7 Legal Issues to be Aware of for Social Media Marketing

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 11th, 2010

As social media continues its pattern of rapid growth, marketers are discovering new and innovative ways to reach consumers, and in some cases, social media has replaced traditional marketing altogether.  Though new and exciting, the social media marketing frontier is still largely unsettled and self-governed.

Concerned about the potential for advertiser abuse, the Federal Trade Commission has been working on regulations for companies to adhere to when engaging in social media.  Presumably, the final regulations will be much like the standards that the FTC has had in place for years concerning Ethics and Deceptive Trade Practice Standards.

Respect State Laws
Be mindful of which states your message is reaching, and what the laws are in that area.  Violating a state law can lead to prosecution regardless of where you are physically located.  For instance, if you tweet about a sweepstakes and one of your followers resides in a state where sweepstakes are prohibited, you could be fined.Use Disclaimers
Disclaimers must be used in all acts of social media when representing a client or affiliate.  Some common examples of disclaimers: I work for…Paid for by…I was gifted by…Sponsors Are Liable Too
Sponsors are obligated to monitor endorsers and their actions and ethics.  If a disclosure is not made, a sponsor can be held liable.Endorsements Must Be True
Any endorsement you make must be true.  If you falsely indicate that you use or prefer a particular product and it is later found to be untrue, you can be held liable and charged with deception.  (Note, the FTC tends to make exceptions for celebrities, because most people assume that if a celebrity promotes something, he or she must be getting paid.)Don’t Falsify Testimonials
Testimonials must be true and accurate.  For example, using a physician to endorse a pharmaceutical product that is not in direct relation to his or her field of practice is considered to be deceptive.  The FTC would argue that the advertiser has no right to present this person as an “expert” in the specific field in question.  (Here’s an example of a real case:  Pfizer to End Lipitor Ads by Jarvik.)Show Real Results
If a client claims that their product has a specific (or even general) success rate or some other statistical claim, they must have the proof and they must share their studies.  The FTC no longer considers “Results May Vary” to be an acceptable statement in advertising.
Agency Employees Must Provide Full Disclosure
Any employee of an advertising agency who promotes a client and/or a client’s products and services through social media, even in a casual exchange, must provide full disclosure of the client/agency relationship.  Let’s see an example: Wrong:  Got to love this!! Visit Baltimore is offering an amazing Harbor Pass deal, check it out! http://baltimore.org/harborpassRight:  One of our clients, Visit Baltimore, is offering an amazing Harbor Pass deal, check it out!  http://baltimore.org/harborpass

Of course, providing full disclosure is difficult to do on Twitter, given the 140-character limitation per tweet.  One convention that seems to be gaining ground is to use the #ad hashtag, indicating the tweet is an ad or endorsement.  However, please note the acceptable usage of #ad could change at any time per the FTC’s guidelines.

Many companies outsource their marketing campaigns to agencies like us, but be advised that if the agency is running a social media campaign, then the client company still remains liable for anything said or done by that hired agency.  In other words, you need to be constantly aware and monitoring what is being said by all parties.  It is for this reason that Web Ad.vantage usually recommends hiring an agency to build the strategy and plan for the campaign, but leaving the execution up to the PR or Communications department.  We do things like this with our Social Media Roadmap offering.  (If you are interested give us a call or drop us a line today to learn more.)

With social media continuing to break new ground, advertisers must learn to grow and evolve along with it.  It will be interesting to see where the chips will fall—which companies will have their hands slapped by the FTC, and which ones will get it right?  When in doubt, you should always defer to the FTC’s ethics guidelines for the advertising industry, which are already in place, and of course, use your best judgment!

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Pragmatic, professional advice with no hidden agenda. 

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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Behavioral Targeting: “To BT or not to BT?”

