Pictured: Robert Williams

Following guidance from the Law Society about the use of social networking sites by business professionals, a Shropshire Solicitor has issued a New Year warning to all county businesses.

Robert Williams, head of Commercial Law at leading Oswestry law firm GHP Legal, says bosses should be cautious about adding anyone who is a client onto sites such as Facebook and should ensure they have systems and policies in place for the management of their company's social media usage.  

"There is undoubtedly an advantage in businesses being involved in networking sites," says Mr Williams, "but we would advise them to confine their involvement to those sites specifically geared towards professional use, such as LinkedIn, Biznik and Focus.

"Merging professional and personal lives is a risk that could among other things result in a breach of client confidentiality. For example, if you make friends with clients on Facebook, can you be certain that it won't affect any of your ethical obligations? Could your professional integrity be questioned if details of your private life are revealed? Could the client unwittingly post sensitive information on your page that could compromise confidentiality?

"You may think your profile is reasonably innocuous but you cannot always control the information that other people share, such as comments or photo tagging. Anything posted online is accessible in the public domain and therefore the only safe thing to do is to keep your professional life separate from your social networking activities - and put systems in place to ensure that anyone working for your company does the same."