Trust Me, I'm A Blogger

One of the benefits of new media - social networking, blogging, tweeting - is that marketers are able to drill down to find just the right target market for their client's goods and services.

Good news is some advertisers will supply product for review including books, software, home and beauty products in the hopes that you'll like the product and favourably write about it because you've got the audience and you're word is more credible than just an ordinary journalist's.

It's something that journalists have been doing for years, and the Carling-Rodgers household still has 'freebie' promotional products getting on for 20 years old from their reporting days.

The bad news is, for American new media mavens is their regulatory body, the FTC will now wield a big stick over disclosures with fines of up to $11,000 for non-disclosure.

As blogger Ed Driscoll points out:

Where does the FTC’s jurisdiction end? If I get a free tube of toothpaste in the mail and say nice things about it on Twitter, Facebook, or in a PTA meeting, do I have to disclose it as a freebie or pay the $11,000 fine the FTC imposes? What kind of disclosure can one fit into a 140-character Twitter message, anyway?

While no one would object to knowing if a reviewer has received product for free or is being paid one of the anomalies under the regulations is that there is no equivalent mandate for journalists.

While this is a US story, one can't imagine that it will be long before Australian regulators get the same idea - which would be fine as long as all 'broadcasters' were in the same boat, because you can be sure that Today Tonight and A Current Affair reporters didn't go back empty handed when covering stories on hair straighteners, moisturisers and farm fresh vegetables.