On Friday, October 9th I made a post about the practice of disclosing affiliate partnerships and relationships on your blog. That post was the result of some observations of things on blogs and social media sites that have been bothering me, and as it turns out, the FTC – Federal Trade Commission has been studying this too.
The FTC released new guidelines last week not only serve to clarify what is acceptable behavior for bloggers in regards to partnerships, sponsors, and affiliates, but their specific references to blogs acknowledges the powerful influence bloggers are wielding in our society. The final version of the new Guidelines published October 5, 2009 will become effective as of December 1, 2009. If you are so inclined, you can find the new FTC Guidelines on endorsements and testimonials as they pertain to bloggers by clicking here. If you do, my suggestion is to skip over all of the legalize and jump to the pragmatic examples by hitting "end" on your keyboard when that PDF opens. Then start from that last page and scroll up to read the 9 examples that give you a very clear idea how the FTC expects you to behave on your blog.
Here's my translation:
1. If you are clearly advertising, such as when Tiger Woods promotes Nike's products on television, we understand you are getting paid by the sponsoring company and there is no need to disclose anything; it is implied. It doesn't matter how much money Tiger is getting paid, which we know is a bunch! It is obvious to the viewer that Nike is benefiting from Tiger's endorsement.
2. If you are blogging about a product or service that has been provided to you free of charge, or if you will otherwise receive benefits from that company, you have to make a disclosure. And here's the thing: it doesn't matter if you give a favorable or unfavorable review, you still have to make a disclosure.
Here's one of the examples from the FTC guidelines:
"A blogger tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. Because his review is disseminated via a form of consumer-generated media in which his relationship to the advertiser is not inherently obvious, readers are unlikely to know that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the value of the video game system, this fact likely would materially affect the credibility they attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge."
The comments I have read since noticing this today on chrisbrogan.com support my initially published views that you have nothing to worry about if you are indeed being authentic with your blogging and social media efforts. I suspect some of the old school Internet marketers are the ones that should take this to heart. You know who I'm talking about, the people who always seem to be selling something. They fail to understand Web 2.0 is not about building lists – rather, it's about building community.
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