Must you archive tweets & Facebook posts?

Too many employers think of their company-sponsored Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, blogs and websites as simple online whiteboards. Splash content up there, take it down. No consequences, no responsibility to track who said what.

But courts won't be as casual with employers that fail to properly manage their e-archives.

Say an employee argues that a since-deleted photo of her on the company Facebook page is a breach of privacy. Or a customer threatens to sue over an alleged promise he saw on your company's website--but you have no record of the promise.

Think of social media posts as being email messages by other means. Courts will see it that way. In one case, a judge ruled emphatically that, "This court sees no reason to treat websites differently than other electronic files." (Arteria Prop. v. Universal Funding) By extension, more courts will view employer-sponsored Facebook posts and tweets as official documents that must be cataloged and saved.

Advice: Work with IT to draft policies and procedures on archiving social media content that is sponsored or supported by the company. Assign posting and retention roles to specific employees. Five rules to follow:

1. Include a statement of record retention on social media sites. Example: "This is the Facebook page for ABC Enterprises. Comments posted on it, and messages received through it, are archived."

2. Document who approved the creation of a social media...