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WOMMA's Guide to Disclosure in Social Media Marketing
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The WOMMA Guide to Disclosure in Social Media Marketing is out. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is a nonprofit organization fostering the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing. After the FTC’s announcements regarding the new endorsement guidelines, WOMMA members from a large number of companies from all fields of WOM have been sticking their heads together to come up with a specific recommendation on how the FTC’s requirements should be implemented.
The resulting guide has been published yesterday. I am proud that we at Magpie are the very first to enable all our users to be compliant with the new guide without having to do any extra work.
The Requirements
Regarding sponsored conversations on microblogs such as Twitter, the guide requires two things: use one out of the three possible hashtags #spon, #paid, and #samp, and a prominent link to a Disclosure and Relationships Statement page which explains how twitterers work with companies in accepting compensation and/or reviewing products.
How they are implemented
The use of disclosing hashtags has been mandatory on Magpie for a long time. Until now, we allowed our users to choose from a set of different disclosure options, according to each twitterer’s personal taste. Among those options were #sponsrd, #advert, ad:, sponsor: etc. As of today, we have consolidated these options and merely allow to choose between #spon and #paid. For campaigns which involve free samples which can be reviewed by twitterers, we will occasionally allow #samp as well.
The disclosure statement isn’t entirely new to Magpie either. All Magpie tweets have been carrying a source parameter named Magpie Advertising Network which linked to our web site, in order for people to learn about how Magpie works. To further comply with the new guide, we’ve installed a standardized Disclosure and Relationships Statement page and changed our source parameter, so that every Magpie tweet is directly linking to it. This way, followers can easily learn about how Magpie users are using sponsored conversations. And the good news is: twitterers don’t have to change a thing — it’s all automatically taken care of by Magpie.
To see this sample Magpie tweet live and try out the new source parameter, click here first and then on Magpie Advertising Network when you see the tweet in your browser.
I would love your feedback on this. Do you think our implementation will be helpful for twitterers, followers and advertisers? Do you have suggestions for improvement?
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Comments
Dirk said on Monday, February 22, 2010:
Also #spon ist für mich im deutschen Sprachraum als Abkürzung für Spiegel Online besetzt. Das wird nicht leicht, dagegen anzukommen.
Rob Bell said on Monday, February 22, 2010:
I'm impressed how you've dealt with the FTC regulations - just one question though - How do the FTC regulations affect those of us who aren't US citizens?
My understanding is that the regulations apply to US companies and individuals - are we internationals being defaulted to US law, or is there a document somewhere that states the FTC regulations apply to everyone worldwide?
Rob
Jan Schulz-Hofen said on Monday, February 22, 2010:
Translation of Dirk's post for non-german speakers:
"In my opinion, #spon is a well-known abbreviation for Spiegel Online [a german online news magazine]. It will be tough to break that habit."
Sure, spon means Spiegel Online for many. It's also not that obvious in Germany yet, that #spon stands for "sponsored". That's why we also allow #werbung and #anzeige for German speaking users. It would be great though, if an international standard could somehow be established and I guess time will tell. That's why we also offer #spon for German users.
Jan Schulz-Hofen said on Monday, February 22, 2010:
@Rob: To my knowledge, the U.S. FTC are the first to have established official rules regarding endorsements in social media. Moreover, WOMMA are a pioneer in defining specific guidelines implementing these rules. Even though the legal foundations for this in Europe and other parts of the World are quite similar, we haven't seen specific rules regarding social media and micro blogging in particular. As long as no other countries issue specific rules, I think we're on the safe side adhering to the FTC's rules and following WOMMA's guides.
After all, they represent our very own understanding of the ethics and values involved, so we're more than happy to apply those rules globally.
Are there any specifics which you'd consider problematic in a non-U.S. environment?
Micha said on Tuesday, February 23, 2010:
Kann das mal jemand in Deutsch übersetzen? Ich wohne und lebe in Deutschland und da sprechen und schreiben wir doch noch deutsch, oder irre ich mich???
GinaATL said on Tuesday, February 23, 2010:
I am always up for increasing the integrity of our business. I thank you for making the changes and look forward to working new campaigns. How will the non-US citizens be handled? curious...
Jan Schulz-Hofen said on Tuesday, February 23, 2010:
@Micha, I'm sorry but this blog is entirely in english.
@Gina, for now all Magpie campaigns will be going by the WOMMA guidelines. I mention this in my earlier comment reply to Rob.
TOPANGEBOTE said on Thursday, February 25, 2010:
Jan, the question is, about which campaign(S) you speak. Is there more than one in a period of 2 month for Germany? I am really disappointed about this, I expected much more. Much much more.
Btw. I liked the #AD tag, that was something everybody anywhere understood.
Cheers,
TOPANGEBOTE
Jan Schulz-Hofen said on Thursday, February 25, 2010:
@Topangebote, sorry to hear that you didn't get any offers lately. We have a lot of great campaigns for Germany. It looks like your account doesn't really fit, though. You could try having a little more conversations and a little less automated posts... ;-)
TOPANGEBOTE said on Friday, February 26, 2010:
Thanks for your quick response Jan.
I understand, its a "rating" Problem, hmm.
What, when I tell you, that there is not one of my posts automated? Everything, really everything is looked for in the Web manually and then typed in manually afterwards.
Please let me understand to improve myself:
Is it bad for the "rating", when I post via Twhirl and there via my identi.ca account?
Is it better to post via the Twitter Web Interface and then on Twitter directly?
Please, let me improve my rating and help.
Thanks,
TA