According to Entrepenuer.com social media ads are slated to hit $50 billion by 2019. As a small business owner, I understand the value of social media ads to the marketing of my firm. But in creating ads, business owners need to ask whether you are fully protecting and extracting the maximum value in the content you are creating.  

Let's take video ads for example.  Videos are hotter than ever right now.  And video marketing can play an enormous role in a company's success in driving new users and new subscribers to its platforms and products.  More often than not, people take for granted the impact of something as simple as a video. But videos in a well thought out marketing and branding campaign, can contribute significantly to a company's overall value. Something as simple as a video or a photo can turn into a meme and go viral.  While the goal in today's market is to share in order to create buzz and followers, by no means should a business allow others to take or misappropriate that creativity for the sake of 'Likes'.

The above statistic shows the most popular online video properties in the United States in September 2016, ranked by number of unique video viewers. During the survey period, Yahoo sites were ranked third with approximately 66.09 million unique viewers. Source: Statista

To combat misappropriation, there are simple things a business can do like obtaining a copyright registration for the generated or created content, and treating as trade secret the marketing plans and customer lists.

The bottom line: Have a strategy, both marketing and brand strategy around the opportunities and risks surrounding the creation or generation of social media content. 

If your small business could use a big business lawyer, schedule a consult.