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 6th, 2010

Sometimes internet advertising can leave agencies, media planners, and brand marketers feeling like teenagers:  lured by the latest technology, distracted by shiny new gadgets, and seduced by marketing savvy and trends.  When we are deep in strategy talks with our clients and discuss ad targeting options, behaviorable targeting (BT) often comes up.  Behavioral targeting—delivering ads based on a user’s browsing habits—is often considered an attractive and effective but controversial strategy.  Though BT is not new or buzzworthy to us, it’s a tactic we don’t treat lightly.

There are many facts and realities that need to be considered before venturing into BT waters.  In an effort to “keep it real” for our clients and avoid what we like to call fadvertising, let’s face the facts about behavioral targeting together.  Today we’ll explore what behavioral targeting is, weigh a few BT pros and cons, and share the types of considerations we typically weigh before recommending behavioral targeting to our clients.

First, a quick primer on BT from Wikipedia:

And a few recent BT stats from eMarketer:

Behavioral targeting sounds like the perfect way to target ads and double conversion rates, doesn’t it?  However, the reality is that the use of behavioral targeting raises many privacy concerns and recent studies indicate that a majority of US internet users reject it:

BT has been controversial from the start and may move from self-regulation to stricter opt-in regulation.  Currently, internet users must opt-out of receiving behaviorally targeted ads.  But privacy experts and advocacy groups feel that the notice-based model is outdated.  As recently as last week, Federal Trade Commission Chairman John Leibowitz surprised many when he informed the Senate that the FTC might recommend a “Do Not Track” registry for behavioral targeting.

The above facts help highlight why we don’t recommend behavioral advertising without full disclosure.  When venturing into online media buying on your own or assisted by an agency, we recommend proceeding with caution around BT to limit risks and avoid pitfalls.  When we recommend a strategy or tactic, we like to provide strong rationale if something will benefit your overall marketing campaign.  If we have not recommended behavioral targeting, then we have evaluated, with good reason, if this is a right fit for your advertising campaign.

Are Behaviorally Targeted Ads a Fad or Fate?

Scenario:  You are idly surfing the web for dating advice, having just broken up and feeling pretty lonely, when you notice an ad for an online dating site.  Ignoring it, you move on to other sites but the ad seems to follow you, becoming more progressive with each of your on-site actions in its promise to help you find true love.  Do you:  A) finally click the ad, feeling like fate intervened, pay the sign-up fee and start creating your dating profile on the spot; or B) feel like you’re being stalked, get a bit creeped out, and avoid the ad at all costs?

If your ads are being served  this way, there’s a good chance your audience will have one of the two reactions above—is the risk of turning people off worth it?  The truth is, a good media planner who carefully selects relevant, interest-targeted sites is effective without the aid of automated behavioral targeting technology.  There are also safer avenues to consider, like the Google Content Network, which incorporates multiple targeting methods like location, age, interest level, content, keyword and contextual into your ads; cover all the latest campaign buzzwords in one network buy.  Some media buyers view behavioral targeting as a fad and do not even present it as an option; if clients are adverse to the risks, BT may never make it past discussion stages.

On the other hand, there are certain situations where behavioral targeting is very appropriate, and can be extremely effective: when your ad offers a great value to the end user. For example, using the same scenario from above, what if that ad you saw offered a free sign-up or a free month of service?  Would you be less offended and more willing to click it then?  Most likely, yes.  In other words, the value of the ad outweighs your uncertainty: it’s a very appealing offer that popped up at the right time as opposed to a sub par offer that just felt lukewarm.  The point is, don’t use BT just to use BT with all its associated risks—make sure it’s appropriate and well-suited to your offer.

How to tell if you are a good candidate for Behavioral Targeting:

Your ads and placements offer increased relevance and value to end product users.You have enough budget, time, and patience to use numerous simultaneous ads and multivariate testing.You have a large enough budget to receive a high level of traffic before analysis of the metrics provide confidence that the probability of an offer will yield a conversion from a set behavioral profile.Your message or offer evolves over time.You are able to customize landing page content according to a user’s interests.You have a sophisticated analytics team who can track and report progress.You are able to set up audience segmentation and personas.You can develop unique content or change it to be compelling within each segment.You are able to follow best practices, FTC regulation, and The 7 Self-Regulatory Principles of Behavioral Advertising established by key regulatory trade groups such as the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Ensure you engage a network or are represented by an agency that is up to date on BT guidelines, discloses risks, and knows about regulations.  Web Ad.vantage provides Online Media Buying & Planning services that incorporate a variety of tactics that achieve results.  Let us help you decide if behavioral targeting is right for you.

