Social Media Rules and Regulations

Rules and regulations in social media marketing is very important, the FTC has worked to ensure transparency in online advertising. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand the difference between advertising and sponsored content from influencers on social media.

If you are an influencer or public figure, and you receive compensation from companies even if it's just a discount on products, you must publicly disclose that in your post/video. Advertisers, endorsers, and third parties such as marketing agencies can all be liable for misleading statements.

Brand advocates are ordinary people who share their positive experiences with a product or business on social media. Brand influencers are celebrities who are paid to endorse a product on social media. Normally brand advocates have more influence and power to persuade than brand influencers. This is because brand advocates aren’t getting paid to say good things, but brand influencers are.

If you are working for a company and you post any type of endorsement for it, you must disclose that you work for them. Just having it listed as your employer in your bio doesn’t count. Companies cannot ask employees to post on their social media if it’s not true or not the person’s real opinion.

On Facebook, companies are not allowed to purchase likes for their pages, both the buyers and the sellers can face enforcement action. And on Twitter, running out or not having enough characters is not an excuse to not disclose that your post is #sponsored or an #ad. I would suggest keeping all your hashtags in your notes, then just be able to copy and paste on each post, to ensure you don’t forget anything.

It’s very important that you disclose everything properly, and you’re following all the rules because one little mistake could get you in trouble. Be smart about what you post, and what you say on social media because once it’s out there, it can be very difficult to get rid of.