Social Media Safety Warning: NY State fines $300,000 for Fake Reviews. Learn to Protect Your Brand.

The crackdown on fake reviews and fake blog posts has begun:

The New York Attorney General has fined a company $300,000 for encouraging fake reviews.

It's a good thing. All ethical marketers know that we survive and thrive only through the trust and respect of our customers. Any effort to clean up the the bad actors is good for those of us who base our reputation and leadership on honesty and openness.

I've been blogging and speaking around the country about the importance of social media ethics and the risks of engaging in fake reviews and blog posts. Some people say that I'm being alarmist. But it is clear that government enforcement has begun and the risks are real. On consumer protection issues, New York leads and the rest of the states usually follow (and we're still awaiting the latest ruling from the FTC).

All ethical social media marketers (and all marketers) should welcome this. We thrive by building trust.

What's important to know is that NY has clarified the law. It's not open for discussion or debate. It's not some new innovative marketing technique to test. It's ILLEGAL. It's a good time to ask, "Has our agency been protecting us from these practices or pushing us into the minefield?"

How to stay safe in social media:

1. Never pay for posts or reviews. Do it even once, and you break the trust forever. Everyone will assume you pay for all reviews.

2. Stay away from any fake-review or mass-blogging services. You don't want to be on the client list of any service that encourages paying for reviews or posts. The only honest/legal review is from a real customer who has actually used your product. (This has been the law for decades.)

3. Create a formal, public policy. Put your commitment to do honest social media in writing. Publish that policy publicly and stick to it.

4. Train your team.It takes only one well-intentioned staffer who posts fake reviews to drag your entire company into a scandal. Create a complete training and certification program so everyone knows right from wrong.

5. Bind your agencies. Make your pr/advertising/social media agencies (and their subcontractors) sign a contract that they will not engage in any of these practices on your behalf.

6. Monitor. Know in real-time what reviews are being posted about you so you can stop the fake ones.

This advice isn't new, but many companies haven't protected themselves yet.

Ask yourself: Why go there? What is the upside of engaging in questionable tactics?

And then ask yourself: What is the downside? How would we recover if we were caught posting fake reviews or paying for posts? Could we ever recover our reputation?

You have a responsibility to your brand to do the right thing.

The safest path is to always take the high road. Insist that your team only engage in the most ethical and respectable practices. Stay out of the gray area. Remember: If you have to ask, it's wrong.

Let's all work to spread the message of trust, honesty, and ethical leadership in social media.

Follow Andy Sernovitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sernovitz

Comments

[steppenwolfsayshi]

Mr. Sernovitz,
I appreciate your article. My education is in modern rhetoric, not PR, though I also have studied PR practice as a necessity of a proper part of a multidisciplinary approach. The role of modern rhetoric is to study communication practices like PR and their broader impacts on the democratic process.

I agree whole-heartily with you that ethical PR is the best approach for a business. I believe that the popularity of unethical PR approaches comes from a very flat, one dimensional understanding of how strategy should work. Choices you make to influence your targeted stakeholder will unintentionally influence many of your other stakeholders. In rhetoric we have many different ways of expressing how this works, in order to make it easier to understand, so that the rhetorician (PR professional) will have a better idea of what might happen. The concept of "building a brand" is very useful and I encourage it, but it still leaves some things to be desired.

[ramblingjohnny]

"ethical marketers" lolll This is where you lost me "ethical marketers" the biggest oxymoron of the week.

[steppenwolfsayshi]

Does this apply to twittering about yourself? How about hiring someone to pretend to be you to write your twitter feeds?

Does this apply to manipulating people into writing good posts about you?

Does this apply to making up fake groups online to spread "grassroots" gossip about your competition?

You are no fun!

These are complex ethical questions you are bringing up to world of PR. I don't think the good always win or that the law will be there to properly regulate the unethical. Tricky, tricky.