5 FTC Guidelines For Influencers You May Not Have Known About
If you are a content creator or even a follower of your favorite influencers, you probably already know that there is a federal agency in the US called the Federal Trade Commission that protects consumers and has certain laws around business and advertisements that affect Influencers and anyone who posts sponsored posts on social media. You probably already know to include “#ad” or something similar on your sponsored posts, but what about gifted items? What about affiliate links? What if you’ve worked with the brand in the past but this time it’s not sponsored?
The FTC recently released a really helpful guide to following their influencer guidelines and it’s worth taking a look to make sure your content always aligns with the law to avoid any future headaches from mistakes you just didn’t realize you were making.
Here is a break down of a few less-talked-about requirements from the FTC that you may not have known:
You must disclose past partners
This is the number 1 thing that surprises most people, and some have faced the consequences (large fines) for not complying. If you have worked with a company in the past, even if your current post about them is not sponsored, you must make sure it is clear to your audience that you have been paid or gifted in the past.
You must disclose gifted items
Even if your post is not paid, gifted items are still an Ad under FTC guidelines. If you’ve been gifted an item you are sharing on your platform, you must make it clear that the item was gifted or include some kind of disclosure that you have outside incentive to post about it.
You must disclose affiliate links
Affiliate links also count as Ads! Since you are potentially earning money when you post a link, the FTC requires you to disclose that to your audience. A simple way to do this is to add #affiliate or say “swipe up for my affiliate link”
You don’t have to use #ad if it’s clear another way
The FTC requirement is only that it must be clear to your audience that the item was sponsored, gifted, affiliate, even some related to your — basically they require you to be clear to your audience in any way that you have any kind of incentive to share the item. Their goal is to protect consumers from inauthentic ads, but it applies even if you “genuinely love” the item. However, you do not have to disclose these things using #ad. You can try more integrated ways of clear disclosure like “Thanks so much ____ for gifting me this item!” or “I love partnering with ____.”
You cannot hide the disclosure in the corner/camouflaged
The FTC requires that your disclosure is “conspicuous” as in, very clear, very obvious, no camouflaging in the corner in tiny font. Regardless of this requirement, from a strategy standpoint, it’s not recommended to try to hide your sponsorship disclosures. It can look manipulative, and it’s better to make sure your audience knows that your sponsored posts really are things you love! The FTC actually requires you to be authentic and to not share sponsorships for products you are known to not truly like, but this is a great reminder whether or not it were required.