3. Make full disclosure a priority

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To avoid getting into the same mess as Kim Kardashian, marketers and the influencers they partner with need to ensure that promotional content includes full disclosure, in line with clear rules set out in many countries.

It is worth checking local regulations before starting a campaign, but the tips below will be useful regardless of where a business runs its marketing campaign.

In the United States , the FTC requires influencers to make clear in each social post whether they have any kind of “material” relationship with the brand they promote.

According to the FTC, a material relationship includes “a personal, family, or employment relationship or a financial relationship, such as the brand paying you or offering you free or discounted products or services.”

The FTC adds that disclosures must be prominent so that no one can miss them. That means they must be included in the content itself, on the first page or above the line.

UK rules also offer some useful advice. The Competition and Markets Authority advises that, to avoid risks, marketers should ensure disclosure is clear and unambiguous. That means avoiding terms and abbreviations such as #gift, #gifted, #sponsored, #spon, #aff, #affiliate, #collab and #PRTrip.

In France , marketers are required by law to “specify that their communication is the result of a partnership with a brand or a retailer and that they are paid to promote the products they present.”

Similarly, in Spain , the government has made it illegal to hide an association and its code of conduct states that if the nature of the advertising is not clear and obvious, influencers must supplement their posts with mentions such as “#advertising.”

And in Germany , authorities pay particular attention to clarity . Influencer content must include the words “Werbung” or “Anzeige” (advertisement/publicity) in the content and description. These words have to be clear “at first glance” rather than requiring closer inspection. That said, posts have to be “overly promotional” and uncritical to be considered an advertisement and thus require disclosure. Tagging a brand, for example, is not considered promotional.

Disclosure rules and regulations are not uniform, but there are basic similarities across major markets. Marketers should follow these similarities and employ them in all influencer engagements they commission.

4. Always do the work
A common theme across all disclosure policies is repetition . There is a movement encouraging brands and marketers to label each new piece of promotional content as if it were their first, no longer relying on previous collaborations with influencers and the reputation of well-known creators. Essentially, companies should not assume that their audience is aware of any potential collaborations and should instead make it clear to all audience members, regardless of how informed they are.

5. Develop a company policy
As discussed throughout this blog, knowledge is power. Writing that knowledge down and sharing it among all the employees and influencers a company works with makes that knowledge even more powerful.

Companies should draft an influencer compliance policy that explains relevant regulatory guidelines and social media platform guidelines, and use encouraging language to ensure that the guidelines are followed.

6. Consider a payment solution that handles compliance
As the use of influencers in marketing campaigns grows, finance departments are forced to onboard them before they’ve had a chance to capture and process all the necessary PII. For example, a marketing director might onboard a micro-influencer for a campaign, collecting their details through direct messages and a series of WhatsApp messages. When there’s no t chief of vp and training email database ool to capture all the information and keep it in one place, it can be difficult to stay on top of privacy regulations , potentially leading to delays in payments.

Fortunately, many payment solutions have been developed in recent years that are built to bridge this gap and help businesses avoid tax, PII, and security risks. Stripe is one such solution , a tool that allows businesses to digitally onboard creators and get them paid quickly. Used by Twitter, Substack, and Clubhouse, it automatically generates the necessary tax forms for creators and manages payment compliance.

On the other hand, Tipalti is a British solution used by Twitch and Roblox. It is a digital solution that removes the need for finance teams to manually organise accounts payable. It includes financial controls to keep companies on the right side of compliance and, as a digital solution, it can be scaled to meet the growing employment of influencers by the companies that use it.