Mozilla recently announced their new version of Firefox (Firefox 4) will include an anti-tracking or a ‘Do Not Track’ function allowing users to be in more control of what data is shown to them through Internet browsers.

Because of the recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) endorsement addressing advertisers to limit the amount and use of behavioral Web tracking, the FTC countered their declaration by reaching out to the Web developers asking them to include anti-tracking functions into their new software. Continue Reading »

It might be too early in the year to write this post, but Patti Knight and I had a conversation yesterday about the future of brick and mortar offices and it got me thinking about trends for next year, let alone 10 years from now. So following are what I think are going to be the communication and marketing trends for 2011.

1. Content, content, content. Did I mention content? A lot of people will disagree with me – some think content is dead. I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface. All companies should become media companies, in that the content they provide is valuable, consistent, and non-salesy. This will be big for B2B companies while they figure out how to use, what they’ve always considered, intellectual property to attract new customers. Examples include white papers, enewsletters, podcasts, and videos. Continue Reading »

This won’t come as news to most of you: Last week the FTC released its new disclosure guidelines for bloggers. I don’t have a vested interest in this as I don’t make money from blogging. And I do believe there should be disclosure and honesty for anyone who writes a review for a product, including affiliate marketers, paid tweeters, and bloggers. This isn’t news to you, either as I’ve blogged about this before.

But what is of interest is what other non-paid bloggers are saying about the guidelines.

Paul Holmes, last week, wrote that bloggers are now held to a higher standard than traditional journalists. Then Davina Brewer wrote that she agrees disclosure is key and this is a no brainer for bloggers (plus it’s worth the read just to see how she uses “glitter-farting ponies).

Which I agree with.

But, to Paul’s point, why are journalists held to a different standard? As PR pros, we send products to reporters ALL THE TIME for review. They don’t have to disclose whether or not they received the product free-of-charge, nor if they kept it for personal use. Some media outlets do have no soliticitation rules in that they either can’t accept products or that they donate them to charities. But some outlets don’t have those rules.

Think about all of the DJ drops you’ve done in your careers. Think about all of the elaborate media kits you’ve produced. Think about how many green rooms you’ve sat in while you waited to hand off your client’s next best thing. How many times has the reporter said, “This review was made possible by the free-of-charge drop from XYZ client’s PR firm”?

Sure, a few years ago we had to stop doing video news releases without attribution to the client and most advertorials now say PAID ADVERTISING across the top of them. But there are some bloggers who are MUCH MORE influential than some journalists, yet the guidelines are different?

Shouldn’t journalists be held to the same FTC guidelines as bloggers?

I clearly created quite a firestorm earlier this week when I blogged that I don’t think people should be paid to tweet about a brand. While I think a good number of commenters agreed with me, I think what caused the true firestorm is that I used the recent Land Rover campaign as my example.

After keeping an open mind and reading all of the comments about the post (see it here), I still don’t think people should be PAID to tweet or blog about brands…and now the FTC agrees.

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal described the Internet as “becoming so rife with paid blogging that the Federal Trade Commission, which guards against false advertisements, is examining whether it should police bloggers. As it updates nearly 30-year-old advertising guidelines, the FTC is proposing that bloggers, and online marketers and companies that compensate them, be held liable for misleading claims.”

The article is fair and balanced – talking to bloggers both who are paid and those who are not, but also to those that are paid who do and don’t disclose they’re paid.

What bothers me is those that disclose they are paid, but then don’t write anything negative or critical about the products they do review: “In a disclosure at the bottom of her Web page, Ms. Smith notifies readers that she accepts compensation for blog posts, but says, “We always give our honest opinions.” Still, in an interview, Ms. Smith said she never writes anything negative about products she is asked to review because, “I choose not to be critical.”

This is akin to the beginning of my career when a magazine would give you an advertorial if you bought ad space. The advertorial was great for companies because it was viewed as editorial written by the staff at the publication. But very quickly you began seeing PAID ADVERTORIAL at the top of the pieces because the FTC didn’t want the public confused.

Same idea, different decade.  Things are changing rapidly and we have to know what is ethical, what is not ethical, and what dips over the line.  Let’s not spin; rather be ethical about what it is that we’re doing. It only helps in the longrun.