On Friday, October 7, 2016, the Ruth's Chris Steak House in Ann Arbor Michigan shared a promotion on its Facebook page regarding the Michigan vs. Rutgers game. The promotion stated that whatever the point difference in the final score of the game between Michigan and its opponent for the remainder of the season, the restaurant [...]
Note: While much of this article is applicable outside of US laws, only US laws and regulations are addressed. While social media platforms have reduced the barriers of running a sweepstakes, contest, or 'giveaway', they've raised the bar on how much entrepreneurs, marketing professionals, social media strategists, agencies, and brands need to know when it comes [...]
While many of us incorporate giving throughout the year, many businesses get in the giving spirit around holidays. It's awesome to visit clients who have donation boxes, angel trees, adopt-a-family boards, and other charitable programs for their employees to support. And who among us hasn't dropped donations in the red kettles as we're leaving the [...]
For the first time since they were first written in 2009 (and made public in 2010), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its "What People Are Asking" page, which is a Q&A-type resource relating to the FTC Endorsement Guides and related online disclosure rules. The update provides further clarification related to how and why [...]
Contests and sweepstakes are powerful marketing tools. Whether it's a blog, website, or social network there is no shortage of people or businesses wanting to give things away to their community. And why not, people like to win free stuff. When it comes to giving things away and asking people to enter in some way [...]
Update for Facebook Promotions Running your sweepstakes or contest on Facebook may look different come November 5, 2014. In announcing updates to the Graph API, Facebook Software Engineer Harshdeep Singh included the Platform Policy changes in a post on the Facebook Developer Blog on Thursday August 7, 2014. While this is a more technical change [...]
In response to questions and uncertainty about using Pinterest to run giveaways, Pinterest has issued an update to its Pinterest for Business Brand Guidelines and Acceptable Use Policy. While the Brand Guidelines are specifically for business users, the Acceptable Use policies apply to all platform users. Together, these new Pinterest giveaway rules should help guide [...]
On August 27, 2013, Facebook made sweeping changes to its Promotion Guidelines for Businesses. It's been over 2 years since the last updates to the Facebook Promotion Guidelines. The changes today may significantly change how businesses run promotions on the social network. What are the changes to the Facebook Promotion Guidelines? And how do they [...]
FTC Disclosure and Online Marketing On March 12, 2013, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the long-awaited Dot Com Disclosures. The FTC Dot Com Disclosures guide provides guidance for online and mobile advertisers. Last released in 2000, the internet back then looked very different than it does today. Even now, after over a [...]
Pinterest is one of the most popular social networking platforms, especially for people who are visual. Pinterest is currently the fastest growing social network, and if you're on it you know why. If you're not on Pinterest, you may not understand all the hype. Suffice it to say that Pinterest's digital "pin boards" have given [...]
