Your Social Media Marketing tactics may be in violation of Advertising Standards designed to protect consumers from unwanted solicitation, deceptive ad practices, and inappropriate content. With the growth of Mobile and Social Web, we are seeing a shift in the way Advertising Standards are viewing branded content. Is your strategy and Social Media Marketing policy adapting as well? Here’s what you need to know before it’s too late.
What is branded content? Branded content is any content around the Web that is posted by or leads to your brand. For now, I’d just like to focus on social content. Hashtags, Pins, @Mentions, +Mentions and the like are becoming common ways to reach consumers in the digital age. Unfortunately, somewhere in the shuffle, these new marketing techniques started to become viewed as unwanted solicitation and deceptive ad practices. Why? Because some brands have abused this new method of marketing and although they didn't all out ruin it, they did stir the pot and cause negative attention.
What were they thinking? Brand outreach via social media is simple, it’s accessible and it’s Internet ‘content’ so it’s not regulated…right? Wrong. Reaching out to consumers who are publicly discussing brands, products, and services is no different than the cold calling or spam emailing tactics of the past. Done correctly, it’s a very powerful advertising medium, but going full speed ahead without proper planning can have you dead in the water pretty quick. The digital shift is leading to new Advertising Standards that brands must adhere to in order to minimize risk.
How do brands avoid a future of social media exile? Proceed with extreme caution. Add disclaimers, support claims, be transparent and consistently educate yourself along with anyone acting as your brand voice. Your social media posts, blog posts, and any other online interactions initiated by you or consumers can be considered advertising and as such needs to adhere to all rules and regulations.
Are Fortune 500 companies exempt? Absolutely not. You probably heard about Nike’s #makeitcount promotion being banned by ASA due to the tweets of two football players. Nike’s defense was that said tweets were “obviously identifiable advertising”, but the ASA disagreed. If your brand is transparent, you are much less likely to be accused of deceptive ad practices.
How can you be sure you’re transparent enough? In the words of the FTC, to be transparent, you must label the link, don’t be subtle, don’t be coy, & make it obvious. Adding hashtags to your marketing such as #AD and #SPON may suffice for now, but having a contingency plan will ensure you protect your assets from a deceptive ad practices lawsuit as the FTC is actively pursuing revisions to the original “Dot Com Disclosures” published in 2000.
How can I ensure compliance? Disclose, educate and make it obvious that your content is advertising. CMP.LY offers full disclosure landing pages for promotions, paid spokespersons, affiliate links, rules terms and many more. If you don’t have room in your budget for their service, revisit your internet marketing strategy and consider building in disclosure landing pages with custom URLs to ensure all of your Web-based marketing is transparent and compliant. This is especially important throughout Social Media. Nike’s example is just the beginning of an Advertising Standard shift that will affect businesses both small and large.
What sparked this post? I inadvertently ‘hijacked’ a Twitter chat by mentioning another Twitter chat in a post. Both chats were industry specific and owned by separate entities. They weren’t in competition, but promoting anything in one of them was strictly prohibited unless the other chat was a sponsor. Honest mistake? Yes. Learning experience? Definitely.
What is Hijacking? Hijacking is becoming more common throughout Twitter chats. While your intentions may not have been to upset the balance, an inadvertent violation in your content could prove damaging to your online reputation and in some cases wind up with you having to defend yourself in court. Before jumping into any Social Media Marketing venture, be sure to review both Advertising Standards AND chat rules.
Are all chat rules the same? Some chat rules may be more rigid than others and you will be doing your company or your client a great injustice by assuming there is a standard. Don’t get shut out, suspended or sued simply because you didn't do your due diligence and research chat specific policies prior to jumping into the conversation. I've seen chats that encourage promotion during specified times prior to the chat and, now, chats that completely forbid any type of promotion from all but sponsors.
Are you guilty? I was called to the table simply because I didn't fully read the rules of a Twitter chat, but what I discovered didn't just stop there. I and many of my colleagues are guilty of not fully disclosing “advertisements” in pin descriptions, Twitter interactions, Facebook posts and more. Hours of re-strategizing followed and I’m confident that all of the posts I create from now on will be compliant. Hopefully yours will as well.
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