Comments on: Twitter Hashtags for Affiliate Tweets

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:31:24 +0000

Ric Townsend has just tweeted about the Twittad's disclosure policy. It does look like a good example of an overall campaign's/company's disclosure policy. Will it suffice for the FTC though (unless each tweet also has a link to the policy)? FTC is advising to either have it "in proximity to blog"/tweet, or to "incorporate it into the blog discussion itself" [source]. Would going through the Spon.in url-shortening service meet one of these requirements (because spon.in does have the disclosure on their homepage)? It depends on how you look at it. Since the end user is never going to be clicking through to the homepage of Spon.in, but to the advertiser's landing page "from Twittad.com" at the end of each such tweet may not cut it (unless it starts with a "www" and links to Twittad's site).

By: Geno

Geno — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:10:05 +0000

Any time, Bryan. Glad to be of help.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:07:23 +0000

Great examples. I particularly like Tim Carter’s and will prob model off that. Thanks for the info!

By: Geno

Geno — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:59:49 +0000

I do not believe that at present time there is a clear understanding of how exactly this is to be handled on Twitter. Today's Business Week article references TwittAd's, Ad.ly's and IZEA's approaches.

These services meet the basic requirement of the new FTC guidelines: They ask users to include disclosures inside their "tweets," such as "Ad by Ad.ly." Twittad use several types of disclosure: Each Twitter publisher must post a badge on his or her page that says Twittad, links include the text "spon.in" -- meaning "sponsorship in update" -- and each time someone clicks on an ad they are shown a dropdown bar indicating they've clicked on an advertisement.

As far as blogs go, I believe one main disclosure per affiliate blog/website should be enough. Scott Jangro's, Tim Carter's and Sarah Mae's examples can be helpful in crafting your own.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:19:38 +0000

I just read about the new FTC guidelines yesterday. Interesting to see how it will be addressed on Twitter. Geno, in terms of its impact on blogs, do you think the disclosure has to on each post or can it just be embedded on one page of the site? I also used the disclosure policy generator, very helpful!

By: Geno

Geno — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:41:32 +0000

Joel, thanks for chiming in. I love that Disclosure Policy Generator by IZEA. Thanks for the link. Will posting a link to a disclosure page in the Twitter profile suffice? I don't know. It may be that the full disclosure must be linked to from the profile, but each tweet should still have some kind of indication that it is a sponsored one. I think they will deem each tweet a separate blog (or microblog) post.

By: Joel Garcia

Joel Garcia — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:26:42 +0000

Is this something that can be handled by adding disclosure language to an existing policy page of a website or making use of a service like DisclosurePolicy.org to create a page of disclosure? If so, why not post a link in your Twitter profile to a disclosure page? I appreciate the PCWorld.com suggestion that it is good policy to state you've received a reviewed item for free, but a separate disclosure page would be a great addition and possibly cover other marketing efforts.

By: Geno

Geno — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:56:12 +0000

It does, but I wonder if it will be sufficient in the FTC’s eyes.

By: Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:46:48 +0000

I’ve seen #ad used – if it’s necessary to use one, I think that would be ideal, since it communicates it effectively and uses a minimal amount of characters.