A few months ago, in exchange for appearing on a panel, the conference paid my expenses.
During the event, I wanted to share photos of the meals on Facebook and Twitter. I also knew the conference organizers were expecting speakers to promote the event on social media.
So I did the wrong thing. I posted a few photos, and I didn’t say my meals were comped. It felt slimy! I didn’t want to! (Cue whining.)
That was wrong, by law in the US. (I hope no FTC officials are reading this.) From now on, I’m either not post anything on social media when I’m sponsored, or I have to disclose.
In the past, we’ve had lots of discussion about how to disclose relationships, gifts, and payment on blogs. The rules are that you disclose if:
1. A company pays you to post about their product, including in a recipe
2. You include affiliate links in your post
3. A company gives you free products or services (including meals, travel and books) that you endorse by writing about or photographing them.
(And by the way, most readers don’t like sponsored posts, according to a new study.)
But social media is murkier. Here are some typical situations for American bloggers:
Q. I wrote a sponsored post on my blog. When I link to it on social media, do I have to disclose that it’s sponsored?
A. Yes. According to the FTC, you must use #spon (sponsored) or #ad (advertisement) if you are paid — either in cash or in kind. A disclosure within the post is not sufficient.
While there are no hashtags on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+ or Instagram, my assumption is that the same rules apply, even though the FTC only talked about tweets.
Q. I’m promoting my friend’s new cookbook on social media, because I want it to do well. I’d want her to do the same for me if I wrote a cookbook. Is this okay?
A. It’s lovely to use your platform to help, as long as you disclose that she’s your friend. Otherwise, you are not coming clean about this ulterior motive. You don’t want to lose your readers’ trust. Just write “My friend Susie” every time.
Q. On a sponsored trip, I put a photo of a dish I ate at a restaurant on Instagram. The restaurant didn’t directly sponsor my trip, so I see no reason to disclose.
A. You are on a sponsored trip. If you are eating at that restaurant through an arrangement with whomever is sponsoring you, you are not paying for the meal. You must disclose, by law.
If you eat somewhere else, pay your own way, and endorse, that is less of a problem, but still murky. If the only reason you are writing about a restaurant is because you are on an expense-paid trip sponsored by that city’s visitor and convention center, the FTC might conclude that it qualifies for disclosure. So when in doubt, disclose.
Q. I got sponsored to attend a conference, and I have to promote my sponsor on social media while there. Do I have to say I’m sponsored every time I write something, or is the first time enough?
A. You can’t guarantee that readers saw the first mention. You must disclose each time.
Q. I got invited to a restaurant party, and I took some gorgeous photos of the meal. I put them on Instagram immediately. Did I have to disclose that the meal was free?
A. Yes. You were paid in kind (free food and drink), so you have to disclose.
“Endorsing” means that you liked your meal enough to mention it or photograph it. That is considered an endorsement.
So the next time you are in an ethical situation that requires disclosure, you have a few choices:
1. Take freebies and sponsors and disclose. This is what is required by law.
2. Take freebies and do not promote them. I have a problem with this one. It seems unethical to knowingly take goods and services meant for promotion and then not promote them. If you really want that new gadget, be up front and tell the person that you’d like it but you can’t promote it on your blog.
3. Pay your own way and promote all you want on social media. Sleep well at night.
What’s your take on these rules? Do you disagree with any of my answers? If you have other ethical situations you’re wondering about, let’s try to figure them out.
* * *
You might also like:
I always mention if I am posting a recipe with a product sent to me with no expense on my part. But do I always need to state, “Although I paid nothing for product X, I was not compensated for writing this post and my opinions of said product are my own”.
That’s good. But if you tweet the post, do you mention that in the tweet or on Facebook or Google+ etc.? This is the issue in social media.
I’m pretty sure I do this every time without even thinking about it. While it’s reviews and essays and profiles I write, I consider myself a storyteller. And all these things are part of the stories. My readers have come to expect – and seem to enjoy – knowing the nuts and bolts of how blogging work (well, how my blog works anyway ..).
However, I am bemused that so much fretting goes into what seems like small stuff indeed when it is considered what occurs in the media circuses surrounding big-time sport, business and entertainment.
