Episode 41: All Your Influencer & Giveaway Questions Answered

Last week's episode on influencer responsibility left SO many of you with questions, which is why this week on the podcast I'm doing something a little different, a Q & A! You asked and I answered.

Some things we talked about:

• Is there a legal age restriction to participate in giveaways?

• What are a BUSINESSES responsibilities when it comes to working with influencers?

• How do you spot illegal or fake giveaways?

• What rules does Instagram have for posting giveaways on their site?

Here are a few quotes:

• (4:27) “The main thing you want to do is make sure you are keeping TRACK of everything, by documenting it. That is key, especially in case you have to prove later on that you did indeed run a legal giveaway.”
• (8:36) "What you can do is reach out to YOUR state's consumer protection division, you can file a claim or a story to them and then they will investigate a claim and they will decide if it is worthy for the State to press charges on the company or individual that is running the giveaway. Likewise you can contact the FTC and let them know and if it violates any FTC regulations then the FTC will take action. Those are the two main state and federal agencies that are going to regulate these types of things."
• (10:04) "Yeah, ok straight out answer there's like A LOT of restrictions for world-wide giveaways."
• (10:29) "You just have to realize that every country has its own set of laws when it comes to giveaways, and then every state, or province within that country likely has its own set of laws when it comes to giveaways. So thousands of laws. The main thing I want to say is it's really hard to run world-wide giveaways. It's almost impossible to run an actual legit world-wide online giveaway."
• (13:36) "If you're listening out there and you get these brand contracts, know that you have power because they want you to spread their company or product to their audience, and so you have negotiating power and remember that you have that and so it's wise to seek legal counsel from an attorney that can accurately advise you as to how you can negotiate that contract to better yourself."
• (20:10) "So you want to figure out what the post says and then what the giveaway rules say online. You want to compare those two. Does what the post and the story tells you to do reflect what the actual official giveaway rules say?"
• (21:28) "When there are ten to fifteen steps to enter to win, in some jurisdictions that can be actual consideration on behalf of the actual person entering to win, and THAT can make it an illegal giveaway."
• (24:34) "They (influencers) are legally obligated to tag or post and disclose any of their sponsors or ads."

Links mentioned:

The Legal Paige Shop