Beginning this week, publishing a fake corporate blog, or "flog," will be a criminal act under the UK’s new Consumer Protections Regulation. It is being called the biggest shake-up to consumer protection legislation in the past 40 years, and it targets fraudsters and hucksters both online and off. As well as targeting double-glazing salesman and fortune tellers, the
new Consumer Protection Regulations set their sites on companies that
create fake blogs to market their products. Matt was quoted in a BBC article about the what the sweeping changes will mean.

Just how many companies have been caught using not-so-anonymous online forums to hawk product or boost their brand’s cred with disingenuous claims. The list is a lengthy one: Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods. There is an interesting article in The Detroit Free Press that follows some of the online shenanigans of major brands.

The do’s and do not’s of corporate blogging/social media strategy, including the impact of this new legislation, will be discussed in greater depth at Social Media Influence on 4 June.

– Bernhard