That’s great that you disclose in your blog that you get payment or payment in kind, which I think in your case would be free meals. I looked at your last several posts but I do not see any mention of this, however. Maybe I’m confused about what you say you are doing?
Yes, maybe confusing. Almost all the meals I write about, I pay for – and am happy to do so. Indeed, I prefer it that way. I cover mostly the very affordable and ethnic side of Melbourne’s restaurant scene, mostly in the western suburbs, so mostly the cost minimal. I am delighted to help and enjoy so many small businesses, the majority of which are run by migrants of one sort or another. Where I accept a complementary meal – and it doesn’t happen often – disclosure is made at least twice. But paying is good and keeps things nice and clear.
Where I am very comfortable in accepting freebies – be it a meal, a coffee or some little extra – is when I return to a place I have written about and the owners want to show their gratitude, in many cases not just for what I have posted but for the customers they have gained. I don’t write about these events and it would seem culturally clunky to not accept with grace.
Aha. Thanks for clarifying. It might be helpful if you said, on your About page, that you pay for almost all the meals yourself. That is pretty unusual and would differentiate you.
I suppose if you know you are not going to write about the place again, there is no harm in accepting a coffee. I’m not sure about an entire meal. Then it seems like a tit-for-tat kind of arrangement, to me.
And what I meant by “I’m pretty sure I do this every time”, was that I adhere to these sorts of guidelines as doing so is just naturally part of my style.
Thanks. I wasn’t sure what you meant. It’s good that you are consistent in your guidelines.
I write cookbook reviews on my blog. The publishers send me the cookbooks to review which I either keep or host a giveaway, but I am not paid to write the review. I always include a disclosure that the cookbook was sent to me by the publisher. Would accepting the cookbook be considered compensation for writing the review?
Thanks.
Yes it would, which is why you are required by law to disclose that you received the book for free. So do you also disclose that in your social media, when you promote the post? That is a lot harder, I think.
I’m not sure you’re correct on this point. ALL book reviewers receive review copies. And NO reviews ever mention this in any medium. Just take a look at any review on the NYTimes review list.
It is a double standard, Elizabeth. If you endorse a book on your blog that you received for free, you are required by US law to disclose the freebie. But print and television media are not required to do so.
What is the difference these days between print and media, and between bloggers? It seems as if these old definitions are becoming outdated very quickly. For instance, the NYTimes dining section just launched a new online Cooking site, along with an app. It only exists online, and is not print. Ditto for Epicurious , which is the online presence for Conde Nast.
It seems to me that there is no clear cut division anymore between all of these platforms. So to impose certain restrictions on ‘bloggers’ and others on ‘traditional media’ seems not to be just a double standard, but an extremely messy gray area that is only getting murkier and murkier.
This post is extremely informative Dianne! I’ve long been wondering if as a Canadian writing for a vastly American audience, I’m bound by any of these rules. I have taken the habit of following them just because they’re good practice, but I have no idea whether I can be liable if I forget to do so. I saw this on an advertising portal, “Canadian advertisers need to pay attention to these rules, since content hosted on a US server or that is served to US customers falls under the new regulations.”
My content is hosted in the US, so I might indeed be liable. But one could argue that my content is not served specifically to a US audience (unlike an advertiser that would target the US market via an ad network.) I have yet to read the definitive word on this, so I was wondering if you’d heard how it works north of the border.
Hi Marie, this is a good question. I’m afraid I don’t know the answer. But to be safe, it’s best to follow the guidelines as a best practice.
I was under the impression that based on the 2013 .com Disclosure guidelines, #spon is not considered “clear and transparent”… i.e. consumers don’t know what it means, and that FTC had stated it should either be #sponsored or #ad. Your thoughts?
That sounds reasonable to me, although #sponsored has more characters, which makes it more of a challenge on Twitter. And “sponsored” is different from “ad,” of course.
You are right, social media has become murkier. So let me try and understand this. If we are doing blog tours for cookbook reviews and we are not paid, but are given a free copy of the book then we have to disclose that on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest,Google+ and all other social media platforms?
Thanks for this post, Dianne.
I believe so, Betty Ann. If you promote a product you got for free, you are supposed to disclose.
