Way back in 2009 British Mummy Bloggers started the Blogging With Integrity campaign, to encourage mum bloggers to be above-board and transparent in all their dealings with sponsors. At that time in America, the Federal Trade Commission was getting involved in regulating blogs’ sponsorship relationships, and our hope was that this voluntary program would avoid the back-tracking and PR blackouts that were going on in the States.
Now, recent action by the UK’s Office to Fair Trading demonstrates that Blogging With Integrity is more relevant than ever. The OFT has required a network of blogs to clearly identify promotional and sponsored content. It states that not disclosing paid-for promotional content – on a blog or microblog like Twitter – constitutes deceptive practice under fair trading laws. And this wasn’t some little network you’ve never heard of. This was Handpicked Media, one of the most visible blogging networks, best known for its focus on fashion and beauty.
Here’s what the OFT says:
Through the signed undertakings, [Handpicked Media] has agreed not to engage in promotional activity unless bloggers within its network prominently disclose, in a manner unavoidable to the average consumer, that the promotion has been paid for or otherwise remunerated.
Read the full OFT press release.
“Unavoidable to the average consumer” is pretty clear. If you have received a product and written about it, gone on a free trip, or received remuneration of any kind to write about something, then it needs to be crystal clear upfront to anybody who comes across your blog.
There’s never a better time to sign up to or reinvigorate your commitment to disclosure.
Here’s how to blog with integrity:
- Make transparent any relationships with products or companies. Eg: If you have received a product for free to review, make sure that’s mentioned in the review. If you have an ongoing relationship with a sponsor, be clear about it, describing it in a post or disclosure page and linking back to it in related posts.
- Clearly label advertising, advertorials and/or sponsored posts.
- Always write truthfully about a product or company.
- Observe intellectual property rights.
Here’s how some BMB members have told their readers about their sponsor relationships:
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DO YOU HAVE ONE OR TWO MORE EXAMPLES?
Tell us how you write about products or companies in a clear and fair way – how you blog with integrity.
About Jennifer Howze
Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She blogs about family travel at Jenography.net, tweets at @JHowze and Instagrams at @JHowze. Previously, she wrote the Alpha Mummy blog at The Times and as a journalist has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Budget Travel, CNN.com, Allure, SELF and Premiere, among others. She won The Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for a health article in Seventeen magazine.
Becca Evans
Tuesday 28th of December 2010
I totally agree with this and it's something that I'm not very good at. I didn't do much accounting within my business qualification and it wasn't my forte. And so I've adopted Sage. I'll be setting it all up in the new year and ringing the Tax Office to fill them in. I'll be receiving my first payout from both Glam and eBuzzing in January and I want it all to be above board. So many of us are getting ourselves in the media etc. these days and I don't think it will be long before someone trips up, perhaps through simply not realising. I guess this is why these discussion topics are so important. I pay for a lot of my bits/comps myself and always say when I get something to review but I wouldn't necessarily class that as payment? Is this wrong? Becca
Ruth
Thursday 23rd of December 2010
CMP.LY is a free and simple disclosure service for bloggers and tweeters. The CMP.LY codes are short urls that fit in tweets and blogs with less than 15 charaters for full disclousre and transparncy. For more information, go to the CNN Money article on Dec 1, 2010: http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/technology/paid_blogger_disclosure/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote and of course my disclosure: http://www.cmp.ly/4/gropz5
A Modern Mother
Wednesday 22nd of December 2010
The whole point is to be above board, and yes do declare any earnings, no matter how small. The amount that I make "blogging" is relatively small compared to my marketing consulting work, but I do add it in. This should not be a factor in disclosure. We as a group need to get a handle on this and do it or we will not be seen as credible.
Karen@therubbishdiet
Wednesday 22nd of December 2010
This is great, thank you. I don't normally write sponsored posts, but today I've published one where the sponsor donated the funds directly to a fundraising appeal. I've put the statement in at the end: http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/2010/12/ring-in-cash-with-your-old-phone.html
Liz (LivingwithKids)
Wednesday 22nd of December 2010
I've been thinking about this actually this morning after reading the post on Bloggered which is suggesting five badges. What every blogger needs to remember of course is that whatever you put on your blog that you've received in sponsorship, payment etc will have to be declared to the tax man if it takes you over the tax threshold. I declare any fees I get for blogging to the HMRC, but I wonder how many bloggers out there are taking a head in the sand approach to this aspect of blogging and imagine that anything they're paid for is cash in hand that doesn't need to be declared? Because the minute you start declaring everything on your blog, it's out there in the public domain and you could find yourself liable for tax if your 'earnings' take you over the personal tax threshold. Everyone needs to be aware of this, I think.