The Federal Trade Commission plans to begin regulating blogs and social media. While they’re getting tougher on results-based advertising, they are also looking at going after blogs and social media users who portray products they’re promoting in a less than accurate light. AdAge explains:
As part of its review of its advertising guidelines, the FTC is proposing that word-of-mouth marketers and bloggers, as well as people on social-media sites such as Facebook, be held liable for any false statements they make about a product they’re promoting, along with the product’s marketer. This could present a significant issue for marketers, including the likes of Microsoft, Ford and Pepsi, who spend billions on word-of-mouth and social media. PQ Media projects that marketers will spend $3.7 billion on word-of-mouth marketing in 2011.
And the blogosphere reacts…
Frank Reed at Marketing Pilgrim: “Regardless of what side of the political fence you are on it’s starting to get a bit scary as to just how much the government wants to be the overseer of everything.”
Les at My Radical Blogs: The next question is what will the FTC do to those bloggers that do write paid reviews? Will they prosecute and turn them into criminals? That is fine if you are based in the US. What if your based in Britain, Europe or Australia – will the law cross borders?
Peter Da Vanzo at SEOBook lays out what social media marketers need to beware of if the FTC’s plan goes into effect. For one, check claims that appear “outrageous” and make sure there are studies to back them up.
Here’s a glimpse at what Twitterers are saying:
“The commission is attempting to update guidelines that are 30 years old so that they address current marketing techniques, and in particular to address the issue of whether or not the safe harbor that’s currently allowed for ‘result not typical’-type disclaimers is still warranted,” says Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s advertising practices division (via AdAge).
There seems to be a mixture of paranoia and praise throughout the web. On the one hand, people feel that the Internet should not be regulated in this regard, but others view the whole thing as a positive way to weed out “sleazy” practices. What are your thoughts? Tell us.