We have similar rules here in the UK about mentioning sponsored products. I read an article about it and they showed examples of people running vlogs about products without mentioning they were supplied by a company with the view to having them promoted. The usual line is “someone showed me this” and then demonstrated the item but never mentioned that the “someone” was their agent or from the company wanting their product promoted.
Of course any repercussions happen to the vlogger not the agent or the company.
Oh how interesting, Peter. I’m glad the US isn’t the only country with laws like this. Sadly there are no similar laws for print and television writers.
Thanks so much for this helpful post! I believe in full disclosure, but will admit that I haven’t done all things correctly in the past (but not at all on purpose). I’m looking for input on how we define things. I’ve always defined sponsored as I am being paid a monetary value to post/attend and use #sponsored. But when I receive product to review I disclose, but in the post not social media. Is this where I should put #ad? It seems inaccurate to me to put #spon because I wasn’t paid to do a post and wasn’t required to, I was just given a product that I may or may not post about.
Sponsored is defined as “a person or organization that provides funds..” A company sending me product for review isn’t sponsoring me, but I understand that I am endorsing them if I post about it. So #ad here?
And one more thing. What about media passes to press events – no meals, travel, etc – just the media pass. I would disclose on my blog, but what on social media. #ad? Journalists go to media events all the time and it may be mentioned at the end of an article that it was a media pass, but I don’t see #ad going out in tweets from major pubs. Thanks for any input!
Good questions. Putting #Ad at the end of a tweet doesn’t seem right for a review of products you were given. #Spon seems more accurate to me, but neither seems exact. And there is more than Twitter to consider if you post elsewhere on social media, which doesn’t use hash tags.
Reporters at publications don’t have to disclose that they got media passes to attend an event for free. Because they are in print, they are exempt. Yes, it’s a double standard, but there is more fraud on the internet than in print publications, hence the ruling.
Thanks for clarifying on the in print distinction. I’m still torn on the #spon vs #ad. Such a tough subject! Thanks so much for your input!
Oh, and both FB and Google+ do use hashtags. As a searching tool, they aren’t as easy to use as Twitter and Instagram, but I use #sponsored and #clientwork on my G+ posts.
Interesting and informative post, Diane! I’ve never done a real sponsored post on my blog, where company pays for the post. However, I have used free products in my recipes that were sent to me for review. Now I realize that I never bothered to mention this in my SM shares, but I do mention it in my blog posts.
I do have problem marking my SM posts as #spon or #ad, because I wasn’t really paid for the post or recipe. But I understand I was paid in kind. Grr… such dilemma. Should I use #freepoductreview instead…?
Yes, being paid in kind is the same as being paid. For me, that brings up an interesting point: You might get paid several hundred dollars to write a sponsored post, vs. getting $25 worth of free product. Hmmm.
Not sure about #freeproductreview. It sounds like it’s free to read. And it’s lonnnng.
I am thinking about #comped. How do you like it? Slightly more elegant, I’m hoping. I didn’t know that FB and Google+ use hashtags to the same extent that Twitter does. Thanks. #clientwork is a practical one.
I like #comped, Dianne! Holy shmokes, this all makes my head spin. So if, let’s say, a certain resort/spa (;-)) invites you as a guest speaker/chef and you tweet from there, do all of those tweets and FB posts need to have #comped on them? Argh.
I know! I was just at an event this weekend and I didn’t tweet or Facebook at all. I favorited tweets that mentioned me, and that was it.
I think you are on the hook, Lia. All your social media posts need to disclose if you are at this certain resort or spa for free. It seems unreasonable if it is in exchange for pay, which is the case for instructors like us. But we are not in a different category if we are promoting a place that is hosting us.
Seems like these are still the applicable guidelines:
http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus71-ftcs-revised-endorsement-guideswhat-people-are-asking
>> The issue is – and always has been – whether the audience understands the reviewer’s relationship to the company whose products are being reviewed. If the audience gets the relationship, a disclosure isn’t needed.
>> There is no fine for not complying with an FTC guide…If law enforcement becomes necessary, our focus will be advertisers, not endorsers. >>
So if you’re generally compensated when you speak at public events, then your readers would know that, and the relationship between you and your host would be obvious.
But I’m curious how you would tweet your conference lunch photos next time in order to disclose the relationship. Would you tweet #sponsored? Or would you say in the tweet, “Look at this gorgeous plating! So grateful to XYZ for inviting me to speak at ConferenceXYZ”?
Hi Erica,
If you click on the link to the sponsored post survey, you’ll see that most people don’t understand the relationship implied in the article or blog post.
Re being generally compensated, I would not expect my readers to know that when I attend a conference as a speaker, the conference fee is comped.
I’d be more likely to give your latter explanation because it’s such an elegant and gracious one. But that’s a lot of words to shovel into 140 characters. I guess I’ll have to stick to Facebook in these situations, since the text is not limited.
>> Re being generally compensated, I would not expect my readers to know that when I attend a conference as a speaker, the conference fee is comped>>
Well, if the FTC bothers you about those photos you posted, you can call me as a witness to say that sensible readers would know you were comped. 🙂
Interesting post Dianne, as always. That said, I’m not sure I agree with the interpretation you’ve presented 100%.
This seems to take things to a slightly ridiculous level. I go on a lot of press trips, and always make very clear, within my blog posts, when I was comped. People who follow me on social media follow the story line that I tell. While the meal itself might be comped, the communication of it – which is part of the story I tell about my self and my travels – is not. In other words, when I am enjoying a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, on a terrace of a hotel looking out over the beach in Positano it’s more about the experience, the photograph, the colors, etc. It’s not an advertisement or a sponsored post about a glass of juice. I think it would be beyond awkward to start labeling these moments – which appear on various social media platforms – as sponsored posts.
On the other hand, when I write a full blog post about my stay at a hotel or my meal at a restaurant, I make very clear that I was a guest.
I hope I’m making sense.
I agree, Elizabeth. It does seem slightly ridiculous!
But if you are enjoying a free glass of juice on the terrace of a hotel where you are staying for free, and you are implying that it is a worthwhile experience (therefore endorsing it) to your readers on social media, according to the FTC, doing so requires disclosure. The hotel people invited you because of your reach, and they are hoping for endorsements just like that one. It feels creepy to disclose each time, but there it is.
I am thinking about #comped instead of #spon or #ad. Does that seem any better?
I’m still pretty uncomfortable with this, mostly from an aesthetic point of view. I guess part of the problem is that although I’m embracing social media, I’m still very much in the mindset of old media. As a travel writer stays in hotels almost always were comped. And this was always included at the end of the articles that I wrote. And I do still do this quite clearly.
But I’m very curious about the rules for social media that apply for writers that are on staff at magazines and newspapers. I follow many colleagues and friends, who travel around the globe. I know that they are being comped in fantastic 5 star hotels and restaurants. When they post their images on their personal instagram or twitter accounts, do they have the same obligations to add the tags you suggest to make clear that they were comped? Or sponsored?
murkier and murkier……
The FTC site says staff writers are different, because the audience understands the situation:
>>The issue is – and always has been – whether the audience understands the reviewer’s relationship to the company whose products are being reviewed. If the audience gets the relationship, a disclosure isn’t needed. For a review in a newspaper, on TV, or on a website with similar content, it’s usually clear to the audience that the reviewer didn’t buy the product being reviewed. It’s the reviewer’s job to write his or her opinion and no one thinks they bought the product – for example, a book or movie ticket – themselves. But on a personal blog, a social networking page, or in similar media, the reader may not expect the reviewer to have a relationship with the company whose products are mentioned. >>
http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus71-ftcs-revised-endorsement-guideswhat-people-are-asking
Good one Erica. Thanks for quoting this.
Such a challenging topic. I empathize with everyone about the awkwardness of posts and Tweets with disclaimers.
What is disheartening on the supplier side is that a blogger can solicit ingredients and use them without any acknowledgement of their source. Unethical but not addressed by the FTC, am I understanding this correctly?
Thank you, Priscilla. It’s a troubling subject, that’s for sure.
If a blogger asks for products to write about, then the blogger must disclose in the post, because the products are considered freebies and therefore payment in kind.
Thanks so much for the prompt answer. Not widely used in social media as far as I can tell. perhaps more so in blog posts.
