Just look at how much things have changed since the mid-1400s when Gutenberg came out with the first Bible. The church at the time martyred some individuals because they had the nerve to copy the Bible and distribute it. This took power away from the church and the leaders. The people could read for themselves God’s word and not have to depend on somebody’s interpretation of it and their demands that you follow them.

In the past, major corporations tightly controlled their advertising message and squashed any dissent. Frankly it was very expensive to offer an opposing point of view anyway. If you wanted to complain about something you could write a letter to the editor and if you are lucky, get it printed. You tell a few of their friends about your disappointment. There are some fairly high-level examples of people who went to much greater lengths to let people know that they were disappointed with the product. Everything from buying a billboard to complaining to Congress has been tried.

But now all that has changed and the playing field has been leveled. The following video explains this in a profound way:

One of the messages of social media is that companies have to let go and forget trying to control the message. That’s a very nerve-racking thing for most businesses to think about. But I’m here to tell you that unless businesses lose that control, in the near future they will be out of business. Because if they remove people’s ability to add to the message, there will be no message. Social media is just what it says is-social. People want to take part in things, they want to add and contribute, they want to voice their opinion and tell people about their experiences. Businesses today must recognize this fundamental change that has come about because of social media.

And if they do, and if they take care of their customers, and if they listen to the consumer they will have more consumers. The message will continue to be enlarged and expanded upon. New products and services will be invented in the social media platform. Consumers will feel part of the creation of products and companies.

Recently there was a large study done regarding games and using game based marketing for companies. In this manner a game is used to teach a principle and the whole time the company’s logo or product is used as part of the game. When these things go viral it’s astounding how much advertising value they get out of it. But the most amazing part of this is the physical interaction with a product. It isn’t a passive message like television or radio where we listen to or see what they’re telling you. In the game you are playing with it. You are making it a part of your psyche. You are involving your life with that brand. This is a powerful tool and again something part of the social media platform that is changing the world.

There are so many deeply powerful aspects of social media that are only beginning to be explored, understood and implemented. Please contact me to see how we can involve your business in this amazing new technology that can explode your customer base.

Now it must be recognized that the people that are more highly motivated to put a remark about an experience with a company are those that have had negative experiences. Somebody who feels they’ve been taken, ripped off, or exploited in any fashion are determined to tell the world about what happened.

But companies had better wake up to this reality. Unless they have someone that is looking over these different types of sites at least weekly, preferably daily, they’re going to be in trouble. Please see the video below showing the experience of one of my customers.

It’s a lesson for just about every single business out there.

This first video discusses the fact that many of these rules have been in place since 1980 but now they’re applying them to the latest social media programs. Endorsers must always reveal their relationship with advertisers because in the world of social media you cannot always tell what is an advertisement and what isn’t.

The second video discusses the fact that the FTC is interested in protecting consumers. Consumers want information about a product or service and often go online to do research. The FTC feels that we should want to know whether the person who’s getting the endorsement was paid for the endorsement or not, whether in actual money or a steady stream of free products.

The third video asks “What does the new FTC guide mean for bloggers?” For most, not very much. Most are just out there talking about their daily lives in such and it won’t mean much to them. But if you’re one of those bloggers involved in the marketing program with an advertiser and are being paid to blog about a product they need to disclose that relationship with the company.

The fourth video asks “How do bloggers follow the Endorsement Guides?” It’s quite simple. If the blogger does have a relationship with the company that needs to be revealed. For example they could say “ABC Company gave me samples of this product a try. Or, XYZ Company gave me free passes to their theme park to try it out for a day.” It’s not too complicated and it should be just straight forward and up front.

The fifth video asks the question “Is the FTC planning to sue Bloggers?”. They state that that is not why this guidance was created. Everybody needs to be playing by the same rules with other professional reviewer or an amateur reviewer. Just be upfront about the connections you have with the company and what conflict of interest you might have with them.

It seems that we need to be careful of using “sales phrases” in your endorsements. This is the thing they are most concerned about. Make things factual and real. You can’t put across that you are Betty Boop when you are really Steve Jones saying how much you love this eye-liner.

I personally feel that there is too much concern over this issue even though there are several big-time bloggers and marketers that are going to have to change their websites. This is all probably a good thing even I actually don’t want them involved in everything we as marketers do. I know that the FTC is just trying to protect people but 2 things need to happen: Marketers need to be honest in their dealings (I know that is asking a lot from some!) and secondly, people need to take responsibility for their actions.