete guide to HIPAA and social media compliance.
Social media compliance for government institutions
Government institutions must manage several compliance considerations. Important factors to consider are:
- Content. What is acceptable and what is not acceptable
- Citizen engagement. How to interact with citizens, including dealing with harassment and negative interactions online
- Representation. How to identify a profile as an official government or political account
- Disclaimers. Any disclaimers that should be added to profiles or messages and when
In addition, for public-sector organizations, archiving isn’t optional, it’s legally required. Laws like FOIA and the Federal Records Act mandate that government agencies preserve all social-media communication.
Social media compliance policy examples
Here are five examples of actual social media compliance policies from businesses.
Social media policy: University of Washington Medicine
UUW Medicine’s compliance department oversees patient privacy and information security, so, it’s no surprise that they have a robust social media policy. It applies to faculty, staff, students, and anyone else professionally involved with the department.
The policy includes guidance on topics like:
- intellectual property use
- the use of social media during work hours and on workplace equipment
- disclosures, and
- social media connections with patients and students.
The section on patient privacy is particularly useful because it’s simple, clear, and direct.
Source: UW Medicine
Acceptable use policy: Indiva
Indiva, a Canadian cannabis edibles producer, operates in a tightly regulated space. That means their acceptable use policy for social media is particularly important. It outlines the company’s social media content moderation policies. Specifically, non-compliant comments will be removed.
Source: Indiva
Privacy policy: Lilium
Lilium, a producer of electric jets, provides detailed information about the use of personal social media data. Since the company is based in Germany, the policy is designed to comply with GDPR.
The policy is very specific. It includes instructions for how to manage data preferences on the various social platforms.
Source: Lilium
Influencer compliance policy: FitBit
FitBit‘s policy outlines the basics of the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines for influencers. For instance, the policy says influencers must “disclose [their] relationship to FitBit.” They also need to “speak truthfully using substantiated claims.”
The policy notes that the company must pre-approve statements discussing health benefits.
AI policy: the University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin’s generative AI policy is a great example of how to set clear, practical guardrails around these new tools. It breaks down exactly how students, faculty, and staff should (and shouldn’t) use AI.
A few of the key points:
- Stick to university-approved AI tools
- Never plug in confidential details (e.g., student records, health info, or internal documents)
- Don’t rely on AI to create high-stakes content, like legal analysis, grading materials, or hiring decisions
It’s a simple, straightforward policy that keeps people safe without slowing them down
How to ensure social media compliance with Hootsuite
Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media management tool that helps marketers stay compliant and streamline their social workflows.
First, Hootsuite allows you to create custom permissions for all users. You can require approvals from senior staff or compliance officers before content can be scheduled or published.
Assigning the appropriate permissions levels allows you to build a compliance-oriented approval workflow. This ensures that your social content meets review and approval compliance requirements. At the same time, it prevents bottlenecks in the creative process.
Second, Hootsuite’s content library provides a home for pre-approved compliance content. Hootsuite Amplify extends your approved content library to your entire network. That may include employees, advisors, associates, and agency partners.
Hootsuite’s Proofpoint integration adds an extra layer of security to your social media compliance.
When added to Hootsuite, Proofpoint flags common compliance violations in real time. It won’t allow you to schedule content with compliance issues. Proofpoint will even tell you why content is non-compliant. It’s like having a compliance officer supervising your Hootsuite dashboard.
Read more about how to use Proofpoint and Hootsuite to keep your social media posts compliant.
FAQ: Social media compliance
What policies are required for social media compliance in regulated industries?
Regulated industries need clear, documented policies that outline how employees can create, publish, monitor, and manage social content within legal and industry-specific rules.
This usually includes a social media policy, an acceptable use policy, a privacy policy, and an influencer/endorsement policy. Many organizations also add an AI usage policy and industry-specific guidelines (like HIPAA, FINRA, SEC, or FCA requirements).
How do social media management platforms support compliance?
Enterprise tools like Hootsuite offer role-based access, built-in approvals, content archiving, and integrations with compliance solutions. This gives organizations consistent controls across teams, regions, and accounts (something native social tools can’t do on their own).
How do enterprises monitor and enforce compliance in real time?
Enterprises monitor compliance in real time by using tools that flag risky content and alert the right people to review it.
For example, AI can catch things like missing disclosures, unapproved claims, or sensitive information the moment they appear. Compliance teams can then use dashboards to keep an eye on all accounts and step in quickly when something needs to be removed or approved.
Regular audits and ongoing training round everything out so teams stay ahead of issues, not just react to them.
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