Best Practices for Social Media Advertising

At a minimum, businesses advertising via social media should therefore observe the following required (and best) practices:

• Be truthful in your social media advertising—Any claims that you make, through social media or otherwise, must be truthful. A false ad for purposes of Section 5 is one which is “misleading in a material respect.”⁴ Businesses should be mindful not only of the honesty of their own practices, but of the practices of those whom they rely on to spread their advertising message on their behalf—including outside ad agencies, PR and marketing firms, affiliate marketers, and so on.

• Make sure your social media advertising claims aren’t unfair or deceptive—To comply with the FTC Act, advertisements also need to be fair and non-deceptive. Examples of misleading or deceptive practices include “false oral or written representations, misleading price claims, sales of hazardous or systematically defective products or services without adequate disclosures, failure to disclose information regarding pyramid sales, use of bait and switch techniques, failure to perform promised services, and failure to meet warranty obligations.”⁵