An Open Letter to WOMMA, IBNMA and the FTC
There has been a great deal of discussion regarding disclosure and compensation in social media marketing over the past few years. The discussion has evolved with the space and I believe that IZEA has been a catalyst for this ongoing refinement. While the industry still has work to do we have clearly defined some principles we all believe in:
Value is Value
Whether a blogger is compensated in cash, product, service, gift card or experience there is value being exchanged.
Disclosure is Required
When any value is exchanged between a blogger and marketer it should be disclosed to the reader.
IZEA fully agrees with the principles above. We have done our best to move the industry forward and refine our own business practices over time. We were the first company to require disclosure in our TOS, created the first Disclosure Policy in the blogosphere, created the first in-post Disclosure Badges and most recently became the first company to offer a fully automated Disclosure Audit.
The Problem with Our Industry
I was recently chosen as one of a handful of influencers to attend a blogger tour of a Fortune 100 company. While there, a marketing executive spoke about a marketing campaign in which bloggers where provided gift cards that tied to a promotion they were running. I asked the executive if the bloggers were required to disclose they received the gift cards, to which they replied “yes, full disclosure”. I tried to press the issue, but it became clear to me that disclosure is very subjective in social media marketing.
What is “Full Disclosure”?
What does full disclosure mean exactly? Does that mean the person has a site wide disclosure policy? Does it mean that they disclosed in the post? At the top or the bottom? In the title or body? Was it in bold or a special color? What did the text actually say?
The fact is that every agency, brand and blogger is operating by their own standards for “full disclosure”. Everybody is playing by a different set of rules with people pointing fingers at each other for what they believe is sub-standard.
How do you Enforce Disclosure?
Let’s assume that all bloggers were instructed by companies to disclose value exchanges in the same manner. How do you systematically enforce such disclosure? How do brands track that bloggers have complied with their request? How can brands legally protect themselves? The majority of brands and agencies never follow up on disclosure and if they do it is often too late.
Universal Disclosure Registry
I believe we should create a Universal Disclosure Registry. Here’s how it would work:
Marketers
- Marketers would join the site and agree to a universal code of ethics (modeled after WOMMA Code of Ethics).
- Each campaign executed by the marketer would be registered in the system by the marketer.
- Each campaign participant would be registered by the marketer and a unique ID would be generated.
- Marketers can log into the system at any time to check on disclosure compliance. Compliance would be audited by machine verification of a code snippet.
Bloggers
- Bloggers would register with the site and agree to a universal code of ethics.
- Bloggers use the ID code provided by the advertiser to register their campaign participation.
- Bloggers would be provided with a snippet of code that they have to embed in their blog post, status update etc.
Readers
- Readers can research campaigns by clicking on the disclosure to find out which marketer initiated the campaign and which bloggers are participating.
- Readers can report campaigns that are not properly disclosed.
- We have already implemented our own version of a Universal Disclosure Registry at IZEA and it works.
Every post done through SocialSpark has standardized machine readable disclosure and automated disclosure audits. You can’t get paid through SocialSpark without having a disclosure badge.
What if all marketers and bloggers played by these same rules? What if we defined disclosure together and enforced it through an independent third party service run by a trade organization? I believe we can. Standardization of our practices through software automation and validation is the ultimate answer. I hope that one of our trade organizations takes the lead to make this happen.
I am committed to standardizing disclosure. IZEA will be happy to provide software development services to any trade organization that wants to own this effort moving forward.
Paul Chaney said on 6.9.09 at 5:21 pm
Ted,
First, let me say that I appreciate your including IBNMA as one of the organizations in this post. Certainly, disclosure is an issue of concern to both IBNMA as a whole and its members individually. As such, I'm going to prepare a proper response on the organization's site.
For the moment, let me respond by saying some of the best advice I've been given on mandating disclosure (and the entire ethics issue for that matter) was from Elisa Camahort, who many are familiar with as one of the founders of Blogher.
Elisa recommended that disclosure be done at the organizational level, much the same as WOMMA and Blogher have done. While we have yet to implement such a standard within IBNMA, it is something I plan to pursue.
As to my own beliefs, I'm a purist. I believe that editorial and advertorial are best kept separate (distant kin, if related at all).
