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FTC’s ‘Big Blogger’ is a good thing for marketers?

Written on
Oct 26, 2009 
Author
Gavin Dunaway  |
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FTC’s ‘Big Blogger’ is a good thing for marketers?

ftc_smallADOTAS – Sigh, the drama queens of the blogosphere have gotten all in a tizzy about the Federal Trade Commission’s kinda toothless blogger disclosure guidelines — with a hat tip to Orwell, the widely used moniker for the proposed regs is “Big Blogger.”But over on ClickZ, Sean Carton of idfive has a contrarian take — the FTC stomping into the field is a good thing for marketers.

The social mediascape has shown the power of endorsers on Twitter and Facebook, but Carton notes that dishonesty can be a force of destruction, citing the backlash from Wal-Mart’s paid blogger experience in 2006. The FTC guidelines, as flawed as they may be, aim for transparency, which ultimately will help brands build trust with their customers, something extremely important as social media continues to evolve.

Carton says that Web 2.0 has molded the producer and consumer into a new partnership: “brands are collaborations.” Public perception is almost equal parts company PR and consumer chatter.

“The lines between companies, their marketing, their products, and the consumers who buy them, have become irrevocably blurred,” he writes. “Only by maintaining an open and honest relationship with consumers, can we have a chance of maintaining a positive brand.”

So the FTC’s tactics shouldn’t be seen as Orwellian but auspicious for marketers. Quite an interesting take — who else agrees?





Reader Comments.

You can’t fix stupid.

Nuff said.

Posted by Fred | 1:12 pm on October 26, 2009.

People are always going to be honest. Why do we need government regulation keeping us in line? Deregulation worked for banks and Wall Street….no reason why it won’t work for bloggers.

Posted by anklejive | 12:05 am on October 27, 2009.

I haven’t studied the ruling closely, but my immediate guess is that the FTC wasn’t really upset about some generally-legit blogger making an occasional post about a legit product (which was motivated by a small payment or freebie.)

I think the big issue was flogs. Where it isn’t just a matter of a fake, “I liked this product” claim. But, where everything is fake – the weight-loss results, the celebrity endorsements, the photos of the alleged blogger, etc, etc. Along with the issue of repeat-billing of the customer’s credit card, without a clear, upfront understanding that it would be a subscription deal.

The fact that flogs aren’t real blogs might be too subtle a point for the FTC. They look like blogs, claim to be blogs, and have a fairly sleazy aura about them. So they triggered a, “This is terrible, and needs government regulation,” reaction that ended up being vague and far-reaching.

Posted by V. Campbell | 3:27 am on October 28, 2009.

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