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Pragmatic, professional advice with no hidden agenda. 

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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The “Hired Gun”: Why Hiring an Online Marketing Agency to Audit Your Website Makes Sense

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 27th, 2010

As the third quarter of the calendar year end approaches, we’re seeing an upward trend in clients and prospects asking about web site auditing services.  These folks understand that a review of their website in terms of its marketing performance is needed on a more frequent basis than what has typically been performed in the past, i.e. not only before a redesign, and are looking specifically for outside counsel from online marketing professionals like Web Ad.vantage, not web development agencies or internal IT staff, to provide a non-biased third-party review of their sites.

The more common reasons we’re hearing as to what is driving this include:

Online sales, leads or marketing goals are not being met through the site and they want to know whyThose responsible for the site and/or its marketing efforts are looking for affirmation from outside counsel that the site is set-up to meet the organization’s online objectivesRecurring problems with the site have been voiced by customers/audience groupsInternal resources are not available or capable to perform this type of taskThe site is scheduled to undergo a redesign

Beyond the impending site design, it’s fair to say there is typically a problem that is pushing the need for an audit.  An organization’s sales or leads may be declining or not meeting projections, and specifically online sales or leads are faltering.  Complaints from customers about how the site is structured may be coming in.  One recent client cited that their online audience couldn’t find the information they wanted, that the site was too disorganized and had too much information.  A recent change in product or service offerings or a change in the resources that manage a site could also warrant the need to audit a site.  Many organizations simply do not have the internal staff or time to take this on and want to hand this over to someone else.

Having a third-party and specifically, a third-party online marketing agency perform this audit allows for a non-biased review by marketing experts instead of relying on a web developer or internal staff.  An online marketing agency, such as Web Ad.vantage, will bring years of online marketing experience to ensure a site will meet its intended online marketing goals.  In contrast, Web development shops who are experts at design and development often fall short on the marketing side of the equation.  Plus, hiring an online marketing agency eliminates the need for internal resources and in many cases, gives the company’s marketing person “credited” ammunition needed to get site revisions implemented or bought-off on from internal IT or management.  It is no secret that website development/IT folks and marketing folks don’t always have the same agenda or priorities.  In fact, most don’t even like each other.

Without making this too “salesy”, Web Advantage’s web auditing services can include but not be limited to the following:

Discovery kick-off whereby the organization’s online marketing goals and objectives are establishedStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) AssessmentReview of navigation and user interactivityReview of messaging, call-to-actions and contentReview of marketing funnelsReview of overall branding and Review of analytics to see what pages are performing, where people enter and exist, how the site is being found, if there are any breaks in the sales funnel streamBest practices recommendationsSpecific recommendations on improving identified problemsReview time to discuss

If you or your company is in need of an audit to review your web site’s marketing performance, please give us a call at (410) 942-0488 or email us at sales@webadvantage.net to discuss—we’d love to hear from you.

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Pragmatic, professional advice with no hidden agenda. 

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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The Pressure to Generate Content

Posted By Hollis Thomases on Sep 10th, 2010

Ask any social media expert, consultant or marketing firm about how to market through social media, and they’re likely to tell you to get ready to generate boatloads of content.  Blog content (posts and comments), video content, Twitter content (tweets, retweets, shared links), Facebook content (Wall posts, events, photos & more), LinkedIn content (updates, Group discussions, connection requests), photo sharing content, podcast content…the list feels like it could be endless.  As someone who both generates content and advises others to do so, I’m not oblivious to the fact that not only is the constant need for content a potential thorn in someone’s side, but I’m also not immune to the pressures content creation causes.

Make no mistake, though:  Online content has been and continues to be King.  Those advising others to generate content are not misguided in their guidance.  More than ever, people are insatiable content carnivores, and they want to keep feasting at the table of never-ending, newly-created content like King Henry VIII’s hungry courtiers.  The danger is that this insatiable appetite is a beast of our own creation, and its belly is growing ever-larger.

The Insatiable Beast
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

The more content that gets created, the greater the pressure to generate more content seems to be.   Not only is it advisable to create content if you want to help your organize reach its social media marketing goals, it’s now becoming inadvisable NOT to generate content.  In other words, you snooze, you lose.

The frequency and pace of content creation has also accelerated.  It used to be OK to post new content at least once a month; then it became several times a month; then multiple times a month and now it’s almost a daily requirement for some — even multiple times daily.  It feels like content creation has become an obsession, a competition, an addiction where the top players seek to outdo one another to claim some sort of crown like Top Blogger or Most Prolific or even Most Personal Life Exposed.  Is this obsession healthy?  Is it good marketing?  If you’re not trying to build and market a personal brand, is it necessary for a business to be a never-ending font of content?  Does it even make sense for a business to place so much company effort, resources and attention on generating overly-generous amounts of new content, and could there be a backlash from doing so?

I have to say, in observing this trend towards generating mountains of content, I do have to wonder if the efforts are all worth it or, even if they are, what tolls is the effort also exacting on those responsible for the content?  Within my own experience I have seen no less than these varying circumstances:

The benign and helpful:

Conference attendees live-blogging or -tweeting from within a session audience;Bloggers with writer’s block asking the Twitter universe what they should write about

Benign but less helpful to themselves?

Conference attendees leaving a session early to be the first to compile and post an entry about a session (but they may have missed the best part by leaving early);Video bloggers excusing themselves early from networking events so they can off to a quiet room or leave altogether so they can film their latest “genius post.”Content generators not even attending events at all because their content generation responsibility overwhelms them altogether

Not so benign:

Hijacked content — When other websites scrape your blog (or your blog headlines via your RSS feed) and house it on their own sites, making it look like it’s their own content and if nothing else, using it for their own site marketing purposes.

Uncredited Web Ad.vantage RSS Feed/Blog Content

In the hijacking instance, the saving grace is that the hijacker at least provides links back to your site (see the last section for truly evil offenders);

Unattributed content — These days, particularly on Twitter, it’s not uncommon for original authors of tweets or content to be completely bypassed or removed from receiving credit.  When this happens, the poor sap who put all the time and effort into writing a piece to begin with gets no visible benefit…other traffic coming to their article, but by then, it’s always possible that the reader of the article doesn’t connect the dots or doesn’t care.Content Managers having to play bad cop and rat out under-delivering producers to supervisors;The pressure to produce content trumping other business priorities that otherwise get left unattended as the content developer struggles to churn out a new piece;Content produced under pressure leading to mediocrity — Too many social media content pieces these days are just useless fluff or “link bait,” serving no other purpose than to entice others to link to it which in turn helps elevate the content’s visibility within the search engines

The evil:

The worst Link-baited content could also house scams, worms, viruses or other maliciously-intended postings;Stolen content — Don’t be surprised if you find your original content re-published elsewhere on the Web without any credit or even a link back to your original post.  It’s difficult to police this too.  Try doing some searches for unique phrases in your content and see what comes up.

So what’s my point?  Thought I clearly still value the production of content (why else would I be writing this post, right?), I encourage you to avoid falling into the pit of creating content for creation’s sake.  Be judicious.  Write good material that people actually want to read and find value in.  Consistently good content will generate trust in your reader and that trust and demonstrated subject matter expertise, can bleed into your marketing efforts to positive effect.  But whatever you do, don’t succumb to the pressure to generate content to ridiculous extremes and definitely don’t sacrifice your personal life to do so.  Sure, you might end up viewed as a great writer, but many a great writer throughout history died penniless and in misery.  Seriously, it ain’t worth all that.

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Pragmatic, professional advice with no hidden agenda. 

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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