That being said, I'm also a pragmatist. I'm aware this is not going away and, as such, it's in the best interest of the industry to find a way to create a standard (most) everyone can live with.
I believe that a "sponsored conversations summit" (#sponcon) is called for, whether face-to-face or virtually. It's time we sat and reasoned together over this issue. I, for one, would be happy for IBNMA to have a representative at the table.
Regards,
Paul Chaney, President
International Blogging and New Media Association
Ted Murphy said on 6.9.09 at 5:30 pm
Paul,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I don't know that Universal Disclosure is the ultimate answer but I believe it is time for bloggers and marketers to collaborate on a solution.
I am all for a sponsored conversation summit. Let me know what it will take to make this happen.
Rob Hahn said on 6.9.09 at 5:33 pm
Interesting.
Why are you holding bloggers -- who may not be professionals at all -- to a far higher standard than "professional" journalists at places like the NYTimes and WSJ?
For that matter, "Value is Value" is rather opaque. Is Value received if I'm a fanatical fan of the Jets, and Mark Sanchez decides to engage in a Twitter conversation with me? Certainly valuable to me.
Or is it just monetary value that you're so concerned about?
-rsh
Ted Murphy said on 6.9.09 at 5:37 pm
@Rob Hahn: We are speaking specifically of monetary value, not conversation.
Rob Hahn said on 6.9.09 at 5:45 pm
So can you clarify:
"Whether a blogger is compensated in cash, product, service, gift card or experience there is value being exchanged."
Is the thought that this Universal Disclosure only applies to people who blog for profit? Like the boys and girls at say Gawker?
And could you or anyone else clarify what disclosure rules apply if I were a reporter for the NYTimes?
-rsh
Ted Murphy said on 6.9.09 at 5:52 pm
@Rob Hahn: It would apply to anyone who receives free product, service, cash or experience from a marketer and then blogs, tweets or otherwise shares their thoughts on said product, service, etc.
I don't think NY Times reporters accept anything of value from marketers so it wouldn't really apply.
Steve Spalding said on 6.9.09 at 5:53 pm
I think we are all playing in a gray zone and I am, as always, happy that you have decided to meet this charge head on Ted.
Why gray?
People still don't seem to have a clear definition of what "compensation" means. With SocialSpark/IZEA it's pretty cut and dry.
Company approaches blogger to write about a product/service.
Blogger accepts/rejects companies offer.
Blogger writes a post, and discloses his relationship with the company.
Company pays blogger for his participation.
For a situation like that, it's obvious that this type of solution would function. However, let's change things a bit.
Let's say that a large tech conference wants to get coverage, so they offer a group of bloggers free passes to the event (something that happens all the time). The bloggers aren't required to cover the conference, but they mostly will.
What type of disclosure should be required here?
They aren't being "paid" for their voice necessarily, but they are being compensated for it. I can see a -lot- of people balking at the idea that a free conference pass is the same kind of thing as being paid $100 to review a Mino. Even though when you scrape away the layers, it is.
As a blogger, I believe that any time it could be construed that you would have a bias, you should mention the source of that bias. We make a lot of hard decisions around the type of advertising to accept and the only way to give credence to those decisions and your audience for accepting them is to clearly disclose.
I do worry that something like this will primarily serve to "punish" people who do disclose, as those who don't care to will skirt around it while those who do will be branded.
My 3 1/2 cents.
On disclosure. I thought I’d share my … « How To Split An Atom - Live said on 6.9.09 at 8:16 pm
[...] Ted is also a firm believer in disclosure for anyone who accepts payment for their opinion, and he posed the following – Every post done through SocialSpark has standardized machine readable disclosure and [...]
On Disclosure | How To Split An Atom said on 6.9.09 at 8:30 pm
[...] Ted is also a firm believer in disclosure for anyone who accepts payment for their opinion, and he posed the following – Every post done through SocialSpark has standardized machine readable disclosure and [...]
Jon Burg's Future Visions said on 6.9.09 at 10:22 pm
sponsored promotions...
Disclosure: the views expressed in this post and on this blog in no way reflect my employer or my clients. They are personal observations, and I welcome your feedback in the comments below. I am speaking as a marketer and......
Angela P. Hepburn said on 6.10.09 at 1:18 am
I am new at Blogging but I am determine to learn how to prefect it and become the best at it.
