When This DJ Posted Wedding Pics To Social Media, Mayhem Ensued

Here’s an issue every marketer should think about. It implicates photographers, videographers, and event managers.
Guests are culpable, too. What is the
protocol for the photos, tweets and
videos people post during and after
events? Is it legal? Do you need a
model release? What is ethical and
courteous to post, and who owns the
resulting materials? And who decides?
This week a friend, social media
marketer Ken Rochon (we both serve as faculty for CEO Space International, in roles that are unpaid), found himself in the epicenter of a viral storm. Passions
are flaring on both sides of the question and legal action is threatened. What happened: Rochon, owner of DJ business Absolute Entertainment was hired to
deejay a wedding. In the spectrum of
weddings, this one was impeccably
planned and executed. In Rochon’s
words, it was (in a wonderful way), an event that was “over the top.” In addition to his deejay work, Rochon is a social media marketer and founder of social media firm The Umbrella Syndicate. As he does at more than 400 events a year, he took photos. From his deejay booth and various other locations he captured the bride and groom, the guests, and everything he saw that in his
opinion would add to the outcome of the joyous event. Delighted with his deejay performance, the bride and groom tipped him an extra $300. The next morning he realized he’d taken 232 pictures. With the couple’s permission he uploaded the
photos to a Facebook album on his
Umbrella Syndicate page.
As is his standard practice, Rochon noted on the front of the album that he was not the event photographer. He acknowledged the photographer by name, praised her work, pointed viewers to her Facebook page, and shared only one of her images, the one she had already posted, as a visual to accompany his identification and acknowledgement
of her role. Each of Rochon’s social
media pics was watermarked with The Umbrella Syndicate logo. None were tagged. He identified the bride and groom by first name only and guests delightedly began the process of combing through the images, finding themselves,
tagging, making comments and sharing.
Then the mayhem began.
The event photographer jumped into the comment string by remarking, “These are not [name redacted] Photography images and need to be taken down immediately.
My contract specifically states no other company may be taking photographs.” A viral onslaught ensued. “This is in extremely bad taste.” “This is NOT how
you work with fellow professionals. Do the DJ job you were hired to do and stop stepping on the toes of your fellows.”
“You have no idea how bad this is for the industry.” “This is extremely misleading and shady.”