Last week the FTC updated their guidelines for endorsement. This included a small, but very important, piece on social media contests.
You can read the full updated “What People are Asking” question and answers here: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking
The part most relevant to contests and sweepstakes is the Social Media Contests part:
*********************************
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTESTS
My company runs contests and sweepstakes in social media. To enter, participants have to send a Tweet or make a pin with the hashtag, #XYZ_Rocks. (“XYZ” is the name of my product.) Isn’t that enough to notify readers that the posts were incentivized?
No. It’s likely that many readers would not understand such a hashtag to mean that those posts were made as part of a contest or that the people doing the posting had received something of value (in this case, a chance to win the contest prize). Making the word “contest” or “sweepstakes” part of the hashtag should be enough. However, the word “sweeps” probably isn’t, because it is likely that many people would not understand what that means.
***********************************
What does this mean?
We were already aware that the FTC was cracking down on brands for not fully disclosing incentives such as sweeps or contest entries for tweeting on their behalf. If you are running a sweeps or contest or other incentive in exchange for a tweet or share on social channels you should be making it clear in your entry requirements that the user must disclose that they are posting in exchange for entry or incentive by including hashtags and/or links to a full disclosure page.
However, this is slightly different than the guidance we had in the past where #sweeps was OK. It looks like the FTC now is wanting promoters to use the full word #sweepstakes (or #contest) as disclosure.
Why does this matter?
Because in an effort to save characters in Twitter or other social channels, most of us were using the shortened #sweeps in our tweets. So take note of the change for your next social sweeps!
To speak with online promotions experts capable of working through these disclosure requirements, contact Marden-Kane today.
To read more posts by Marden-Kane, please visit our main blog page or subscribe to our email list.