Cold Fried Chicken: The FTC's new online advertising guidelines

At this point, online marketing and social media presence are a given for dealerships.  From buying cars to setting up appointments, a good website can make or break a dealership.

Online advertising and social media marketing is hardly the wild west that it used to be.  A simple google search will reveal plenty of advice on various ways to brand yourself online, and what to offer to your customers.  Taking reign of your internet presence is only half of the battle however, staying abreast of new laws and regulations is also critical.

The Federal Trade Commission regulates online advertising, just as they do print or radio.  They recently published their new guidelines for effective disclosures when advertising online. (http://www.ftc.gov/os/2013/03/130312dotcomdisclosures.pdf)

At the heart of the document, most of the information should sound familiar.  The FTC seems to be striving to keep online advertising in touch with more traditional forms, closing out any loopholes and making the rules as consistent as possible.  The premise is fairly basic, you can't hide the ball or deceive customers when promoting something online.  If the regular customer could be confused by your offer, you are probably in violation of the practices.

One of the more interesting notes, is about ads that can be viewed on different mediums (i.e., laptops or cellphones) you need to make sure that any needed disclaimers are clear on both systems.  Often on a smaller cellphone screen, you won't view the entire webpage at any given time and some disclaimers may be off screen or missed.  It's important to be aware that every time something is posted the internet, it can be consumed in a myriad of ways.  Crafting messages that transmit well across multiple mediums is important for a variety of reasons.  Even changes between email browsers can affect the message, let alone size constraints when looking at something on a tablet or phone.  Preparing for these variances is critical in making sure you are utilizing every tool you have at your disposal.

Another of the FTC's colorful examples (of which the fried chicken cooler was one), illustrates how to go about using a compensated spokesmen on twitter/blogs.  It has to be abundantly clear that they are expressing an advertisement and not their personal opinion.  While understanding of the character limits that twitter and some social media platforms place on the writer, it has to be clear to the average user.  Once again, the basic question is, is what I'm writing deceptive or unclear.  Would I find this tricky or confusing?

Keeping everything in line with the new regulations probably won't through most dealerships through a loop.  Being aware of these changes and specifications however, will make sure you can continue to keep up pace and make sure that message is getting out to the fullest.