Emily Traub

Summer II Internship
Dr. Mirrer
May 31, 2016 August 17, 2016

During my internship at Fitness and Wellness Professional Services, I learned a lot of

information in regards to marketing on social media. With so many different social media
platforms, it is hard to imagine that they could all be so different from one another. While my
internship was focused on the social media element, I was also able to learn more about
marketing in general. It was interesting to see the different audiences that were reached based on
which social media platform we looked at. By using so many different platforms, we were able
to achieve a larger range of audiences. This meant having to learn all the different demographics
that we were reaching out to by using all these different social media platforms.
The Fitness and Wellness Professional Services Centers are partnered with hospitals,
which makes it more than just a regular gym. They run a number or programs that are based
around people who have certain ailments. When marketing these programs, we have to be aware
of how we word the advertisements and the use of indirect vs. direct wording. Due to the fact
that these programs revolve around an individuals personal health information, an advertisement

cannot come out and speak to a person directly. Marketing has to use indirect language, such as,
Do you know someone who suffers from diabetes?. This allows for an individual who may
have this medical condition to connect the lines from Do you know someone to I have that,
without the advertisement singling out an individual.
This type of advertising could also possibly be seen as a violation of the HIPAA Mega
Rule. Within this rule, there has been changes made in the past few years, Some of the biggest
changes include the elimination of the harm threshold provision from the breach of notification
rule and holding third-party subcontractors who use and disclose PHI accountable to HIPAA
rules and penalties (HCPRO Website). This would mean that if the Fitness and Wellness
Professional Services were somehow able to obtain PHI (private health information) about an
individual, without consent, and used it to send targeted advertisements based on that
information, we would be in violation of the HIPAA Mega Rule and would be subjected to
penalties.
One issue that I was made aware of was that people can sometimes confuse our social
media pages with the social media pages of the hospitals we are partnered with. On Facebook,
individuals are able to rate their experiences at our centers using stars. There was an instance
where an individual had had a bad experience at the hospital one of our centers were partnered
with and posted it onto the centers Facebook page. This one-star review lowered our rating on
Facebook, so we made steps to correct the confusion. We contacted the individual through
Facebook and politely made the person aware of the fact that this was not the Facebook page of
the hospital but the Fitness and Wellness center associated with it. We did this because her rating

effected our overall rating on Facebook, and this individual was the only one who could delete
her post. It was important to be as understanding as possible because this individual had a bad
experience, but at the same time it was not associated with the Fitness and Wellness center, but
with the hospital.
The Fitness and Wellness Center that is up in Hackensack is sponsored by the NFL team
the New York Giants. This can become very tricky when it comes to different marketing
strategies we could utilize. Everything that we send out in regards to that center has to be
approved by the Giants. One example is that if there is ever a football in an advertisement it must
be an NFL football, it cannot be a high school football. This is something that the marketing
department has to be very detail oriented when it comes to advertisements that involve the
Hackensack center. There are specific guidelines that the people working in marketing must
know and apply those things to advertisements.
There is also outside branding that those who work at the center must be aware of. The
New York Giants have sponsorships with different athletic companies, therefore the employees
who work at the Hackensack center have to be conscious that they are not wearing other athletic
items from other vendors.
Our marketing department must have approval of advertisements from the marketing
department of the New York Giants. The agreement that we have with the New York Giants
stipulates how we can and cannot use their name. Another aspect involves some of the actual
players from the Giants themselves. At times there will be events held where a member from the
team may appear. In our advertisements of these events, we cannot guarantee the appearance of

these players. It must be worded in a way that does not promise that this player will be at the
event, usually using scheduled to appear.
One of the most interesting things is that the Hackensack Fitness and Wellness Center
Powered by the Giants is the first time in about 90 years that the Giants have had their name on a
building.
When taking pictures, you have to be very aware of body positions and making sure you
do not get people at odd angles. Some individuals may not be totally comfortable with the idea
that they will be on social media, so it is a responsibility to that person to make them look as
well as possible.
Some of the photos the marketing team my get to advertise certain classes or exercise
machines, may not have been taken thinking about a variety of aspects. Speaking from a fitness
point of view, you want the people in advertisements to appear happy and exercising. Even if it
is a calming exercise, such as yoga, you do not want a picture of a person just lying on the floor
on a yoga mat. That type of advertisement does not inspire a person to join a center and start
their fitness journey.
One of the aspects that we needed to be aware of was ensuring we were not using photos
that could be suggestive. Within the fitness world this can sometimes pose a challenge due to
many different aspects of a workout. Clothing is an important thing to be aware of due to the fact
that workout clothes can sometimes be revealing without meaning to be. Another tidbit I was
told was that you want to avoid taking pictures from behind people, as this is an angle that could
be suggestive.

