Anarchy in social media

I was pleased to see that our industry conscience – and old clients – the CAP (Committee for Advertising Practice) have at last got round to publishing their tips on marketing via social media – they can be found at www.cap.org.uk

Their ‘Rules of social engagement’ contain no great surprises. Basically user-generated content needs to be ‘appropriate’ – ie not misleading, harmful or offensive – and it’s up to the advertiser to ensure that this is the case.

What’s interesting is how they’re going to police this. Detection will be down to users, but with the short lifespan of so much social content it’s going to be almost impossible to verify an accusation. Instagram is the obvious example, but there are many other popular platforms where any content is buried or deleted soon after it is published.

I fear we may be heading towards a free-for-all…