Social Media Ethics Briefing: Staying Out of Trouble — Live from BlogWell

3:10 — Kurt Vanderah introduces GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council‘s CEO, Andy Sernovitz.

3:11 — Andy: Social media comes down to trust. When you are a social media blogger, you won’t have success unless people feel you’ve earned your position. Ethics is the first thing you do to make this work.

3:12 — Andy explains that the difference between honesty and sleazery is disclosure. If you understand how disclosure works, you stay out of trouble. The simple phrase, “And now a word from our sponsors,” makes the difference.

3:16 — Andy: It’s Federal law to disclose information. The FTC has made this clear. They are busting companies and fining them for posting fake reviews. Just because it’s social media doesn’t give you a loophole. It doesn’t make it legal.

3:17 — Andy: The FTC has given us specific rules on how NOT to get in trouble: 1. Require disclosure and truthfulness in social media outreach. 2. Monitor the conversation and correct misstatements. 3. Create social media policies and training programs.

3:19 — Andy: There’s no, “Don’t ask don’t tell.” You don’t get to pretend you don’t know what the blogger said.

3:2o — Andy gives his personal recommendations for staying out of trouble: Never pay, include real disclosure, and don’t lie to your mom.

3:21 — Andy:  If you are the company who only sometimes pays for fake reviews, no one will ever believe you and you will lose credibility. Disclosure is not adding a statement that says, “Some of this content was paid for,” without being specific. If your mom looks at something and doesn’t know it’s a marketing message, that’s a problem. It needs to be clear and conspicuous to the average reader. It’s as simple as saying, “Hey, I got these samples from so and so.”

The 10 magic words: “I work for ___ , and this is my personal opinion.”

3:24 — Andy shares some more detailed items that the FTC wants us to include: Who are you? Were you paid? Is it an honest opinion based on a real experience?  This last one can lead to a plain, old-fashioned false endorsement. These are actually very generous rules.

3:25 –  Andy: The biggest risk you have to face is that companies don’t set out to have unethical marketing campaigns. It often comes back to training.

3:27 — Andy explains that most people don’t have social media training, and this is a problem when personal and professional profiles cross. So what to do? Create formal policies and training programs, create contracts — put it in writing.

3:29 — Andy talks about the Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit, which includes disclosure of identity, personal/unofficial blogging and outreach, blogger relations, compensation and incentives, agency and contractor disclosure, and creative flexibility. Create checklists for every situation and customize for your team.

3:30 — Andy: Be careful who you hire. Your brand is completely responsible for what your agencies do. You write the check, so you are legally responsible. Get contracts to make sure standards are enforced.

3:31 — Andy: We have a chance to do something good. We are at a moment when things are changing. We have a chance to do this right.

3:32 — Andy says to raise your standards — hold the line. There are certain things that we are not going to accept. We aren’t going to trick people. Editorial is editorial and an ad is an ad. This is important. No maybes.

3:33 — Andy: Remember, you will always get caught. You need to save your brand, save your reputation, save your job, and ultimately save social media.

3:35 — Andy: If you have to ask, the answer is no. It’s easier to be honest. Pass it on.

Q&A

Q: What are your thoughts on paid customer review programs that help search results?

A: Reviews are something we talk about in the toolkit checklist. As long as you’re not lying to people and you are disclosing, then you’re OK. Set a clear policy and let people know what’s going on.

Q: Caleb from Edelman: If you have spokespeople blogging, should they be paid?

A: I think that cash should not be part of it. If they are pretending to be independent voices and they’re on payroll, then they’re no longer independent voices.