Courting Bloggers to Tout Your Products? Get Ready for More Content Marketing Disclosures

FTC is updating its policies and YOU / WE need to know the outcome in order to stay in compliance.  Now that everyone is on the Internet with websites and blogs, the rules of what and how published, endorsed or not, advertised or not, testimonial or not are needs-to-know for all.  Small business need-to-know and news-to-watch

Excerpt: If you’re doing content marketing and reaching out to bloggers and other social-media “influencers,” get ready for more disclosure rules now in the offing.

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is seeking comment on its updated Social Media Marketing Disclosure Guide before forwarding a final version to the Federal Trade Commission. The guide is meant to help businesses and bloggers comply with the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

The update, still in draft form, suggests marketers establish an in-house media policy so everyone — advocates, agencies, partners, networks and vendors — knows what the required disclosures entail in order to prevent false or misleading claims.

What’s more, bloggers and other influencers — would need to make sure their relationship with a marketer is publicly disclosed when making statements, reviews or endorsements about that marketer’s product or service.

The proposed policy also recommends prominent placement of disclosures where consumers can readily access the content — not buried deep in the content in a tiny point size — and must be clearly stated.

Read full article here and submit comments via Courting Bloggers to Tout Your Products? Get Ready for More Content Marketing Disclosures | Entrepreneur.com.