FTC wants influencers to disclose when they have any ‘financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand’

If you endorse a product through social media, your endorsement message should make it obvious when you have a relationship (“material connection”) with the brand. A “material connection” to the brand includes a personal, family, or employment relationship or a financial relationship – such as the brand paying you or giving you free or discounted products or services. 

Telling your followers about these kinds of relationships is important because it helps keep your recommendations honest and truthful, and it allows people to weigh the value of your endorsements.  These relationships aren’t limited to those that provide the influencer with money. The FTC wants influencers to disclose any benefit they received from creating that social media post for the brand or product.

The FTC guidelines suggest that influencers disclose when they have.  Here is the Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers:

When to Disclose

Disclose when you have any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand. Financial relationships aren’t limited to money. Disclose the relationship if you got anything of value to mention a product. 

If a brand gives you free or discounted products or other perks and then you mention one of its products, make a disclosure even if you weren’t asked to mention that product. 

Don’t assume your followers already know about your brand relationships. 

Make disclosures even if you think your evaluations are unbiased 

Keep in mind that tags, likes, pins, and similar ways of showing you like a brand or product are endorsements. 

⊲⊲If posting from abroad, U.S. law applies if it’s reasonably foreseeable that the post will affect U.S. consumers. Foreign laws might also apply. 

⊲⊲If you have no brand relationship and are just telling people about a product you bought and happen to like, you don’t need to declare that you don’t have a brand relationship.

How to Disclose – Make sure people will see and understand the disclosure. 

Place it so it’s hard to miss. The disclosure should be placed with the endorsement message itself. 

Disclosures are likely to be missed if they appear only on an ABOUT ME or profile page, at the end of posts or videos, or anywhere that requires a person to click MORE. 

Don’t mix your disclosure into a group of hashtags or links. 

If your endorsement is in a picture on a platform like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, superimpose the disclosure over the picture and make sure viewers have enough time to notice and read it. 

If making an endorsement in a video, the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description uploaded with the video. Viewers are more likely to notice disclosures made in both audio and video. Some viewers may watch without sound and others may not notice superimposed words. 

If making an endorsement in a live stream, the disclosure should be repeated periodically so viewers who only see part of the stream will get the disclosure.

Use simple and clear language. Simple explanations like “Thanks to Acme brand for the free product” are often enough if placed in a way that is hard to miss. 

So are terms like “advertisement,” “ad,” and “sponsored.” 

On a space-limited platform like Twitter, the terms “AcmePartner” or “Acme Ambassador” (where Acme is the brand name) are also options. 

It’s fine (but not necessary) to include a hashtag with the disclosure, such as #ad or #sponsored. 

Don’t use vague or confusing terms like “sp,” “spon,” or “collab,” or stand-alone terms like “thanks” or “ambassador,” and stay away from other abbreviations and shorthand when possible. 

⊲⊲The disclosure should be in the same language as the endorsement itself. 

⊲⊲Don’t assume that a platform’s disclosure tool is good enough, but consider using it in addition to your own, good disclosure.