• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, June 24, 2015

Hold the phone! The federal government is producing more regulations -- shocking, I know -- and this week’s batch includes new, more specific advice for social media marketing compliance from the Federal Trade Commission. Among other things the FTC updated its social media guidelines for the use of endorsements and testimonials, which can be found here.

First and foremost, the FTC expects all advertising posts on social media to be marked as such, regardless of character limits, for example with the words “Sponsored,” “Promotion,” or just plain old “Ad.” Lack of space is not an acceptable excuse.

On the subject of social media endorsements, the FTC notes in its section on frequently asked questions that paid endorsements and endorsements by employees, or family members of employees, must be disclosed in each social media post containing promotional content -- not just in their bio or profile details. For employee endorsements, promotions on social media can only concern products or services they are actually familiar with.

Similarly, online reviewers must disclose their relationship, if any, with the brand they are reviewing. For example, if a blogger receives a product for free they must say so in the post; if they bought the product themselves, no disclosure is necessary. The FTC also emphasized that it is not safe to assume “everyone knows” that bloggers get stuff for free, noting, “the financial arrangements between some bloggers and advertisers may be apparent to industry insiders, but not to everyone else who reads a particular blog.”

On the brand side, companies are allowed to encourage reviews by giving out free products, discounts, or other incentives, but they cannot demand positive reviews.

Some of the most demanding new guidelines concern video endorsements, where the FTC says a single disclosure during the video won’t cut it. Instead, endorsers must include multiple disclosures throughout the video, including one at the beginning, and the disclosures must be displayed long enough for the viewer to read them in their entirety.

Other new FTC guidelines concern social media sweepstakes, which must be disclosed with the word “contest” or “sweepstakes” -- “sweeps” isn’t clear enough.