Clear disclosure in 140 characters
The FTC’s freshly-minuted disclosure rules for bloggers and the companies that reach out to them may be sounding alarms among those who aren’t already disclosure-minded, but a lot of bloggers and companies have always been mindful of candor and honesty. Long before the FTC even began looking at governing a practice that PR people, marketers, advertisers and bloggers weren’t policing for themselves, some businesses (SHIFT Communications and Ogilvy PR) were promoting clear policies of disclosure.
But disclosure can be problematic, even among those with honorable intentions. How, exactly, should a blogger disclose a relationship with a company in such a way as to satisfy all possible readers (and, now, the government)?
Twitter makes it an even dicier proposition. With only 140 characters to get across your message—and part of that taken up with your account name—you may think you’ve disclosed your relationship as well as you can, only to find some followers think you’ve been deceptive. And the FTC’s $11,000 fine is nothing to sneeze at.
Digitas Emerging Channels Specialist Jon Burg (who’s also the brother of a non-communications family friend) has taken a stab at creating a protocol for Twitter disclosure. The idea of Jon’s “short-form disclosure” is simple and elegant. It requires only four of your 140 characters. For example, if I worked for Ford Motor Company as a social media representative talking about the Ford Fusion, I would send a tweet like this:
Great customer testimonial about the Ford Fusion. >SPK
>SPK discloses that you’re a spokesperson for the brand or campaign.
Here’s Jon’s complete list of proposed short-form disclosure codes (click it to enlarge it):
I’ve already seen it suggested that widespread adoption of Jon’s short-form disclosure isn’t likely, but I disagree. We’ve seen Twitter’s user community create several conventions that have become standard, including the @ symbol, RT, and the dot before an account name. If the user community decides to embrace short-form disclosure, it’ll spread.
Of course, not everyone on Twitter would have a reason to adopt short-form disclosure, so it would be up to us who do have a legitimate need to disclose to start using them.
At this point, Jon’s not proposing we start running with these, but rather have a conversation about them leading to eventual refinement into something we can all agree on.
I’m hopeful Jon’s first pass at short-form disclosure gains traction, produces discussion, and leads to a standard. It won’t happen if you don’t join the conversation and commit to using the resulting codes. Feel free to comment here, but I’d encourage you to share your thoughts on Jon’s post, too.
10/06/09 | 6 Comments | Clear disclosure in 140 characters