This morning I read a blog article about the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines that went into effect on December 1, 2009.
As you know, these guidelines are a revised set of rules that apply to online marketers and they govern what marketers can and cannot say when they’re marketing, endorsing a product or even writing a blog post.
Although the article was short it did provide some information and a valuable link to a free tool that can help you write a disclosure statement for your blog.
I recommend you read the article and try the tool. I did and found.
Here have been a lot of questions about the FTC Endorsement Guidelines that went into effect last December. Questions like:
- “Is there special language I have to use to make the disclosure?”
- “Do I have to hire a lawyer to help me write a disclosure?”
- “Would a button that says DISCLOSURE, LEGAL, or something like that be sufficient disclosure?”
- “What about a platform like Twitter” or Facebook? “How can I make a disclosure when my message is limited to 140 characters?”
Well the good news is the FTC has been answering a lot of these question on their website.
There is an official FTC page you can read to get answers to some very specific blogger and social media questions you may have.