Social media sites like Facebook & Twitter offer a platform for brands to directly connect with their consumers. While brands have begun to adopt this trend, many marketers are still wondering what really works in this space. We’ve put together a handy kit with tips and best practices to adhere to in order to get the most out of any social media campaign.
Learn how to get started, gain a following and continue to engage that following with Strobe’s Social Media Marketing Kit. This convenient download includes our Strategic Thinker’s Guide to Marketing through Social Media, our Strategic Thinker’s Guide to Achieving Promotion Objectives and tip sheets on how to run engagement campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. The advice in this packet will show you how to analyze and improve any current campaign, and is helpful whether you are a social media novice or a more advanced user.
The hot topic of the PMA Law Conference this year was social media. It was a hot topic indeed, in light of the recently published FTC Guidelines concerning the use of testimonials and endorsements in advertising and social media, as well as the new Facebook policies put in place the day before the conference. Naturally, many questions arose throughout the conference discussions. One overarching concern for marketers about this topic is “How do we protect ourselves and our clients in this ever-changing environment without inhibiting the creative use of these social media marketing tools?”
The take away is basically this: create a social media policy for your company.
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY COMPANY NEEDS A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY?
Is your company or brand leveraging social media in their marketing strategy? Has your company created a fan page on Facebook or established a company account on Twitter? Maybe your employees are tweeting about the company on their personal accounts. If so, then it’s time to consider creating a social media policy, a tool to help your employees navigate the social media jungle.
WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY?
Like any good set of terms and conditions or Official Rules, a social media policy will outline what information should or shouldn’t be posted to any social media platform in order to avoid violating the FTC Guidelines. It should apply to any employee, agency or blogger who posts information (that can be attributed to your company or product) to any social media site; including their own or the company’s blog, Facebook fan page, or Twitter account.
In short, the new FTC Guidelines cover all advertising messages including product reviews, endorsements and testimonials, hosted on blogs and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Compliance with the FTC Guidelines is all about disclosure. So, bloggers, and in some cases your employees (or agencies, or even your mom, if she likes to brag!), who make these “endorsements” must disclose the material connections they share with the Sponsor. This way, consumers are aware when the author of a review/testimonial has been paid or received free product in return. Your social media policy would outline how your employees, agents and bloggers should conduct themselves when talking about your brand and products on the web.
WHAT SHOULD A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY DO?
Provide guidance and training to those people who are involved in social media for your company.
Make a reasonable effort to monitor your company’s social media platforms including blogs.
Make sure you have reserved the right to remove false statements when identified or anything that is posted that you think could be problematic.
Train all people involved in social media for the need to be truthful. Stress the need to provide honest & truthful opinions to avoid false advertising claims.
Instruct your people to disclose the connection to your company (whether they are employees or bloggers provided with free product).
Instruct your people to respect all Intellectual Property rights.
Explain that all statements made must be verifiable.
Require sponsor approval if bloggers wish to run a contest.
Limit employee social media direct messages (may be considered email and fall within CANSPAM).
Make sure the social media policy is reviewed by marketing, HR, legal, PR departments and your advertising agency so you have everyone’s input.
WHY A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY?
While not fool-proof, a social media policy will help steer those in your company to walk the right path when it comes to sponsored messages and testimonials on social media, and having one in place may determine whether or not an action will be brought against your company, should an infraction of the FTC Guidelines occur.
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P.S. - Don’t forget to play our Merry Memory Game for your chance to win an LCD HDTV or an iPod Nano! It’s a great off the shelf solution that can be quickly customized for your holiday marketing campaign. Good luck!
We’re excited to announce the launch of “5 in 5,” our new video series in which we discuss a relevant promotion topic by asking an expert 5 questions in about 5 minutes.
In this inaugural episode, Steve & Sheri chat about User Generated Content promotions, or UGCs. They explain exactly what UGCs are and how marketers can utilize them to engage consumers.
Also, don’t forget to play our Merry Memory Game for your chance to win an LCD HDTV or an iPod Nano! It’s a great off the shelf solution that can be quickly customized for your holiday marketing campaign. Good luck!
The Federal Trade Commission announced this week that it is changing its regulations regarding sponsored testimonials online, and not surprisingly, the web has been a buzz ever since. The original FTC ruling about sponsored endorsements from 1980 is designed to protect consumers against fraudulent advertising and applies to television, radio, print and later, email. Beginning December 1, 2009, the scope of this regulation will be expanded to also include blogs and social media platforms. Why is thissuchbignews? Well, the proposed changes will affect four important and vocal parties involved in the marketing process; consumers, bloggers, celebrities and companies, by making sure that any paid endorsements online are made known to the public. While that’s a significant change, the ruling spotlights an issue that will have a widespread impact on our industry.The fact that the U.S. government is imposing regulations on blogs and social media means that it now considers both to be legitimate channels of mass communications. If you’re reading this blog post, you certainly get the importance of the social web, but this is a wakeup call for marketers still unsure of the validity of this channel.
What this means for brands & bloggers
In a phrase, no more under the table pay for play, everything will be out in the open. It is not an uncommon practice for companies to send influential bloggers free product (or cash, trips, etc.) in return for a positive review on their blog. However, the blogger is currently under no obligation to tell the readers about the transaction, although some do. Under the expanded FTC guidelines, bloggers and social media users must disclose any paid relationship with a company (this includes freebies, not just money) so that consumers are aware. The same situation applies when brands reach out to social media users to post sponsored content on sites like Facebook and Twitter. It should be noted that sponsored blogging/posting is still allowed, so long as it is indicated as such, just like the accepted practices of marketing through traditional media channels
Another new issue addressed by the FTC is the practice of creating entirely fabricated blogs and personalities so that a brand can falsely feed advertising content through the voice of a supposed customer. Now, companies will not be allowed to mimic user-created sites to mask advertising messages from their audience.
What this means for consumers
In keeping with the FTC’s mission, the reason for all of these new rules is to protect the consumer. Consumers have to most to gain from these new changes, the more transparency there is in product related blogging and posting, the more educated they will be. Similar to the “paid actor” disclosures seen on television commercials, it will be much easier to distinguish a paid blog post, wall post or tweet from an actual opinion.
What this means for marketers
This is not bad news. The same regulations already apply to television, radio, print and email and marketers have been abiding for almost 30 years. Marketers now will have to be smarter and more creative with their social media marketing campaigns as well. As good marketers, we should always want our consumers to be well-informed about our products and services. The proposed FTC regulation is intended to level the ethical playing field and weed out those who are abusing these channels. Many brands will continue to thrive in our online social space, the point is to be here and do it right. Those marketers still skeptical about Web 2.0 applications need to recognize, as the government has, that social media and blogging are maturing into viable and impactful communications channels.
