Bloggers Beware: U.S. Federal Trade Commission Now Regulating Blogs, Social Media, Testimonials

For those of you who blog and tweet in the U.S., be aware that new Federal Trade Commission rules regarding truth and transparency in advertising now apply to you.

This probably won't be an issue here on HypnoThoughts, because the advertising policy forbids the kind of affiliate promotions and endorsements that are common on most other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. But they may cover discussions about training programs such as Best full time hypno training worldwide ??? If you are somehow affiliated with a training program, and endorse it without revealing your affiliation, you could be in hot water. By "hot water" I mean warnings or fines from the FTC.

The new guidelines, which went into effect on October 6th, require you to disclose any "material relationship" between yourself and the product, service or company you're promoting. A "material relationship" could mean the fact that you received free product samples, or payment, or that you're employed by the manufacturer of the product.

Furthermore, the Guides also regulate the content of testimonials:

"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor."

If you're a hypnotist in training, and you do work for free in exchange for a testimonial from your client, you may now be required to disclose that fact. This may also apply to testimonials on sites like LinkedIn, etc.

And if you participate in a lot of affiliate programs, be aware that those relationships now have to be disclosed.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not to be construed as legal advice.

Kathleen
Client, HypnoFan, Hypnotic Marketer
@KathleenHanover on Twitter