REALTORS® must properly identify their real estate business on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, according to the Illinois REALTORS® Professional Standards Toolkit Video, “Article 12 Compliance,” featuring President-elect Matt Difanis.

“REALTORS® must – in a readily apparent manner, not in the fine print – identify the full name of their firm, in all advertising, all marketing, in any medium,” says Difanis, speaking about Article 12 Compliance. “Some of the most frequent violations occur in social media context.” See the video.

Facebook tends to give users plenty of room to include the full name of the business, while Twitter can present challenges because of the 140-character limit per tweet. While the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has amended Article 12-5 to allow members to link to required information, Difanis says Illinois License Law has not changed, so those who use such a link for tweets may still be technically violating the law.