What Makes a Post Sponsored?

What makes a post sponsored? You know, the kind of post where you have to include disclosures. Today, you're really going to understand when those disclosures are necessary for a sponsored post, or when there's a connection that might require disclosure.

What makes a post sponsored?

Obviously, if someone is sponsoring the post the way we all think of sponsors (where they pay you to post about something), that's a sponsor. But what we're really looking for is a material connection.

What is a material connection?

A material connection is any relationship between you and a brand, where there's more than just "I like this product."

• You are receiving payment

• You're receiving a free gift

• Or something that goes beyond just, "I like this thing."

Do you have to be paid for a post to be considered sponsored?

Nope! Like I said earlier, you could receive a free gift. It could also be a family relationship, which would also make a post worthy of disclosure. While that's not technically a sponsored post, you probably have a relationship there that goes beyond just liking a product. If you own stock in a company, and you're posting about that company, that also counts.

If you have a material connection, that also means that you need to have a disclosure that is clear and conspicuous. It is not ambiguous. It is not the end of a post or the bottom of a blog post. It is not hard to find. It's obvious! It's not a hashtag that's not couched in between a huge paragraph of hashtags (because nobody reads those anyway.) It's not living somewhere else, except for on that post, even if it's a visual-only platform like a TikTok or Reel.

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