By now, most people involved in digital and social media marketing are aware of the new Federal Trade Commission guidance focusing on blogger 
transparency. FTC’s guidelines have been hailed by some and blasted as unconstitutional by others. Regardless of one’s stance on the regulations, transparency about the financial links between bloggers and companies is now the name of the game.
However, when it comes to relationships between companies/organizations and the marketing communications agencies that serve them, the issue of transparency becomes even more complex. Are agencies required to disclose their relationships with companies when they post content on clients’ behalf?
The question of transparency becomes even more critical when we enter into the realm of health marketing communications. For example, in recent years medical communications firms working on behalf of drug firms have been criticized for “ghostwriting” articles on behalf of physicians. Should marketing agencies always disclose when they are developing content on behalf of a company, brand or physician in social media? If misleading content is posted by an agency, who is responsible – the client or the agency?
Recently, noted marketing experts John Cass and Toby Bloomberg addressed this issue with an extensive post featuring commentary on transparency from more than 30 marketing experts, including Chris Brogan, Ellen Hoenig and B.L. Ochman. Now, I’ve invited Toby and John to continue the transparency discussion on our next Casual Conversation Webinar. This session will take place on February 12, 2010 at 12:30 p.m. (Eastern). If you care about transparency and social media (in the health sphere and beyond), I urge you to join us for this Webinar. As usual, this session will be limited to 50 people, so register today! Use the widget below to register.
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