SAFUN

My father called me yesterday and said “Hey did hear about the blog and advertising regulation?” He was listening to NPR and they were covering a story on the recent Federal Trade Commission announcement regarding rules that require bloggers and tweeters to publicly disclose if they are being paid by advertisers.

Any news regarding social media, Rackspace or technology in general – a family member will always contact Jason or I. Forget about me checking Virl.com everyday – I have my family to keep me posted!

So I checked the article he was referring to and read about the updated FTC rules. Basically if you are blogging or tweeting for money, you need to make that clear to your readers and followers.

First, let me just say that my blog: safun.com is a personal blog and nobody pays me to write anything. I write because I like to write. What I choose to write about are strictly personal interests and experiences.

Before the Internet, word of mouth marketing was simply one individual telling another individual in person about a product they used and liked – it was maybe over lunch or coffee or at a bar. More than likely, that person was not getting paid to tell their friends about a product. The Internet, and specifically these new social media platforms, allows people to do word of mouth marketing at an exponential level. Rather than telling one person, you can tell 100 at a time.

Companies have been catching on and are shifting from traditional advertising to a more grassroots approach because it’s now easier to do so with all the latest social media tools available. However, it’s unfortunate because advertisers are paying the well respected popular bloggers and tweeters to promote their product and aren’t making it clear they are getting paid to do so. The Internet allows you to be very deceiving.

Do you remember one of the first YouTube video blogs – LonelyGirl15? It was this girl that video blogged from her bedroom. She was this cute, innocent looking girl that talked about her simple, but real life and all the drama that came with it. People were drawn to her and she grew a fan base quickly. After episodes of watching, people became suspicious of her realness. Turns out, she was an actress! Bummer! It just shows how easy it is to not tell the truth on the Internet and yet seem very believable.

I think the FTC won’t be able to control everything simply because the magnitude of the Internet; it just doesn’t seem doable. However, I do believe that it is important that anyone adding content to the public Internet, if they are doing it for money, they need to make that clear. It’s not fair for readers to not know.

And readers, make sure you know what you’re reading. Advertisers are taking over and the charm in social media platforms is slowly diminishing. Although I do think Facebook has done it right so far. (Can you believe I didn’t say Twitter?)