Forbes in the article “Company Social Media Accounts — Who Owns Those Twitter Followers?” discuses an emerging contentious issue about the ownership of social media accounts that are directly or indirectly used by the company or its employees in carrying out their duties.
Whereas it is common knowledge that the employee that could be using a twitter account such as “Brand_Employee_Name” will at one time leave the company, there are growing examples of Uganda companies where it is publicly know that a particular employee using an account with a brand reference is a customer relations contact for the brand.
The question these companies need to address is if they have considered the implications of this employee leaving; does he keep the fans/followers or does the account bearing the employers’ brand name get terminated, and if terminated what would the cost of loosing those followers and brand fans contacts? Uganda companies should clearly address the questions of who owns a Social Media Account associated with a company brand.
