FTC guidelines for giveaways to bloggers
Posted on 07. Oct, 2009 by admin in Ecommerce News, Know How
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants bloggers to reveal any benefit they get from reviewing products.
Independent of our opinion of government meddling, we think it is good practice to always reveal any links a blogger has that might create a conflict of interest in their reviews.
Trust is the most valuable currency of the online world. While in the real world we have many cues that can allow us to build a trust with people we meet online these cues are mostly absent.
When the blogger reveals conflict of interest before providing a review, it actually creates more trust in this and future reviews from the blogger.
If the practice is widespread we will have more trust in blogs in general. Thus making all bloggers benefit.
In the absence of trust users will need to do much more research to establish validity of reviews, thus reducing the value of the blogosphere as a product selection tool.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm