It’s relatively common knowledge that advertising makes the world go round. Recently the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which oversees regulations related to blogging and social media decided to get more involved in the “advertising.” The new regulations require anyone paying for advertising space or getting paid to advertise someone else’s services or products to disclose that information to their readers. For a network dependent market like the wedding industry this will have a major impact.

What does this means to the wedding industry? Any paid advertisement in a magazine’s website’s or blog’s vendor directory must disclose a vendor paid to be listed. To display one of the blog badges indicating membership must be disclosed if vendor paid to be included. Blogs and sites that a vendor advertises with will also have to disclose that their memberships are paid advertising, regardless of how extensive their research and selection process may be. If a blog features your work in an editorial post, and you are one of their advertisers, they will have to disclose that as well, even if it is not a “sponsored post”. If you see a badge or a site’s logo on a vendors press and award page, there should also be a disclosure that they actually paid a membership.

What this means to you, dear reader? When you are reading wedding websites (like The Knot and Brides), blogs. Facebook pages, Twitter, and other posts, keep in mind:

• If the poster is receiving money for a post, they must disclose this information. For example, if a florist pays a wedding consultant to blog about their services, the consultant is responsible to inform the reader they have been paid to do the write up.
  
• If a website is receiving money to list preferred and featured vendors, they must disclose this information. For example, if a vendor or consultant pays the website to have a “premium” or featured vendor spot on their website, the website host is responsible to inform the reader they have been paid to list the client.
  
• If the poster received a product to review for a post, they must disclose this information. So if a camera company sends a photographer the latest gear to play with and write about, the photographer has to disclose that they received the product for free.
  

The FTC can fine each violation of these regulations for up to $11,000 per post beginning December 1^st.

You can read the release on the FTC Act here.

The intent of the FTC is that vendors are honest about money changing hands for the privilege of being listed on another site. Again, these regulations apply to blogs, websites, Twitter, Facebook, and other areas of social media.

Recently I read a post from Splendid Communications owner, Liene, and I will also be adopting *C idea Trish Hay (a graphic artist Liene works with) to denote a tweet about a client. From now on you’ll see a *C at the end of any tweet I do that promotes a client of Full Circle Eventi in some fashion. I am including this information on my Twitter page to include this information so anyone who visits that page knows what the symbol stands for in tweets.

I am fortunate to work with companies in which I believe in 100%, so you won’t see much change in my writing or posts, just the added disclosure symbol that shows I do have a specific interest in the success of a particular company.