Andy Beard said on 6.10.09 at 2:59 am
Seem totally unworkable
I might use 100 different affiliate links in a day
Snippet of code?
Any disclosure has to transfer to feeds, and has to work with images off, and be totally accessible.
Thus is has to be in text form, in the posts.
There is no other alternative.
Rackspace Cloud / Mosso Payola said on 6.10.09 at 3:44 am
[...] This Rackspace marketing campaign seems totally unworkable, especially the direction disclosure is taking. [...]
Dan... said on 6.10.09 at 9:16 am
Interesting idea, but prolly only part of full solution...similar to some thoughts Steve and I hashed out years ago (remember CleanStreamMedia Steve?)
I believe the best solution would loop in the major CMS providers with a disclosure/conflict field as ubiquitous as title, body, date, author, and tags. Such a field could do at least three things:
1) Allows for disclosing the spectrum of conflicts, getting us out of the debate about conflict as a black-and-white issue. There are many degrees of conflict that readers could care about. Just a few categories are: No conflict, friend/family, shareholder, cash/goods $100, employee
2) Defaults as "No conflict" so authors/posts shift from staying silent on the topic to making an affirmative statement. This is critical. Once people are making affirmative statements about their potential conflict, they are more likely to own up to the reality of their conflict. Silence on conflict is what all the hypocrites use as default, providing conflict excuses only when called out.
3) Possibly, links to universal registry from this field so readers can see more detail on relationship and possibly find other participants in same campaign.
I mention the CMS providers because they have the ability to change the disclosure landscape by adding a single field/default. Few single companies are in such a position to drive transparency change for all bloggers/marketers.
I think industry-wide cooperation to this degree is a longshot, but enjoy seeing IZEA continue to drive the discussion of best practices and tools to maximize transparency for years to come...
Andy Beard said on 6.10.09 at 10:33 am
It won't work with the CMS providers, because other than complaining about disclosure as a form of linkbait, most top bloggers don't practice totally transparent blogging.
I paid for the development of a disclosure policy plugin which was in many ways even simpler.
You just create a set of things you need to disclose based upon keywords like company names, and the plugin would add footer notes, and it would apply them retroactively.
You could for instance disclose "I am a Google employee, though the thoughts on this blog are my own"
If you left Google, you could change the disclosure to "I was a Google employee up until MM/DD/YY"
Ultimately hardly anyone used it, and those that did used it as a way of advertising - I heard reports of revenue increases of 30%+
I haven't updated it as there wasn't enough interest.
I now have better solutions planned, but not specifically for disclosure.
Any central registry has another pitfall - many would look on that as being some kind of linking or advertising scheme, and for affiliates, it is a traffic leak.
Emily Leahy-Thieler said on 6.10.09 at 8:37 pm
I think a Universal Disclosure Registry would legitimize marketing tactics that are widely-used, but, as you say, not all playing by the same rules. As a blogger or tweeter (twitterer), I wouldn't have to feel so "icky" about taking payments for participating in campaigns. As a marketer, I'd feel more secure that there wouldn't be a huge customer backlash against my campaign. And as a reader, I filter the information I get based on whether it's a paid endorsement or not. I think it's a win all the way around. I think some shady marketers and bloggers might not willingly comply, but the vast majority want to use social media responsibly. Great work!
I blogged about the idea of sponsored tweets a while back and wanted to mention again that I think it's a great idea especially at a very local level. A UDR would go even further in providing value to everyone involved.
What Disclosure Issues Mean for PR | Solo PR Pro | Resources for Independent PR & MarCom Consultants said on 6.11.09 at 11:10 am
[...] just another new frontier, and this is an area destined to be gray for some time. What constitutes disclosure? What about social media mentions outside of [...]
Rackspace Cloud (Mosso) Link To Us Payola | rapid-DEV.net said on 6.15.09 at 1:08 am
[...] This Rackspace marketing campaign seems totally unworkable, especially the direction disclosure is taking. [...]
Narrow vs broad: blogging and the FTC « VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local said on 6.28.09 at 11:27 am
[...] without disclosure is naive at best. Even IZEA, who matches bloggers with advertisers, requires disclosure of the arrangements by its [...]
Kiran said on 8.25.09 at 12:00 pm
where to get this disclosure badge
plz tell me