So super that you took the time to share your learnings about the FTC disclosure requirements with your readers. It is super important that folks understand what the requirements are. I’ve spent written quite a bit about these rules, both on my own blog (getgood.com/roadmaps and on BlogHer, and am a co-founder of Blog With Integrity, so please know that ethics and disclosure are super near to my heart. In that spirit, I’d like to clarify a couple of things.
As someone else also points out, the FTC does not like the hashtag #spon, deeming it not sufficiently clear. #sponsored, #hosted, #ad are all much clearer.
More importantly though the most important thing about disclosure is proximity to the endorsement. That’s why it is best to disclose at the top of a post, or even better, in the post itself. But if you write a sponsored post, on your own blog, with proper disclosure on the post itself, you don’t necessarily have to add #ad or #sponsored to your tweet or Facebook post about the sponsored post unless the tweet/post ALSO includes an endorsement. Here’s the example: “Check out my post on fall fashion, http:short link to post” doesn’t endorse anything, so you don’t have to put #ad or #sponsored.
You certainly can if you want, and it might be nice for your followers to know, but if you are going to do that, why not go ahead and give your sponsor the love: “Check out my post on fall fashion & great bargains from my sponsor BRAND http:www.shortlink” You don’t need #ad in this example, because I used “my sponsor” but you could also do “#ad Check out my post on fall fashion & great bargains from BRAND http://shortlink ”
The simple rule is if you endorse something for which you were paid (in cash or product), you need to let your readers and followers know. No endorsement or no payment, no disclosure required.
Aha! So you don’t think you need to disclose in social media unless the tweet is an endorsement in and of itself. Interesting. I defer to your expertise, Susan. Thanks for clarifying.
I still confused about what constitutes an endorsement. Let’s say a company sends me a product and I write a recipe using it. First of all, I may not have written a recipe like this if there was no product, so there is influence there. Then, when I promote the blog post on social media that features a recipe using the product, isn’t that an endorsement? In which case I’m supposed to disclose. Do I have this right?
When in doubt I always suggest disclosure. The important thing to remember is that the FTC requires disclosure when you endorse a product or company that compensated you. It is the combination of endorsement AND compensation that triggers the requirement. So in your example of a speaker comped by a conference, tweets and posts endorsing the conference require the disclosure. However if the conference paid for your hotel room at Big Chain X and you had a lovely experience in the Big Chain X restaurant, feel free to tweet away. Big Chain X did not pay you so your opinion of it does not require disclosure. In your example about the product you included in a recipe, your post and the recipe require disclosure that Brand X sent you the product or paid for the sponsored post. But when you promote your own post on social media, you are promoting your post, not the brand. If there is no endorsement of the brand in the social promotion, no disclosure is required.
Okay, got it, Susan. If I get what you’re saying, many food bloggers tweet about a post and mention the brand, so in that case, they would have to disclose in the tweet.
This is such great information, Dianne – thank you for writing this post!
Alanna, thank you. I hope you are right! I don’t think it’s cut and dried at all.
All due respect, Diana, but the FTC is dead wrong on this. I appreciate your efforts to explain the workings of the disclosure requirements, but I would be happier still if you could use your influence to mount a massive protest against this unhappy and prejudicial division of print, broadcast and online journalists into separate camps.
http://www.cornichon.org/2014/09/different-season.html
It does lead to a lot of complications. For example, my husband is now wondering, if he accompanies me to a conference as a guest, does he have to dislose when he tweets because I am comped? It can feel a little ridiculous at times, Ronald.
drives me crazy when bloggers think they are above disclosures, and never or rarely disclose that they are receiving free goods, travel, food and more. http://www.kevinandamanda.com is a VERY good example of a blogger who does a ton of travel in exchange for sharing on social median and her blog, yet she never discloses any of it.
Hi Sharon, I went to Kevinandamanda to look and I couldn’t find any disclosures in their posts or on the about page, so I agree with you, she needs to disclose. There are tons of examples like that, I’m sure.
Hi all,
What do you think about the hashtag #hosted ? if we are sharing a photo from instagram from a dinner that one of our writers received for free at a restaurant. It was suggested to me by another food blogger.
The FTC likes certain hashtages because they are clear. People will not be sure what “hosted” means.
Thanks for the link!
Thanks for the link!