By Gini Dietrich
Allow me to set the stage.
You work for a company with lots of employees. Your company participates in social media and you often share the work your organization does on your personal social networks.
No harm, no foul, right?
One day, a colleague sends a company-wide email encouraging everyone in the organization to share the latest product, widget, client campaign, or even hashtag contest. You share on your personal networks and, two days later, your boss calls you into a meeting.
You didn’t disclose your relationship with the company when you shared that information. But everyone knows you work for the company. It says so in your bio. What’s the big deal?
It IS a big deal to the FTC and you could cost your company a lot of money without disclosing your relationship.
The FTC Guidelines Are Clear
This is exactly what happened at Deutsch L.A. when, in 2012, an assistant account executive sent a company-wide email encouraging employees to share positive statements about the PlayStation Vita with the hashtag #GameChanger.
Many obliged the request on their personal social networks, but didn’t disclose PlayStation was a client.
This violates the stance the FTC has about brands that have full disclosure on marketing materials no matter where it is shared.
They ended up settling the case because they didn’t want to sit through months—or even years—of lawsuits (and who can blame them?), but it definitely raises questions about guilt versus innocence.
There is a lot of conversation about whether the agency deserved it. After all, we all get excited about the work we’re doing and want to share it with our friends and family.
But the FTC guidelines are very clear: In any advertising medium (and they consider social media advertising), you must disclose your relationship with (c), #client, #sponsored, or similar identifier.
Once you are paid by an organization, according the FTC, you now have a conflict of interest. Even if you were a fan of the company, product, widget, or service before you were working with them, you still have to disclose during the tenure of your work together.
Stay Up-to-Date on the FTC Changes
It’s a scary place—the social networks. I often panic about someone on my team doing something completely innocent that would get us in trouble.
But it’s my job, as the leader, to be sure my team is educated on the constant changes and ebb and flow of the guidelines.
Following are the things you can do:
- Social media policy. Our social media policy is pretty simple: Don’t swear online, live the Golden Rule, and always disclose your relationship when sharing client information.
- Share articles. When I read an AdWeek article about the Deutsch case, I shared it immediately in our Facebook group and asked everyone to read it.
- Write blog posts. I often write blog posts about topics I need my team to be familiar with…and that will also help all of you (case in point, this very piece).
- Discuss in staff meetings. We have a standing section on our staff meeting agenda for social media. This is where we discuss the latest and greatest.
- Send company-wide emails. Once a quarter, it’s not a bad idea to send a company-wide email that reminds everyone about your social media policy and the big dos and don’ts.
If, as the leader, you do one or all of these things and can prove a history of educating your employees, it’s unlikely you will be responsible if they still don’t disclose.
If, as an employee, you don’t heed the advice of your organization’s policies, you could be responsible when the FTC comes knocking.
Mary Engle, director of the division of advertising practices at the FTC told The Wall Street Journal that, “while this was the FTC’s first case regarding Twitter and misleading behavior, it’s unlikely to be our last.”
Always err on the side of caution and disclose. Always.
photo credit: Shutterstock
The times, they are a’changing. And social media has been a *huge* catalyst for said change. Transparency is important these days, and it’s far, far more difficult to “get away with” a so called lapse in judgement. Big Brother is no longer a singular – but millions of eyeballs on you at all times. Exciting, and scary. Love being a part of this cultural evolution.
Thanks for this! I always considered it to be an agency-client issue, but I just went down a rabbit hole of paranoia about my behavior of posting about my company’s offerings. I don’t *think* I’m exposing us to risk, because I usually try to say something about how I love working at my joint. I found the following suggestion about my situation on the FTC’s site:
My Facebook page identifies the company I work for. Should I include an additional disclosure when I talk about how great our products are?
It’s a good idea. People reading that discussion on your Facebook page might not know who you work for and what products the company makes. And many businesses are so diversified that readers might not realize the products you’re talking about are sold by your company.
source: http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus71-ftcs-revised-endorsement-guideswhat-people-are-asking
OMG! I can’t believe you blogged about this topic today. Freaky I was thinking about how I was going to update an older guest post on my blog while I was in the shower – TMI, I know. 😉
One of my pet peeves is PR people/agencies that don’t disclose their material relationships in their social media posts. In Canada, we don’t have an official stance yet there are competition laws being tested with regard to fake online reviews, and many of us consider the FTC position to be best practice. I’ve had this discussion several times with a digital marketing friend. His PR colleague at work hired a PR agency that constantly talks about their organization yet never discloses the client relationship, nor do they ask influencers to do so.
