This visual is awesome! In What is Virtual Marketing and Branding, Beasley addresses the basics of spreading your marketing message. Look closely at the thoughts posed for your consideration when developing and implementing your next campaign.

Have question? Leave a comment below or a message.

Dee Stewart of Christian Fiction Blog addresses the FTC guidelines in plain English.

For Release: 10/05/2009

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

Changes Affect Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsements

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides. While the 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers as well as advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement, the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

The Commission vote approving issuance of the Federal Register notice detailing the changes was 4-0. The notice will be published in the Federal Register shortly, and is available now on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release. Copies also are available from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Betsy Lordan
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-3707

STAFF CONTACT:

Richard Cleland
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-3088

(FTC File No. P034520)
(endorsement testimonial guide.wpd)

Are you following this? I will post a blog soon about this.

Keep Track of Your Online Reputation

Goal: Make tracking part of your everyday routine.

Start by identifying the most likely places online for your name to come up. Google dominates the search engine market, and it’s also where the media looks first, according to ad firm Universal McCann.

Identify blogs and forums within your professional circle, as well as popular social networking sites that you, colleagues, or competitors use. Then there are networking sites ― LinkedIn and Facebook are frequently used to check character references, and Facebook tends to rank high on Google, too.

Emerging social sites such as Twitter are increasingly important because of their viral potential. Twitter “makes it easy for people to quickly express their inner monologue. And it is very easy for others to spread it around,” says Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.

Last, ensure the biography on your corporate Web site is accurate and fair. Check corporate sites of places you’ve worked; it’s unhelpful to have outdated information online.

Once you’ve identified the sites you want to monitor, set up alerts. You can set up a Google alert at google.com/alerts for your full name. Subscribe with your full name to Technorati.com, a blog search engine, and BackType, a blog comment search engine, to reach blogs that Google alerts may not cover. Twitter tools abound: Tweetdeck, Thwirl, or TweetGrid are a few. Most have — or are building — clients that work on smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and the BlackBerry, and all let you tailor your searches so you can follow mentions of you in real time.

Another tool worth considering is Twinbox, which lets you track what’s being said on Twitter via Microsoft Outlook. Dan Schawbel, a personal brand specialist and author of Me 2.0:Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, recommends Tweetbeat.com, which gives you notifications through e-mail when people talk about you on Twitter.

Checklist

What to Track

• Search engines: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s
• Bing Blogosphere: Known blogs in your professional arena, or use blog search engines such as Technorati or Google Blog Search
• Forums: Known discussion threads in your professional arena
• Social networking sites: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn
• Microblogging sites: Twitter, Jaikuand Plurk, Social Mention
• Personal rating sites: PersonRatings.com
• Corporate Web sites: Your company, former places of work

 

Repair Your Online Reputation

Goal: Identify the nature of the attack and act accordingly.

Monitoring the Web won’t prevent an online attack. If you fall victim, don’t panic: Think before you respond. “If it’s an isolated incident, and no one has replied, you might consider letting sleeping dogs lie,” says Andy Beal. Likewise, Schawbel cautions against rising to the bait: “If someone is deliberately attacking you for fun, or ‘trolling,’ then leave it alone. They only want the attention,” he says.

Analyze what’s been said about you. If a blogger has their facts wrong, correct them ― most will quickly amend their post. If the criticism’s true, apologize using the same medium as the message. Give people a platform to complain to you where the original complaint was posted or on your own blog. Your willingness to engage is likely to win over the sceptics. It also reflects well on your own management style.

If the attack on you is a calculated campaign ― a post on a blog with a follow-up on Twitter ― then take action. If you’re being attacked professionally, you should alert the following:corporate stakeholders, including your boss; the company press officer; and the legal department.

Deal with the matter informally first. If you know the identity of your detractor, approach directly, offline. “You don’t want to do this in the public domain,” advises Beal.

In most cases people will remove the offending item from the blog or forum, but if they don’t, you can consider a more public approach. Be open, constructive, conciliatory, and willing to engage.Try something along these lines: Jim, I’ve already spoken to you about this, and as you know, what you are saying about me is inaccurate. I would like you to remove it. Meanwhile, if anyone out there reading this has any questions, this is how to reach me.

If this approach fails and comments against you are defamatory, you may need to speak to a lawyer.

One more thing: think before you fire off a salvo to a co-worker online. If you need an example, consider this fairly innocuous Facebook exchange between “Yvonne” and her manager, “Cheryl.” It takes on a new and unflattering life on Lamebook, a site that highlights “lame and funny” extracts from social networking sites for others to comment on.

 

Hot Tip

Don't Mix Business and Leisure Online

Use separate social networking options for work and play ― Facebook for your friends and LinkedIn for professional contacts, for example. That way, a personal spat is less likely to spill over into your professional life. “Post a short explanation, saying: ‘I use this site for X or Y,’” suggests Tiger Two’s Nancy Williams. And, obvious as it may sound, you don’t have to accept everyone’s invitation to join your network.

 

Protect Your Online Reputation

Goal: Insulate yourself against attacks and build a brand that reflects the professional you.

So we've discussed the cure, what about prevention? The answer lies in building and maintaining your online brand. That way, any negative commentary is not the only news about you. “If those negative associations occur,” says John Purkiss, co-author of Brand You. “You want people to think, “‘Well, that’s absolutely out of character.’” You’ll put the burden of proof on your attackers.

 

The first step is to effectively “buy up” all the online property in your name. Whether or not you’re active on Twitter, LinkedIn, or have plans to set up a Wordpress or Typepad blog, it is worth setting up accounts in each.

It is a defensive maneuver that, at the very least, stops someone else owning and abusing linkedin.com/joepublic, twitter.com/joepublic, joepublic.wordpress.com, and so on.

Next, identify advocates and encourage them to point to you online. That may mean writing a LinkedIn recommendation, a mention on their blog, or simply a link.

The more relevant the people with whom you’re linked, the stronger your “link equity” ― and the more likely you’ll appear on the first page of a Google search. Plus “it’s a lot easier to respond if you have a community to rally around you,” says Nancy Williams, founder of U.K.-based online reputation specialists Tiger Two.

Be proactive. Offer to blog and write articles about your specialist subjects for online publications that hit your current and future business associates. Earn a reputation as a “player” in your field. Get your name out there.

 

Essential Ingredients

Getting to Grips with SEO

If you want the positive to push out the negative on page one of Google, learn about search engine optimisation (SEO), the art of increasing the search engine traffic to your site or profile.

Some good places to start:

• 23 Strategies to Improve Your Website Traffic
• How to Improve Your Link Popularity

Purkiss has one last suggestion. If you are the author of your own downfall, try copying scandal-hit 1960s politician John Profumo, whose humiliating exit from politics was followed by a lifetime of philanthropy. Applying a 21st century twist to the Profumo Principle, Purkiss says: “Do lots of good stuff until the bad stuff is pushed to page six of Google.”

I find this article timely. Tracking your online message is important. Especially now that we have access to RSS feeds and content syndication. I hope you'll find helpful nuggets to increase your awareness of your online reputation.

Tips You Can Implement Now:

1. Search for yourself using your name, company name, book title, etc.

2. Monitor the online chatter. Establish a Google alert and a Twitter search would be a great start.

Banned from Vegas is moving about the net. Today is Day 2. The Black Jack book video is featured on RAWSISTAZ.

One lucky commenter will win a copy of "Ace of Hearts". Go on over and join the conversation with author Jean Holloway.