—–Original Message—–
From: Dave Balter
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:00 PM
To: (client)
Subject: The FTC and Your Word of Mouth Campaigns

Dear Rick,

As you may have heard, the FTC published its updated “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” yesterday.*

Some portions of the Guides relate to the word-of-mouth and social media marketing, and that’s why I am writing you.  The substance of the Guides is very good news for marketers and agencies who adhere to responsible ethical policies, such as BzzAgent’s industry-first Code of Conduct – and we welcome the FTC’s clarifications of their approach to the market.

The FTC is clearly demanding greater transparency on blogs and throughout social networks, and “transparency” has been the BzzAgent battle-cry for the past five years.  We were the first company to require full disclosure, we were the first company to monitor for disclosure, and we were the first company to enforce this policy in the social media / word-of-mouth world.

I personally co-founded the Word of Mouth Marketing Association in 2004 to help set the right path for authentic and transparent dialogues, and to clarify issues such as this – I remain an observer on the Board, and Joe Chernov, our head of Communications, chairs the Association’s member ethics panel.  We are front-and-center on this issue (in fact we volunteered input to the FTC to help educate the commission about best practices in the industry), and we are here to answer your questions and continue to provide you with services that anticipate and comply with the government’s response.

If you have any questions whatsoever about the FTC’s announcement, I’d be happy to discuss directly.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks -

Dave

*You can view the 81-page document here

————-
Dave Balter
CEO
BzzAgent
+1-617-451-2280
Bzz Like You Read About: http://www.bzzscapes.com

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