Leadership by example must come from the top and this is a good reminder for all of us to have regular communications with our team(s).
I wonder whether this will convince smaller agencies to change their mindset on this stuff. I think there’s a widespread belief that “it’s OK, we’re small potatoes, who’d want to mess with us on this stuff?”
Eleanor Pierce During a speaking engagement I gave a few months ago, someone in the audience asked this very question. I said you should always err on the side of caution. He said, “But can’t I just weigh the risk/reward? I feel like I’m small enough I wouldn’t get caught.” I suppose you could, but that’s not something I’d ever recommend.
EdenSpodek Great minds! I also do some great thinking in the shower.
belllindsay I think you need to back away from the computer and head back into your cave.
ginidietrich Can you put me on paid leave for this?
Another problem that small agencies have (or think they have_ is that they are afraid to tell who their clients are for fear they’ll get scrapped. I think I’d rather run the risk of losing a client than my business, but maybe that’s just me…
ginidietrich One of the things that’s really frustrating about that attitude is that younger people who come up in these smaller agencies often don’t realize that the senior people they work for are making that judgement. They don’t realize what they’re doing is against the rules, because of course the people who know aren’t going to go tell their junior staff, “This is illegal, we probably just won’t get caught.”
bryanjones That is great info. katherinemccoy
I hate narcs. But I hate paid tweeters, bloggers, who don’t disclose relationships even more so I narc on them when I see it. Just the other day I caught bdorman264 talk up the benefits of joining the mafia without disclosing his own involvement in the mafia. I immediately called him out with the hashtag #BustedFTC and a screen shot of course. Everyone should be doing this.
I wish they would crack down harder. Especially on celebs who don’t disclose brand relationships.
Always sounds so… permanent.
belllindsay Can you make sure the world doesn’t end while you’re in there?
ginidietrich YES!!! LOL
KateNolan You will do it and you will like it!
belllindsay Deal!
ginidietrich WOOHOO! Now to find a cave in Mexico!
ginidietrich KateNolan I don’t wanna!
These guidelines have been in place for more than 2 years, yet people who should know better either don’t actually know better (bad) or are ignoring the rules (worse). It’s not just agencies, but influencers as well, though it is my understanding the companies/agencies are responsible, so had better be giving proper training guidelines, even if the influencers (some of whom are marketing/SM professionals – see my “should know better” comment above) ignore the guidelines.
Every Tweet, every Instagram pic, every Facebook update- needs to have that disclosure in some form.
Until the FTC actually goes out on a bigger scale and starts punishing people as well as brands, this will continue. As dough mentions, when those that should know better ignore the mandates because they know essentially nothing will happen, it’s a soundbite and nothing else.
Given I’ve seen a boatload of people I know (who are all professionals and senior pros at that) not disclose relationships, I fear it’s already a lost battle.
dough I say death penalty would be a good deterrent.
belllindsay ginidietrich The idea that Lindsay is single handedly working to prevent the end of the world from her cave in Mexico is oh so comforting…..
LauraPetrolino belllindsay ginidietrich DON’T DISTURB THE MASTER!!
It all gets so confusing at time and the FTC is rather nitpicky with bloggers, small businesses, and such, while letting so many ucky things slide. (No, I can’t think of an example, guess I just wanted to get my griping in first. Sorry.)
Anyway, so let’s say I work for Arment Dietrich. I have that information in my bio on Twitter. Then the Spin Sucks Conference comes up and I tweet, “OMG! It’s here, ya’ll! Spin Suck Conference! You can register here: http://supergroovycoollink.com :-)”
But there is no disclosure in the tweet of this “conflict of interest” or whatever. Would this be a violation?
Wow. Guess I’ve been violating the FTC’s rules for more than a few years now. But a lot of people share information about their work on their personal social media. The FTC could raise A LOT of money if they really wanted too.
However I will abide by the rules so here is my question:
I am in media relations/social media for Oregon Food Bank. I like to share the good things we are doing through my personal social media accounts. Sometimes I say “look how cool my employer is…” but other times I just post a link. How should I indicate that on social media? #ad, #oregonfoodbank, #sponsored or ?
Thanks in advance.
ginidietrich Eleanor Pierce I actually think smaller has a *greater* likelihood of getting caught. I agree with Howie that the FTC should crack down harder on celebs who aren’t disclosing, but they won’t–why? They would rather not go up against that sort of well-funded legal team, is my guess. I think they want a bunch of mid- to high-profile wins (like this one) to get the word out.
