Social Media

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Disclosures 101 on Social Media – FTC Guidelines 2021

Do you work with brands to recommend or endorse products?

If so, you need to comply with the law when making these recommendations.
One key is to make a good disclosure of your relationship to the brand.

This FTC (Federal Trade Commission) staff gives tips on when and how to make good disclosures.

The FTC works to stop deceptive ads, and its Endorsement Guides go into detail about how advertisers and endorsers can stay on the right side of the law.

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.

As an influencer, it’s your responsibility to make these disclosures, to be familiar with the Endorsement Guides, and to comply with laws against deceptive ads. Don’t rely on others to do it for you.

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.

What Else to Know

You can’t talk about your experience with a product you haven’t tried.

If you’re paid to talk about a product and thought it was terrible, you can’t say it’s terrific.

You can’t make up claims about a product that would require proof the advertiser doesn’t have – such as scientific proof that a product can treat a health condition.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Refer to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the most current guidelines and answers to questions at https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers

All information in this post was taken verbatim from the FTC Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers

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Sabrina Espinal
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How Often Should You Post?

By Sabrina Espinal 8:31 am

Mystery solved! How often should you post? It’s less than you think so relax and check out the latest social media posting strategies.

BACKGROUND

How often to post is a question that haunts every business, creator, or brand looking to grow their social media accounts on top of all their other, day-to-day duties.

There’s just one problem…

One article will suggest posting twice a day while the next presents an exact insane formula.

It’s confusing at the best, and exhausting at worst. And, it’s enough to give anyone a crippling feeling of overwhelm. No one can be consistent with an unrealistic formula.

The good and bad news is, there is no magic formula for figuring out how often to post on social media.

Sure, there are guidelines (which we’ll dive into next), but what works for one account doesn’t translate as an instant success for yours. So, you can go ahead and take the pressure off, and ditch the social media shoulds.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS:

• Consistency (it’s more important than frequency).

• The volume of high-quality content you can handle weekly

• Creating content your audience looks forward to consuming

Your social media strategy shouldn’t feel overwhelming or impossible to achieve. There isn’t an imaginary baseline you need to hit to be successful. As long as it includes those three things and you use the guidelines as guidelines (not hard rules), you’ll find it easier to show up online consistently and grow an audience.

That said, there are some rules of thumb for how often is optimal for each platform — here’s what you need to know,

How Often to Post on Instagram

According to Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, posting two feed posts a week and two Stories per day is more than enough to build a following on the app.

However, he does state that there is no silver bullet he can give creators. You do need to test and see what works best for your audience.

• How often to post on Instagram grid: 2-3 times per week (this includes static, carousels, reels, and IGTV)

How Often to Post on Facebook

Unlike Instagram, no one from Facebook has come out with a recommended posting frequency for Business Pages.

All we have to go on is data collected in studies and advice from the pros.

According to HubSpot’s Not Another State of Marketing Report, your ROI drops once you publish more than five times per week. The report recommends publishing two to five times per week on Facebook to keep your engagement and clicks consistent.

For Facebook Live, the platform suggests going live frequently to keep people engaged but doesn’t recommend a specific amount.

• Facebook Posts: 3-5 times per week

• Facebook Live: As often as you can

How Often to Post on LinkedIn

The LinkedIn report, The Definitive Guide for Marketing on LinkedIn, found that 20 posts per month can help you reach 60% of your audience.

Once you publish more than that, your reach starts to drop.

Why?

LinkedIn doesn’t want users’ feeds to feel oversaturated by the same person or company. Posting more than once per day can cannibalize your performance and see fewer likes, clicks, and comments.

• LinkedIn Posts: 1 post per day (Monday to Friday) or 2-3x per week

How Often to Post on TikTok

TikTok is a social media platform where it pays to pump out content. The more videos you can post, the more chances you have of attracting new followers and the more content the app has to recommend.

In a one-month experiment by Réka Barabás, she increased her TikTok posting from 1x a day to 4x a day and saw a huge jump in followers.

While the posting frequency doesn’t guarantee you a steady influx of views, it does seem to grow accounts. If that’s your goal for the platform, post as much as you can.

TikTok does recommend staying consistent as one of its six keys to success. So don’t hop onto the 4x a day train if you can’t sustain such a volume of content.

• TikTok videos: 1-3x per day

How Often to Post on YouTube

VidIQ, a YouTube keyword research tool, recommends creators upload at least one video per week. The more content you create, the more opportunity you create to rank in search results and get subs.

Once you get to 50 or 100 videos, you can analyze your performance and see what works best for you and your audience.

But remember, filming and editing Youtube videos takes time. If you can only handle a once-a-month schedule, stick to that and don’t burn yourself out with the ‘eat, sleep, create’ rat race.

• Youtube videos: 1 video per week

Remember, quality always trumps quality. Choose a frequency to post on social media that suits your capabilities and go from there.

Inspired by Plann.

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