JDSupra (02/22/2012) Travis Crabtree

Companies should make contractually clear who owns the social media followings developed by their employees. If ownership is not covered in a contract, then employees and companies should be logical about how they create and use the account. People tweeting as individuals, for example, should not put their company’s brand in their Twitter name. And companies that are paying people to bring in followers or connections should make them use a branded handle. Until more court cases crop up, the answer of who owns the account will be very fact specific; the most important facts will be whether the followers are there because of the brand or because of the individual.