MyrnaKJ #iworkhere LOL – would apply to my question, too. 😉
And oh crud! I just realized that the affiliate links that Amazon yippity skippity easy supplies for you for FB and Twitter – all this time I haven’t been #ad ‘ing them. #lessonlearned #iknewbetter
SpinSucks ginidietrich ..excellent!
KateNolan DO IT
SpinSucks ginidietrich Thank you! May I please get more specific do’s/don’ts on this?
MyrnaKJ You’re safe with “look how cool my employer is.” I also do things like, “from our own so and so.” I am going to go back and re-read the guidelines, but the way I read them is, if your profiles say you work for an organization, you don’t have to disclose in every mention. There is some disagreement on that internally here, though, so I’m going to re-read.
LisaMarieMary Yeah, the affiliate links you definitely have to disclose. I read the guidelines as, if you work for an organization and have that in your profiles, you don’t have to disclose every mention. So the Spin Sucks conference link would be OK because it says in your bio that you write for the blog. But let’s say I hired you to help coordinate the event, but you don’t work directly with us. You’d have to disclose when you tweeted the link.
Danny Brown Based on what I’m reading, I think this is the year they’re going to buckle down on it. I don’t want them knocking on my door…and I certainly don’t want them sending a letter to any of our clients. So we will err on the side of caution.
dough And even if they say, “You must disclose” to influencers, they’re not offering any feedback on how to do that.
Howie Goldfarb bdorman264 Of all the people, Dorman knows better than not to disclose his relationship with the mafia.
KristenDaukas We had an interesting situation in that we work with a Fortune 5 company and we’re not allowed to tell anyone we work with them in writing. So this became a big conundrum. Essentially we had to say that we couldn’t share their stuff on the social networks unless we could disclose it. We eventually got the OK to do it, but it took seven months.
ginidietrich I would hope they do. This has been around since 2009 – 6 years to start doing something about it doesn’t inspire confidence, though.
SFAgentMcIntire Do you have specific questions? I can certainly try to help
ginidietrich That’s a problem, of course. Not only do influencers need best practices, but companies and agencies apparently need (and have for a few years) best practices for best practices.
ginidietrich Trying to break this down. Is this referring to users of a company’s products being paid to mention them on personal accts?
ginidietrich NO.
I was wondering what the Canadian equivalent to the FTC was. Her are the similar agencies for each country.
http://www.ftc.gov/policy/international/competition-consumer-protection-authorities-worldwide
ginidietrich EdenSpodek Hence our fresh water crises……
Digital_DRK Thanks this is handy.
SFAgentMcIntire Yes. So if you work for a company that asks you to talk about their products online, you have to disclose the relationship
stephanies Ha! I’m never very subtle.
ginidietrich Key words: “Company that asks you”, correct? My policy is to never “promote” anything on personal platforms.
SFAgentMcIntire Let’s say I send you a product to review for one of our clients. You have to disclose I have you that product for free
SFAgentMcIntire Or you’re working with a client and you tweet one of their blog posts. You have to disclose.
ginidietrich I tweet a non-business link of someone who writes a personal blog, I need to disclose they work with me professionally?
ginidietrich That’s what makes you great! 🙂
stephanies xoxo!
SFAgentMcIntire Only if they pay you. So if we were colleagues and you tweeted my recipe blog, then no.
ginidietrich Thank you for this excellent information and have a great evening!
The guidelines aren’t as simple as you say, “you must disclose your relationship with (c), #client, #sponsored, or similar identifier.” Specifics as to how the disclosure must be done and what will suffice are not overly clear and even the FTC says that they’re up for interpretation.
SFAgentMcIntire You are very welcome! I hope it was helpful.
BenBrausen Thanks for your input!
ResourceLegal Thanks for the retweet!
What’s the guidelines when it comes our our agency’s Facebook and Twitter pages re-tweeting and sharing posts and writing blogs from our respective client accounts?
Does including “some retweets are endorsements” in the profile/bio section cover all bases?
AlexBimonte We always err on the side of caution and put (c) or #client in every post. This is how Deutsch got in trouble. Their employees and the Deutsch accounts were sharing PlayStation information without disclosure. I would put it on every mention.
This topic grabbed my attention. Recently, I was asked by a marketing company to write a blog post for them with a link to one of their client’s sites. I have two questions on this. 1. If I write a generic post and hyperlink to one of their client’s pages, do I need to disclose that I received compensation? 2. If I write a more specific post like “Top 5 Tech Startups to Watch in 2015” do I need to say I received compensation? Please note, in both scenarios, the marketing company is paying me, not the company receiving the back link.
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