A recent legislative amendment requires influencers to disclose whether they are posting promotional content. There are strong regulations that dictate influencers should disclose any advertising within their social media content, to make the landscape more transparent for influencers. Simply put, it is the influencer’s legal responsibility to disclose their business partnerships when they are endorsing products.
Influencers must disclose ads and business relationships. They must also mention when a post is sponsored by a brand. These rules are imposed by the Federal Trade Commission. Studies have shown that the disclosure of ads and sponsors increases the likelihood that viewers will purchase the relevant items.
Under Federal Trade Commission laws, influencers are legally required to disclose, in plain text, their material connections to products, services, brands, and/or companies that they are advertising on their social media feeds. When it comes to influencer marketing, FTC requires all influencers to disclose when the content is sponsored or paid, so that consumers know that an influencer was paid to produce content. Influencers marketing products through social media need to disclose posts and sponsored ads.
Influencers Should Disclose Business Relationships
Even when they are ads, or a portion of posts sponsored by brands, influencers should disclose any business relationships through techniques such as labeling links to these products. Brands that want to promote their products or services through influencers need to be clear they value transparency. For brands, engaging influencers who are already using your products and services is a good way to drive adherence to Truth in Advertising guidelines.
While influencer marketing and brand partnerships are great ways to reach audiences that you may not have previously connected with, including influencer disclosures as part of your campaigns could make them keep coming back for every new product and release.
Whether you are a brand or agency running an Instagram influencer marketing campaign, or you are an Instagram influencer yourself, it is important for both parties to be on the same page on how to disclose sponsored Instagram posts. While influencer-led marketing is one of the best ways to reach your target audiences on Instagram, it is important that influencers and businesses alike disclose these types of partnerships and sponsored Instagram posts.
Yet, a recent study found that an astounding 93% of sponsored content posted by A-list influencers on Instagram did not adequately disclose paid relationships with brands.
Disclosures May Enhance Purchasing Behavior
In fact, the disclosures might actually reinforce influencers’ prominence in purchasing decisions. These posts had zero disclosures in sponsored content, and worse, brand instructions failed to direct influencers to include required FTC disclosures.
The new guidelines emphasize the need for influencers to disclose any substantial relationship with the brand. The new rules make sure influencers who work with brands disclose each piece of content that they were paid to produce, complete with appropriate captions, titles, and post descriptions.
Brands and influencer platforms should notify the influencers about FTC guidelines, and the influencers are responsible for following the platforms or brands’ instructions. With impact at heart, marketers must know the rules and practice proper diligence when executing brand influencer campaigns. As a result, it is essential for online influencers and brands to know what standards are being enforced.
Influencers and Brands Must Have Comparable Standards
While it shows the importance of influencers to mark their content with a proper standard, breaches are also a timely reminder for brands that use influencer marketing. While ultimately disclosed partnerships are really up to influencers, a breach could affect the reputations of influencers as well as brands. Not only that, the brands themselves are also responsible for penalties whenever the influencer fails to disclose their business relationships appropriately.
For instance, in a recent publication by the FTC, Disclosure 101 for Social Media Influencers, FTC told us it is essential that we include disclosure of business relationships with every piece of content from influencers.
The Federal Trade Commission requires influencers to include such a disclosure so that anyone viewing or listening to content cannot miss it. Travelers United, like the FTC, believes influencers paid to post on behalf of a hotel, airline, or luxury travel company must state that explicitly in their posts. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has been aware of a longstanding issue with influencers and celebrities not disclosing sponsored content in their social media channels.
The FTC has provided an Endorsement Guide for companies and influencers on how to disclose a brand’s relationship with the public.
How Influencers Can Disclose Their Business Relationship
Companies and influencers can disclose such information by using #ad in social media posts or sharing information about paid promotions/partnerships on the internet. Paid influencers are probably already very aware at this point that they need to disclose their material relationship with the Kenyan luxury resort. Influencers also might have friends and family working at a particular brand, and that is generally not something everyone consuming their content will know. Non-compliance from the influencers who are pushing products is a matter of brand security, and they are not likely to be willing to partner with those individuals going forward.
Clearly disclosing that an influencer’s posts are paid endorsements or ads kind of undercuts the reason why they are doing them in the first place. Influencers should also be completely aware of their obligations when disclosing paid posts, though that might not feel cool. Yet, the way that brands flagging posts with disclosure or not making that disclosure impacts an influencer’s credibility has not been adequately explored.
As the leading Influencer Management Agency, we have put together a guide that helps influencers and brands alike to understand what policies they need to adhere to when posting sponsored content. Before diving deeper into best practices for brands and influencers, it may be important to understand different forms of Instagram advertising.
In February, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) released an ethics code that treats influencers like any other traditional advertiser, encouraging them to disclose business relationships in clear, upfront ways that are easy to understand. Concerned about the potential for commercial interests to sway the interactions between peers, the Federal Trade Commission has invited companies and influencers with their Advocacy Guides to disclose branded relationships by prominently showing a #ad or mentioning paid partnerships.
