The United States Federal Trade Commission has probably never heard of Erica Ehm, but if they knew what she was up to, they'd be very upset.
Here in Canada, Ms. Ehm still has a public profile as a former host of MuchMusic and the Life Network, but over the last three years, she has built up a small and passionate following on her blog website, the Yummy Mummy Club, where she writes candidly about the ups and downs of being a modern mother. Readers feel a strong bond with the site and its 20 blogs: Ms. Ehm claims a subscription list of about 40,000 for her monthly newsletter.
Which means that when marketers have a nifty product they want to get in front of people, Ms. Ehm's blog is a particularly appealing destination. When Nintendo launched its Wii Fit gaming console add-on, the company's public relations agency sent along one of the devices for her to try out, and she wrote glowingly about the fun her family had. What she didn't mention was that she got to keep the gadget, which retails for about $100.
Under new social media guidelines passed Monday by the FTC, if she were operating in the United States, Ms. Ehm would be required to disclose any payment she received from Nintendo, either in cash form or other material compensation, like keeping the Wii Fit.
“There's nothing wrong with bloggers getting a lot of free stuff,” Ms. Ehm said in an interview. “In fact, bloggers probably don't get enough perks from companies. You would not believe the number of PR companies I get sending me things like tubes of toothpaste and asking if I could write about it.”
“I also think we should be paid for our reviews,” she added.
Some bloggers and marketers think the rules are a good idea. Sony Electronics is currently running a project known as Digidads, which puts the latest Handycam into the hands of daddy bloggers. Even before the rules came down, the company required all of the participating bloggers to disclose that they are part of a Sony-sponsored campaign. At the end of the project, they are required to give the camera back.
“We have anticipated this decision for several months,” said Marcy Cohen, the senior manager of communications at Sony Electronics. “There have been some companies that have misstepped, just because there haven't been these rules. Everything we do, we've been making sure we've very transparent.”
“Disclosure is good,” noted Max Kalehoff, one of the Digidads participants and an executive at a New York search engine software firm who says he has never taken any money to blog about a subject, and would not do so because it could harm readers' perception of his integrity. “I have to live with that digital bread crumb for the rest of my life.”
He added, “I would look much more to my reputation and the court of public opinion as an enforcer rather than government.”
And many other bloggers have ridiculed the rules, noting the FTC has said that even chatter on Twitter would fall under their purview. The commission is also looking at the practice of online seeding: the practice of people being paid to insinuate themselves into discussions on comment boards or retailing websites with an eye to dropping in favourable commercial messages.
For anyone merely trying to keep up with the people they are following on Twitter, the notion of policing that entire micro blogging site, as well as a universe of retailing sites, where millions of people write about products they genuinely like or dislike, seems beyond absurd. And the FTC admits it hasn't figured out the logistics, saying only that it will likely target marketers rather than individuals.