When taking these photos of individuals, I would have publicity consent forms that I
would have the people sign in order to have proof that they knew I was taking photos and they
would be used online. These consent forms also allow the Fitness and Wellness Professional
Services to have a record that this individual gave their consent to allow us to use their photo and
protects our business against potential legal action.
Another aspect that factors in is that due to the fact that we have social media accounts
for all of our centers, individuals are able to tag us in their posts online. Getting notifications that
an individual has tagged us on social media, depending on the photo, we can reach out to that
person and ask if they would allow us to use their photo on our accounts. We are not allowed to
just repost a picture without the consent of the individual. If we are unable to get that person in
to a center to sign a consent form, we can use email as a source of consent. This shows that we
did have contact with the individual and they consented to us to use their photo directly on our
own social media accounts.
In the centers there is music playing in the majority of different areas within the fitness
centers. When posting on social media platforms a business must be aware of copyrights on
music. The majority of the time, if we are filming something where this is music playing from
overhead speakers, that falls under the Fair Use Act. In its most general sense, a fair use is any
copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and transformative purpose, such as to
comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without
permission from the copyright owner (Stim). What is not protected is if we took a clip of

copyrighted music and put it as a soundtrack to the video clip. That is classified as breaking the
laws of using copyrighted material.
Most of our posts to social media ranged between six seconds and one minute in video
time. There are two factors that protect the company under the Fair Use Act. One, we are using a
limited section of copyrighted material in our posts. Two, the copyrighted material is not used so
that it overlays the video material, it is essentially a background noise and not the focus of our
posts. The aim of these posts are to show individuals exercising in our centers, it is not focused
on music from overhead speakers playing in the background.
There is one social media site that Fitness and Wellness Professional Services does not
use, and that site is Pinterest. Over the past several years, Pinterest has come under scrutiny due
to copyright issues. In its essence, Pinterest allows its users to create virtual bulletin boards by
pinning content from across the web, including photos and recipes (Eder). As with all social
media sites, part of the issue can be with the users themselves in addition to the policy of the site.
Pinterest encourages users to pin content from across the web that they find enjoyable.
The everyday internet user would not be aware that this action can actually be illegal and violate
copyright law. All you need to do is make sure that what you pinning is used legally. And the
good news is that a large percentage of the stuff on the web is safe to pin (Bacon).
For some businesses and other professionals, they do not want their content to be used
without their express permission. Basically, the controversy boils down to whether or not
pinning an image on Pinterest is a copyright infringement (Bacon).

Since this controversy started, Pinterest has given business the option of encoding their
websites with a nopin code, this code blocks images from being pinned onto Pinterest. This is
just one of the many actions that Pinterest has taken to help businesses that do not want their
content being used anywhere beyond their own website.
A large event that occurred during my internship, was the 2016 Olympic Summer Games
in Rio. During this time, I was made aware of several rules that had been put into place by the
International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee that bans nonsponsored businesses from posting Olympic trademarks on their social media sites. Most
businesses would agree it makes sense to not use Olympic logos and that sponsors that have paid
a lot of money should be protected. But there is a significant difference between protecting a
logo and telling businesses they cannot mention the word Olympics or wish a favorite athlete
good luck on Facebook (Roggio).
In an effort to make sponsoring the Olympic Games more valuable, the IOC and the
USOC have trademarked a large amount of words and phrases that refer to the Olympic Games.
At one point when the Olympics first started, the Marketing Department was sent photos of a
group fitness class with caption ideas from the teacher. One of these proposed captions ended
with Go Team USA. This is one of the many phrases that had been trademarked by the IOC and
USOC, so as a business, we could not use that in a post to social media.
It is an interesting idea to contend with because the Olympic Games always seemed so
large that no single group of individuals could have so much power over them. The Olympics
are an international spectator event. Millions, if not billions, of people worldwide will follow the

competition. There is a real sense in which everyone in the world has a bit of ownership
(Roggio). While it is understandable that the IOC and USOC want to make these sponsorships
more valuable, it has taken the consequences to a higher level than before if a group wanted to
use social media to support their country.
There are some aspects of these new rules that make sense from a standpoint of
businesses and brands using the Olympic Games as a way to draw in more income to their
business. Unless that business is a sponsor of the Olympics, they face being sued by the IOC and
USOC due to these new rules. While individuals, news media and official sponsors are
generally free to post about the games and athletes during the Olympics, other businesses and
brands are essentially locked out from anything close to a direct discussion (Birkner).
My internship allowed me to get a more in depth look into social media and how
businesses can utilize these platforms to advertise and market themselves. There were a lot of
times when it would seem easy to just have to post a picture onto a social media site, but in
reality, it often takes much longer than previously thought. It was interesting to learn that social
media involves a lot more marketing skills than I originally thought it would. You have to be
aware of limitations and different laws when you post content.

Bibliography
Roggio, A. Olympic Committees Seek to Restrict Content Marketing, Social Media. Retrieved
August 15, 2016, from http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/125812-OlympicCommittees-Seek-to-Restrict-Content-Marketing-Social-Media
Birkner, C. Here Are the Many, Many Ways Your Business Can Get in Trouble for Tweeting the
Olympics. Retrieved August 14, 2016, from http://www.adweek.com/news/advertisingbranding/here-are-many-many-ways-your-business-can-get-trouble-tweeting-olympics172699
HIPAA mega rule breakdown. Retrieved August 14, 2016, from http://www.hcpro.com/HOM288637-6962/HIPAA-mega-rule-breakdown.html
Stim, R. (2013). What Is Fair Use? Retrieved August 15, 2016, from
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/
West, A. What You Should Know About Pinterest and Copyright. Retrieved August 27, 2016,
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Bacon, C. Pinterest and Copyright: How to Use Pinterest Legally. Retrieved August 14, 2016,
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Eder, S. How to Use Pinterest without Breaking the Law. Retrieved August 15, 2016, from
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