Liability for Advice on Social Networks
Social networks are also business networks, and many, like LinkedIn have Q&A areas, where individuals can gain recognition as experts, or at least smart people, in their field by answering questions. But what if the answer is wrong?
The general rule is if the recipient of the answer hasn't engage, that is, paid the expert, no harm, no foul. However, even if the recipient of the bad advice might not win a law suit, even having a claim made can be expensive in both time and money to address.
There are some easy ways to avoid problems, most of which are just common sense. Don't state opinion as fact. Words such as "in my opinion" actually help. Append a disclaimer to your signature. Answer in general terms not referring to the specifics of the questioners' problem. Remember, if the goal is to position yourself as an expert who people will contact AND PAY, just giving away advice isn't as important as displaying your expertise in general.
And for companies, a personnel policy or written guidelines explaining how to use business networking Q&A sites as marketing tools would be most helpful.
