Comments on: Are You Breaking the Law with Social Media Marketing?

By: Social Media Marketing And The FTC | Business Marketing Experts

Social Media Marketing And The FTC | Business Marketing Experts — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:08:11 +0000

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By: Social Media Marketing And The FTC | Blog Tips, blogging Blog

Social Media Marketing And The FTC | Blog Tips, blogging Blog — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:08:24 +0000

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By: Social Media Marketing And The FTC | Move with Mind

Social Media Marketing And The FTC | Move with Mind — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:56:18 +0000

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By: blogmarks for 2009-05-17 | I Live In Success

blogmarks for 2009-05-17 | I Live In Success — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:18 +0000

[...] Are You Breaking the Law with Social Media Marketing? [...]

By: art

art — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:50:21 +0000

How would this affect affiliate marketing? Many successful landing pages are built around reviews of products and typically the affiliate gets paid from all products mentioned. Are they going to be required to disclose which products provide compensation? Unpaid reviews such as consumer reports would be required or is this focused only on social media?a

By: seo-blog-traffic-tips

seo-blog-traffic-tips — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:52:49 +0000

[...] can’t go around pretending you are someone you are not. Check out what the FTC is cracking down [...]

By: The FTC Takes on Social Media | Breaking News | Latest News | Current News

Sat, 16 May 2009 20:24:56 +0000

[...] can’t go around pretending you are someone you are not. Check discover what the FTC is cracking down [...]

By: The FTC Takes on Social Media | Seo Services, LLC - Indiana based search engine optimization consultant

Sat, 16 May 2009 07:11:58 +0000

[...] can’t go around pretending you are someone you are not. Check out what the FTC is cracking down [...]

By: seo-blog-traffic-tips

seo-blog-traffic-tips — Sat, 09 May 2009 13:11:51 +0000

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By: Maggie McGary

Maggie McGary — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:21:30 +0000

Yeah, my question is HOW would they enforce them? I recently blogged about an article I saw about how this applies to mommy bloggers, many of whom I guess get free products and services in exchange for blogging about them. It’s one thing to disclose that you were paid to say something, but how would the FTC ever know whether you got a discount at a certain restaurant or got some free passes to Disney or whatever. My only guess is that any guidelines related specifically to bloggers would have to be sort of “honor system” guidelines. I know if I were a blogger and knew I could potentially be breaking the law by not disclosing that I got this thing I’m blogging about for free or whatever I’d be too scared to do it. But then again, I have only gotten 2 things for free ever and I disclosed both in the posts. I don’t know how I’d feel if I were a blogger with all kinds of cool connections and discounts and nobody but me and the person giving me that stuff knew about it. I guess it will come down to personal ethics?

The thing I think might be easier for them to crack down on are sites like IZEA where gigs are spelled right out: I’ve seen companies post stuff like “you will write a post with this language in it, then in your comment section leave a comment from someone else with this link in it, then posing as different people leave comments on X number of blogs.” I mean, if that’s not easy to track I don’t know what is–there’s a direct trail from the company who “sponsored” the post to the person who accepted the assignment.

Maggie McGary’s last blog post..Is Social Media A Good Career Choice If You’re Old?

By: » Spring Creek Group :: Blog - Outreach at What Price?

» Spring Creek Group :: Blog - Outreach at What Price? — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:53:22 +0000

[...] world – as a whole, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, after reading a recent post on the subject, we here at Spring Creek Group let out a collective sigh of [...]

By: Brian Gilley

Brian Gilley — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:58:52 +0000

LOL – The FTC can’t even regulate themselves much less billions upon billions of pages on the web. Never going to happen but if they decided to take the illegal music download approach and make a few examples as a scare tactic, then I’m 100% positive that multiple other methods like Brian Chappell’s mention of proxies and a few more that I would not even get into would be utilized full-force.

FTC stands NO chance in this battle unless they want to start approving everything that gets published on the tens of thousands of social media websites. Good luck with that FTC. :-}

Brian Gilley’s last blog post..Getting Crafty – Advanced Search Operators to Find the Best Backlinks

By: Stu

Stu — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:56:45 +0000

Well I don’t get it. This is done all the time on Radio and TV…FTC seems to say nothing.

Howard Stern is on the radio saying, “I love MET-X” he never says he was paid to say that.

Oprah Winfrey promotes book. I do not believe for a minute she is not compensated to review a book.

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:39:39 +0000

Personally I think they’ve got bigger fish to fry with trust busting since the FTC has ignored that part of it’s job for the last 30 years. Still it sounds like the right idea and hopefully they stay on the right track, only time will tell but saying the right thing and actually doing the right thing rarely go hand and hand where government is concerned.

By: Aaron Ellsworth

Aaron Ellsworth — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:16:40 +0000

Jordan, thanks for the great insight. This is definintely a pervasive issue we are all facing. Rather than disect the argument, I’d like to applaud Susan Smith for her comment. Honestly, we know the FTC will do something about internet disclosure, we can’t really change that. What we need to do is figure out ways to properly disclose our relationships with brands and products in a way that benefits us and our followers, yet doesn’t detract from the honest opinion we are sharing. The quicker we can come up with robust solution(s), in my opinion, the more influence we will have on the final decisions of regulations made by the FTC. Thoughts?

By: Susan J Smith

Susan J Smith — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:16:58 +0000

The law is one thing, but think about common sense here...I'm not going to do anything to lose the trust of my readers. If I get paid on a product, yes I'm going to be open about that. So assuming that is the way to do business, what is the best way to let readers know what your doing? One blanket stmt in a widget sidebar, or with each post? Susan J Smith's last blog post..Why I’m a Fan of Facebook Fan Pages

By: New Laws for New Media | The Web Uncovered

New Laws for New Media | The Web Uncovered — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:13:31 +0000

[...] While online marketers are still determining the best practices for online marketing, the Federal Trade Commission is also figuring out some details regarding regulations governing online marketing. Blogger Jordan McCollum explores these new policies in the blog post “Are You Breaking the Law with Social Media Marketing?” [...]

By: Mr. Ilarijs

Mr. Ilarijs — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:57:30 +0000

Sometimes I like to spam

Mr. Ilarijs’s last blog post..Marokas īpašās kāpelētājkazas

By: Keeping up With a Blog Or is it am I breaking the law! | Just My Opinion On Anything | Fort Washington MD |Virtual Assistant

Thu, 07 May 2009 15:00:32 +0000

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By: JohnnyV

JohnnyV — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:11:03 +0000

This is quite a proposition that the FTC has put upon us. Looking at this from multiple angles, it definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like many rules, and regulations I agree with the spirit behind it. But the implementation is what scares me, and I have my extreme doubts about if the FTC is adequate enough to do a good job doing it. In essence, I don’t think the ends will justify the means.

When reading about this, I couldn’t help but think about the Patriot Act and how big… ‘Big Brother’ is becoming. Looking at the Patriot Act in its most simple form would be this, “Allows the government to obtain information to supercede harm against the US”. Ends up not being quite that simple though does it?

I also think that guidelines such as this further the point that there is no accountability for our common senses anymore. This is just my personal belief, but if I buy a product based solely on one review then the blame falls on me for trusting that lone person for my purchase. In the end, I think the fakers who are just doing it for the money can be weeded out. By us. That’s the joy of the internet, is that the community generally drives the success, not forceful regulation from the FTC.